Potentially Partnering with a Cancer Org for our documentary?

[Dan Brockett]

Hey all:

This is a long shot to other producers who may have been in a similar position with their films, but I thought I would ask anyway to see what the brain trust here comes up with. We're producing a feature documentary about a sport. But unlike most sports documentaries, this one will end up being more about the subjects stories (two women) and journey toward their racing season than the racing itself. A character study of two women, if you will.

Turns out that both subjects in the film have been touched by Cancer. One was diagnosed with the Angelina Jolie gene that is a genetic marker that predisposes her to developing breast cancer (her Mom has it too and her grandmother died of breast cancer). She will have to have a preventative double mastectomy and hysterectomy soon, which will obviously affect her life, racing career and she has to decide if she ever wants to have a family, she'll have to freeze her eggs, etc. It's all very dramatic and "Sophie's Choice" in a way (she doesn't have to have the surgery but her risk percentage is extremely high of developing the cancer) and she and her mom want it to be a big part of her story to publicize this and to help other women who see the film with awareness about how this genetic marker works. Our second racer's ex has had Cancer, so have several of her friends and relatives over the years so she is deeply involved with a charity that races and raises pledges and matching fund donations that are given to a Cancer charity, directly to help patients. So to be clear, she has not herself had cancer, but she is very involved with and dedicates her racing career to helping cancer patients.

I thought that since we are micro budget and unknown at this time, it might be advantageous for us to align our documentary with a cancer organization and as we do our GoFundMe and go to sponsors, we could have an official endorsement or partnership with a Cancer organization, we could publicize them, they could feature our women and the film on their media outreach as well, which could obviously help us build an audience too, simply from visibility. A key component of marketing this story is to reach women who have never heard of this sport, don't know it even exists and show them a compelling story of these two strong, driven women as they pursue winning through an entire season of racing. We would donate a predetermined percentage of funds raised to a cancer organization, we could put that affiliation on all of our social media and even at the races, if we raise funds, people would know a percentage is going to help fight cancer as well as help us to tell the story of these women athletes who have both directly and indirectly been affected by cancer. We don't this film to become a "cancer documentary", but it is a part of each of the women's story in real life.

My questions are:

1. If you were in our position, would you do this (partner with a cancer org)?
2. If so, would you approach a large entity (American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen, etc.) or a smaller, more grassroots org? We've never dealt with a cancer org/non-profit but I think our story, because it involves strong, kick ass, inspiring women who are living life to the fullest with a healthy, active lifestyle, might appeal to their message about how to fight cancer and how to deal with it.
3. Any potential, unseen upsides and or downsides to pursuing this? Anyone know where to start? I can obviously just pick up the phone and make calls but I know it would be best to get an introduction to a person inside one of these orgs.

Thanks for any advice, if you have been in this position or know someone who has. Being a micro budget documentary, we have to try to leverage anything we can for building awareness that our film exists and build an audience as much as possible so that when we pitch the finished film to OTTs, we have more than just a micro budgeted film about a sport that few have heard of, we have some awareness and an audience built up through social media and press. I've written enough press releases to know that anything we can offer that aligns us with a known organization lends credibility to our project. But perhaps this line of thinking is not strategically sound for a documentary? I am not sure. So far, we have approached one smaller cancer org and so far, the executive in charge doesn't seem particularly excited to speak with us about the details. Granted, it won't be a significant pot of money to come from our fund raising but from a marketing and image standpoint, both of our women are exceptional people, demographically are perfect for them (one is a 30 year old single professional, the other a 45 year old mom and teacher). We have so many other facets going on with planning the production and trying to raise funding that I am wondering if pursuing this affiliation is even worth it, it may not be. Thoughts?

Thanks.

[Gary Huff]

I would believe the biggest risk in this would be that they want some aspect of creative control without money ever changing hands. I would also question just how much actual money a logo or announcement of partnership would actually bring. Raising money with a crowdfunding campaign is all about the work you do, not the logos or announcements. You can have all the partnerships in the world, but if not enough people ever know about the campaign, it won't mean anything.