Beyond Fundraising: Video For Education

Imagine for a second that your perfectly healthy 3 year old child develops a bit of a weird rash on his knuckles and knees. A few months go by and the cortisone cream your doctor prescribes isn’t helping. You go back and are referred to a Dermatologist. Then, the dermatologist tells you it might be psoriasis and tries some other creams. The darn rash doesn’t get better. It’s annoying, but not a big deal. Kids get rashes.

Then, you start to notice that your child is falling a lot. He’s not the most athletic kid in the world, but you’re starting to worry. He seems tired all the time and then he develops this red rash around his eyes.

At your next appointment, the dermatologist takes one look at the rash around his eyes and asks about muscle weakness and fatigue. You hadn’t even thought to connect the rash to the weakness. She tells you the name of a disease and sends you for blood work. A DISEASE! In the second she said the dreaded word DERMATOMYOSITIS you change from a healthy, happy, blessed family to something else. You panic. Who wouldn’t? What do you do? You go to Google.

This is our story. And that’s when we found Cure JM, an organization dedicated to this frighteningly rare (3 in a MILLION) and potentially fatal disease. As we spent the next few years with hospital visits and drugs and more hospital visits and more drugs, we turned to Cure JM and their message boards for information and advice.

So, last year when we launched Turtlebox Productions, we called Cure JM to see if they needed video. We cut them a deal, a special “you-saved-our-lives” video rate.

When the chairman of Cure JM told us she had the idea of a video for “Newly Diagnosed Families”, we were thrilled. Though our child is in remission now, we remember what those first few days were like. We attended the Cure JM annual conference and interviewed the top doctors and other JM families and kids. The result is this 15 minute video:



Here’s the thing: the audience for this video is tiny- only 1000 kids are diagnosed in the US each year. We know this video is not going to be a YouTube sensation. But, it is going to help its audience in a profound way. And its audience is everywhere: there are people on the Cure JM message boards from across the globe.

Imagine your kid is diagnosed with anything- diabetes, arthritis, leukemia, epilepsy, autism. Wouldn’t you want to know the important facts right away? Or imagine that you're recovering from addiction or domestic abuse. Wouldn't you want to hear other people's stories and educate yourself?

So many non-profits are focused on using video for fundraising and PSAs, but it is also a powerful tool for educating your constituents. It gives them knowledge and power and it significantly increases the reach of your organization and your message.