Last year, the Warrior Films Board issued a call to our community to help us realize an ambitious goal of raising $100K to expand our team and, by extension, unleash Frederick Marx, our founder and leader, to focus more on his superpower — telling stories through films, books, and public talks. You answered our call and together we succeeded. In fact, we exceeded our goal, raising a total of $107K. Your heartfelt response has given us encouragement to now take the steps we need to expand our team. Thanks to you, we have hired a director of development and are about to hire a marketing and PR consultant, a database manager, and an IT support person. Frederick is doing his happy dance right now!
And so are all of us involved in Warrior Films. Because now we see an even brighter future for our organization in 2019. We are preparing to leap onto an even bigger stage. We will release the first installment of our Veterans Journey Home series by May. The second should be ready by year’s end. We’re going to submit them both to Sundance. In addition, Frederick’s 2nd book should also be released by year’s end: Everyday Rituals of Healing and Transformation: The Rites of Passage Handbook.
Our infrastructure goal for this year is to make further investments that will transform Warrior Films into more of a household name, recognized by an even wider community, so we can deliver an even greater impact. Investments include devising a strong marketing plan, strategically partnering with other organizations, and directly seeking more media exposure to let people know who we are and what a difference we’re making.
What exactly is the impact we aim to have? Warrior Films harnesses the power of personal stories and unleashes them as good medicine to heal society’s wounds. The sharing of our human experience, on an individual and collective level, as deeply as possible, is where the key to a positive future lies. It is through this process that our society as a whole can make the massive shift it needs to make. Warrior Films provides vehicles for people to tell their stories and for others to listen and receive them. In particular, we excel at sharing stories of society’s underdogs: the poor, the young, the elderly, the disabled, people of color, prisoners, veterans, women, and immigrants. Through these stories, we inform people of the cultural practices required to sustain community. We promote rites of passage and mentorship for every human being, every community, and every institution. We educate people about mature masculinity and why it may be the single greatest necessity of our time. We do all this through our artistic and expressive creations — through films, public talks, teaching, writing, and convening public gatherings.
Now more than ever, we need compassionate and strong people — awakened warriors — to unite to ignite social transformation. Now, more than ever, we need organizations that promote positive stories, we need organizations to be united, and we need people to mobilize. Please mobilize with us and join us in supporting Warrior Films again in 2019.
If you supported last year’s fundraising campaign with a personal gift, from the bottom of our hearts we thank you! Please consider renewing your gift in 2019 so we can build upon those successes together. If you have not yet donated to Warrior Films, now is the best time to do so!
We have launched an annual fundraising campaign for 2019 we are calling the “Awakened Warriors Campaign” — the campaign aims to raise $150,000 to build on what we started last year, to enable us to move toward full-time implementation of the staffing investments above. We aim to raise these funds by December 31, 2019 so we can start increasing our impact ASAP. Thanks to John and Barbara Crary, we are once again beginning the campaign with a matching gift of $25,000. That means that for every dollar you contribute, up to a total of $25,000, John and Barbara will match your gift. You can donate by clicking here or simply mail a check to: 41 Fairmount Ave., Oakland, CA, 94611.
In addition to donating cash, you can also donate frequent flier miles; host a fundraising party; volunteer; serve on our board; host home screenings of our films; start your own local support or fundraising campaign; share our good works on social media; or help distribute the films.
Thank you for joining our community of awakened warriors to bring a message of personal strength, positive action, and healing to the world.
The Warrior Films Board of Directors
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