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Brand-Foundation Alliance Newsletter:
Updates for members and friends of the Brand-Foundation Alliance

In This Issue

Brand-Foundation Alliance

A collaboration between Brands and Foundations funding media for impact.

Welcome to the First Newsletter of the Brand-Foundation Alliance

You are receiving this newsletter because you attended – or expressed interest in attending – the inaugural Brand Foundation Alliance meeting at BrandStorytelling during Sundance, 2020. Since that time, we’ve founded a Steering Committee, set some general membership ideas and held one board meeting and open meet & greet. We’re now launching a e-newsletter (sent no more than once a month), a website and are holding our next board meeting and gathering of the founding members in October. Please click here if you wish to unsubscribe.

Website Live

After much delay, we have finally launched the BFA Website.  The website went live in Early-June, but for obvious reasons, we have not promoted it much yet. But we now have a place to point people to show them what we're doing, who is a member, and how to become a member. 

We'll continue to add data and details, meeting updates, and soon, we will post newsletter updates and member resources on the website.
Oct 21st NYC meeting and Oct 22nd Good Pitch
On October 21st, the BFA Steering Committee will be hosting a brief reception from 6-8pm at a private home in Gramercy Park, NYC. This reception is open to all persons who attended or wanted to attend the Sundance convening. If you are receiving this email, you are part of that group. Address will be given upon RSVP. RSVP to Benjamin@sub-genre.com to attend.
 
On October 22nd, the BFA Steering Committee will be attending the Good Pitch, NYC, produced by the DocSociety.  Check out this website link for full details, but in brief - Good Pitch is one of the leading pitch contests for social impact films in the world. It takes place in different cities around the world, and the US one is this event in NYC. Six doc teams pitch exciting projects to a panel of experts and a room of potential partners and funders. Many films raise money on the spot, and almost every film goes on to be a success in the doc sphere and in its impact. 
 
If you would like to request accreditation to attend the Good Pitch, please contact US Director of Development and Partnerships, Patricia Finneran at patricia@docsociety.org and mention you are part of the Brand/Foundation Alliance.
BFA News
 
Report on the Rise of Impact Entertainment - This summer at Elevate, BFA Founding Member Shabnam Mogharabi of Soul Pancake presented a report on the Rise of Impact Entertainment produced in conjunction with Participant, Media, Brand Storytelling and the Harris Poll. And it's great. You can read this summary article that ran in Forbes. The study isn't out in the public yet, but you can request a copy from BrandStorytelling here.
 
The study indirectly came out of our first meeting at Sundance, where they met, and while it is focused on what brands are thinking about impact entertainment, I think it's of great relevance to this group. Among the findings: "When it comes to investing in and creating impact entertainment, executives are also struggling with a “skills gap.” Sixty-four percent of respondents said finding quality creative partners was a challenge. Fifty-four percent said there was limited understanding of what impact and traditional entertainment really are at their companies, and 53 percent said they lacked the knowledge on how to start an impact entertainment initiative at their company."
 
This seems like a rich area where Foundations and Brands can collaborate - via the Alliance - to learn more about doing impact right.
 
BFA Members in the News:
HP won the Tribeca X Award for Episodic for their short doc series The History of Memory. Angela Matusik, HP’s head of brand journalism, is a BFA Steering Committee Member. Read about it in AdWeek.
 
Rupert Maconick, a founding BFA member, produced 5B, which was funded by Johnson & Johnson, and the film played in competition at the Cannes Film Festivaland then won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions, and sold to Verizon/Ryot for distribution.
 
REI launched a new print magazine in conjunction with Hearst. It’s called Uncommon Path, and it will be available at REI stores and in newsstands everywhere. They also took this opportunity to begin a partnership with NewsMatch in an effort to strengthen local journalism. This year, the co-op will invest $100,000 in 10 local news organizations. Paolo Mottola is on the Steering Committee of the BFA.
 
<<Send us your news for inclusion. Email Benjamin@sub-genre.com to be included>>
BFA will be hosting another gathering during the Brand Storytelling conference at Sundance, in January, 2020. In addition to meeting, we hope to arrange private pitch meetings between guest filmmakers creating impact entertainment, and the BFA membership group. We’ll be working on a shared database of projects, where members can share projects they are funding that may be open to other partnership and support, and we’ll be sending updates on member’s projects.
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