From hard-to-reach information to inclusive communication that reaches more people
Member companies: Cancer Fund
Theme: : Language, health equity, inclusive communication
Time period: 2020 - 2025
Background
The Swedish Cancer Society often says that one in three people get cancer, but that everyone is affected. Based on this insight, the organisation began to ask itself a key question: is the Swedish Cancer Society really an organisation for everyone? In early 2020, the Cancer Society's own analyses showed that the organisation was not reaching out sufficiently to several groups in society. Awareness and trust were lower among people born abroad, people with less education and people with low socio-economic status. Communication was also often perceived as institutional and difficult to access. At the same time, the Swedish Cancer Society recognised that its internal work needed to be developed. In order to reach more people externally, the organisation also needed to broaden its own perspectives, experiences and working methods internally.
Against this backdrop, the Swedish Cancer Society embarked on a broad and long-term shift across the organisation. The work was not about a single campaign or communication effort, but about gradually becoming more inclusive in everything the organisation does: in communication, in services, in relations with various target groups and in internal work.
The aim was to enable more people to benefit from the Cancer Foundation's knowledge and support, to have confidence in the organisation and to feel that the information is relevant, understandable and accessible.
The work of the Cancer Foundation in practice
The Cancer Fund has undertaken several interlinked efforts to become more relevant, understandable and accessible to more people. This has been done in close co-operation between different departments, involving experts, communicators, management and external partners.
Some key elements of the work have been:
- Strengthening internal competences and anchoring. The Cancer Foundation has been working on internal skills development through lectures, experience sharing and development of the brand strategy. In 2021, “inclusive” was introduced as one of the organisation's watchwords.
- More representative communication. The Together Again advert was produced in 2020 with a clear mission around representation. The film became important both externally, through strong reach and fundraising, and internally by creating pride and energy in the organisation.
- Knowledge for new Swedes. The training material Health and Care in Sweden was developed for SFI teaching together with Kapi, Valtech and teachers. The aim was to strengthen knowledge about health and care, while the material contributed to language development and understanding of the Swedish healthcare system.
- Support in more languagesk. The Cancer Line with Interpreter was launched to offer emotional support in mother tongue. Work included multilingual advertising and a new booking system.
- Easy-to-read information. An easy-to-read section on cancerfonden.se was developed as an accessible hub for information in simpler languages and formats, based on prioritised evidence areas.
Insights and results
The Cancer Foundation's work shows how multiple interventions, when linked together, can contribute to a broader shift. It has been about combining communication, accessibility, target group knowledge, internal expertise and new partnerships.”Together again” was a public and internal success with over one million views in 48 hours, record fundraising and a large number of testimonials from people who felt seen for the first time.
- The SFI material became the most ordered in the Supply catalogue: over 45,000 copies in two years. Praised by schools and politicians alike, it won the Publishing Prize 2023 and has been translated into English, inspiring other European organisations.
- The Cancer Line with interpreter has opened the door to conversations with previously unreached groups. Everyone who has used the service has expressed great gratitude and felt understood.
- The Easy Reading section has had over 22,000 visits since January 2024. The engagement rate is above 90 %, which shows that the content is really used.
- In parallel, the Cancer Foundation's internal culture has been affected. Diversity and inclusion issues are discussed more often and new employees testify that our external initiatives have been a reason to join us.
The Cancer Foundation does not see inclusion as a separate project alongside its activities. It has become a perspective that influences how the organisation collaborates, produces, evaluates, develops services and formulates messages. A key realisation is that inclusive communication is not just about who is seen in a campaign. It's also about who understands the information, who feels trusted, who is supported and who feels that the organisation is actually relevant to them.