Chemo Cars

• The Wakeman Agency counseled ChemoCars, a recently established organization dedicated to providing transportation to treatment for cancer patients, on developing strategic corporate and community partnerships.
• We helped ChemoCars gain national renown through media exposure that included segments on “CBS Evening News” and “Inside Edition.”
• As media attention created awareness, the number of rides provided increased by 20% in two months. The Wakeman Agency then guided ChemoCars to leverage this coverage to expand services beyond their home city—a key goal of the organization’s founder.

How does a newly established nonprofit receive the recognition and funding support to geographically expand its services with limited resources? This was the challenge for ChemoCars when they retained The Wakeman Agency.

When ChemoCars launched, it was the first and only on-demand service in Charlotte, NC to offer cancer patients 100% free, reliable car service to and from treatment. The concept was fresh and brilliantly simple: ChemoCars leveraged Uber and Lyft drivers with live customer service to book, monitor, and pay for rides for patients in need. It’s the perfect marriage of technology and old-fashioned personalized customer service.

When The Wakeman Agency partnered with ChemoCars in 2017, the organization was operating exclusively in Charlotte providing rides to local residents, but had a vision of supporting the hundreds of thousands of patients around the country in need. The goal was to scale the model and expand the service to multiple cities.

The organization’s founder, Zachary Bolster, was approached about a partnership with a global corporation with an interest in this audience. The Wakeman Agency’s experience with partnerships and sponsorships, enabled us to analyze this opportunity and look at the bigger picture for ChemoCars . Our counsel helped Zach determine how to structure a collaboration that would better support the organization’s long-term goals of expansion and corporate sponsorship.

Of course, in addition to providing strategy and counsel—we also love getting clients great media coverage! When crafting pitches and press announcements, we look for the aspects of an organization’s story that will elicit an emotional connection. With ChemoCars, this was clearly Zach Bolster’s story. He had left a career in finance to found and run ChemoCars after his mother passed away from cancer. The Wall Street hedge fund manager, who left the bright lights and big city behind to do good was an angle that captured the attention of the media. His sincerity and heartfelt desire to build a nonprofit organization as a legacy for his mother were evocative.

The media response was organic and a cascade of opportunities ensued. Following a profile on People.com, numerous TV, radio, print and web media outlets expressed interest in ChemoCars. Since Zach was running the day-to-day operations of the organization, he was overwhelmed by the many interview possibilities. It was our task to analyze and prioritize. We determined that a proposed segment on “CBS Evening News” was among the influential media opportunities and worked closely with producers to bring it to fruition.

Since Zach was new to the nonprofit sector, the media training we provided was crucial to prepare him to tell his story in a compelling manner. Getting his message across to a wide audience—and doing it quickly—was a new skill he mastered with our guidance. We created key messages that defined his organization’s accomplishment and goals, while also maintaining his unique voice. Then, we provided him with coaching on how to optimize his delivery and make the most of every interview.

CBS flew a crew down to Charlotte and the resulting segment on ChemoCars was not only broadcast on the prestigious “CBS Evening News,” but also on “CBS This Morning” and “Inside Edition.” Coverage ensued on the web sites of Fortune, Forbes, Time, The Mighty, Babble, NowThis and others. Within weeks, a formerly unknown, local organization had national visibility and renown.
It was crucial to elevate the organization’s profile specifically in its home base of Charlotte, home to many current and potential funders. Keeping in mind the importance of growing the core support, we arranged interviews for Zach on Charlotte’s local television news stations.

The awareness generated resulted in a 20% increase in rides provided to cancer patients in two months.

This media recognition was instrumental in capturing the attention of key influencers and stakeholders that were interested in supporting ChemoCars. Healthcare institutions and others approached Zach Bolster about ongoing partnerships. Zach was also contacted by an organization that wanted to partner with him to establish ChemoCars in a Texas city.

In less than a year, ChemoCars went from serving one city to two, providing a critical service to cancer patients. The organization achieved national recognition through top-tier media coverage and notably expanded its base of funders and partners. ChemoCars is now moving quickly toward establishing a new paradigm for transportation to treatment, and helping thousands of cancer patients on the road to recovery.