Building Now: The XChange for ‘Frictionless’ Media & Resources
Hero Bridge is built on curated media that inspires and activates tracks of learning and exploration. To achieve this requires quite a library…2000 videos and counting!
During our research for Hero Bridge one thing became immediately evident - supportive service organizations will spend on increasing their program capacity before they consider spending on media. Further, organizations tend to find it harder to justify to donors large media spends when the donor’s desire is to see their dollars go toward impact. These are all fair concerns. It also justifies the well known 80/20 rule (that 80% of nonprofits rely on 20% of their donors to support the organization.) This makes it difficult for nonprofits to grow their capacity, and moreover without promotional media, difficult to be seen and heard in the noisy environment of social media where their Facebook page sits like a message in a bottle afloat on a sea of competing content.
Hero Bridge is ending all that. Forever. Gone will be the days that CBO’s need to weigh whether they can be found by the populations they seek to serve along with the endless search for new donors. We call this the Hero Bridge XChange and the first phase is already in use. Once amplified through Hero (our Transparent Giving portal) a portion of all donations will seed a fund for the perpetual development of media that amplify the organizations that offer support to Hero Bridge communities.
Elegant in its mechanism, we chose the iconic land speeder to represent the frictionless migration of interest-to-activation that starts with exclusive video content that tells powerful stories that inspire the community served, their mentors and of course donors. That’s right, CBO’s on the Hero Bridge app will cost effectively reach the audience they seek to serve, have them delivered to their doorstep, draw more volunteers into their ranks and actually receive new funding from Hero donors. It all starts with media, because story matters. (Make sure to check out this month’s other article “The Inspiration to Activation Arc” for more.)
What’s Next? Our Brand Sponsored Content Program!
The XChange intends to grow its curated content library in a way that is both produced locally and creatively designed to take the viewer on the path to better outcomes - and in the future once data is collected - much more predictive of positive outcomes. These learning tracks and data-supported evidence of impact are the future of the Hero Bridge XChange media library. Incidentally, these are exactly the type metrics that corporate social responsibility programs are demanding, making our brand sponsored content program built to suit the state of the art of reporting.
We would be remiss if we didn’t thank a very special media tech partner that made the Stepping Forward app a complete success - Creative Commons. Something as simple as easy to license content, hand selected by the Stepping Forward co-mentors, and Opportunity House paid interns made it so the Stepping Forward app quickly assembled over 2000 videos around 16 distinct learning categories. In fact, because of the way social media works (even in a private environment like ours) the specific gravity of media required to spark activation would have been a very heavy lift. Imagine for example Instagram without pictures. Or the engagement difference between a text Tweet and the same Tweet with a pic or vid. As a nonprofit with a mission to share creative art far and wide with easy permission-free licensing, Creative Commons celebrates twenty years this year, and we couldn’t be more privileged to be part of their story. The abundance of valuable short form videos from how to open a bank account to how to tie-dye a T-shirt, you name it and its been there for us, and we will be there for them as a permanent fixture in our tech deck.
Until next month, have a safe summer and next month we will feature our XChange production partner (hint: transitioning youth learning from the pro’s how to make social impact media right here in LA!)
