Honor the Gift

The Challenge

CareDx, a publicly-traded transplant diagnostics and patient management provider, saw that the transplant community needed a fresh policy champion to help improve the lives of those living with kidney transplants. They approached CURA Strategies in the fall of 2018 to develop a thought leadership campaign that would improve the lives of people living with transplants and build brand awareness and loyalty.

The Solution

9,568 letters to Congress and 8,009 pledges to honor the gift of kidney donation later, we succeeded.

Within three months, we used our Issue Prioritization Rubric to identify our issue and launched Honor the Gift, a national patient-centered campaign created and managed by CURA Strategies and supported by a coalition of kidney and transplant organizations. The goal of the campaign and coalition was to extend Medicare coverage of critical immunosuppressive medications for kidney transplant recipients, which, at the time, ended three years after someone received a transplanted kidney. For nearly two decades, advocates tried and failed to pass legislation that would address this issue.

9,568 letters to Congress and 8,009 pledges to honor the gift of kidney donation later, we succeeded. The Comprehensive Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage for Kidney Transplant Patients Act (Immuno Bill) was signed into law on December 27, 2020 and will go into effect on January 1, 2023.

To help CareDx achieve these goals, we leveraged an issue-based campaign to position the company as a leading advocate in the transplant community through the following strategies:

• Uniquely brand the efforts
• Humanize the issue and bring to life the patient perspective through storytelling
• Engage and recruit third parties to validate and support the campaign
• Build and activate a community of advocates
• Serve as the conduit to the community for influencers and media

The Results

Testimonials

Awards

Services