Breakthrough T1D Illinois | 2024 Gala
The Challenge: For more than 50 years, the organization operated as JDRF — the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. But as the science and community understanding of the disease evolved, the name told an incomplete story. Type 1 diabetes impacts people across all ages and stages of life, yet the "juvenile" framing perpetuated a persistent public awareness gap — contributing to widespread confusion between type 1 and type 2 and limiting the organization's ability to build broader understanding and advocacy momentum. After two years of community research, the organization rebranded to Breakthrough T1D — and the 2024 Illinois Gala would be one of its first major public moments.
The Opportunity: The Breakthrough T1D Illinois Gala — the organization's highest-visibility annual moment, convening its most engaged donors, partners and community advocates — presented a natural platform to introduce the new identity at scale and ensure attendees left with a clear understanding of why the evolution mattered.
The Work: Nina directed the gala's full communications strategy — overseeing blue carpet media logistics, driving pre-event media outreach to elevate chapter leadership and weaving the JDRF to Breakthrough T1D transition into every media touchpoint. She ensured coverage accurately contextualized the name change, positioned the Illinois chapter as a key driver of the organization's national brand evolution and framed the rebrand as a pivotal chapter in the nonprofit’s history.
In parallel, Nina mobilized her agency and client partners to secure 56 donated silent auction packages valued at nearly $10,000 — the largest contribution in Zeno's history supporting the event.
The Impact: The 2024 gala raised more than $18.5 million in a single evening — the highest-grossing fundraising event in Breakthrough T1D’s national history and the Illinois chapter’s eighth consecutive record-breaking year.
Broadcast coverage on WLS-TV (ABC Chicago, IL) and WGN-TV (CW Chicago) spotlighted the rebrand, chapter leadership and local impact across Chicagoland.
Nina's media strategy amplified the organization's brand transformation at its most visible moment — increasing public awareness of the organizational milestone, clarifying its modernized mission and deepening engagement across the broader T1D community.
By aligning communications strategy with a historic fundraising achievement, Nina ensured the organization’s identity was clearly understood and embraced at a defining moment of visibility.
