When life-saving treatments transform a terminal diagnosis into a chronic condition, everything changes — including how communities fundraise. The peer-to-peer landscape isn’t just evolving with technology and trends; it’s being reshaped by the very success of the causes we support.
In this episode, Marcie Maxwell talks with Robin Paterson, Senior Director of Special Events and Peer-to-Peer Campaigns at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. With nearly two decades of nonprofit experience, Robin shares how medical advances that have extended and improved lives for CF patients have fundamentally shifted community engagement, fundraising motivations, and program strategies.
As CF patients live longer, healthier lives, their relationship with fundraising has evolved from urgent survival to long-term advocacy. Robin discusses how this transformation has influenced everything from campaign messaging to participant recruitment, and how her team is adapting to serve a community that includes thriving teens with CF — a generation that wasn’t expected to exist.
Together, we’ll explore:
- How medical breakthroughs change fundraising psychology and community dynamics
- Strategic approaches to messaging when your cause story evolves from crisis to hope
- Practical methods for engaging emerging demographics, including teen patients as active fundraisers
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