2024 Impact and Annual Report

We’re on a mission to get every fan in our music scene connected in healing relationships. Here’s the impact we were able to make together in 2024.

An overview:

Highlights

This was HeartSupport’s most impactful year to date. We had 60X’d our monthly reach with our content and doubled our total annual peer support to fans in the scene. Hear from our Executive Director by clicking the video.

How we helped:

Total Impact

A breakdown of the impact statistics and mental health value from each of our programs.

Outreach

  • 250 videos with expert therapist analysis of popular songs

  • 83,400 comments processed with machine learning technology

  • 4,000 fans requesting mental health support

  • $400,000 of outreach

Peer Support

  • 15,000 replies written to fans needing support

  • 350 one-on-one peer support sessions

  • 7,000 support texts sent to fans for daily music-based encouragement

  • $125,158 of peer support

Training

  • 179 volunteers went through our 3-hour evidence-based training program

  • 180 continuing education training sessions for volunteers

  • $87,829 of training

Therapy Sessions

  • 1,073 therapy sessions for music fans in collaboration with our partner, BetterHelp

  • $75,080 of therapy

$688,067 of Total Mental Health Impact

Impact by bands:

Heal The Scene

By coming back to the metal music scene, we track the impact on the fanbase of every band we work with. Below are a few highlights from partners this year and a list of every fanbase we invested in.

Slipknot

With our content team, we covered every Slipknot music video in their discography (27 videos!). We analyzed the overarching message of Slipknot as a band to their fanbase in the highlighted video shown here. It was covered on Loud Wire Magazine. The response was incredible - over 87 Slipknot fans opened up about their mental health issues in the comments of this video alone. We were able to provide $48,428 of mental health value to Maggots in 2024.

Shinedown

Shinedown discovered one of HeartSupport’s YouTube videos. This led Shinedown to partner with HeartSupport to reach their fans in the comments of a collaborated Instagram post. We were able to support 43 of their fans who asked for help on this post alone. We later covered two of their videos (Monsters and 45) on our YouTube, which allowed us to bring direct peer support to 79 more of their fans. We were able to provide $7,245 of mental health value to their fanbase this year.

Ren

Given Ren’s openness with his mental health in his personal platforms and lyrics, it was no surprise that his fanbase responded so positively to HeartSupport. We covered 13 of his songs, including Hi Ren, our #2 most viewed content of all time featuring the legendary Melissa Cross as our guest. We even got a poet (Levi The Poet) to create a spoken word video as a spin-off of a Ren trilogoy. We provided peer support to over 240 fans who asked for mental health support, and he frequently mentioned HeartSupport on his socials. We provided $28,118 of mental health value to the Rennegades.

Linkin Park

When Linkin Park, the world’s largest rock band, got a new vocalist after losing their founding frontman, Chester Bennington, to suicide six years earlier, we made a special video for their fanbase. We read thousands of comments from fans to process the collective grief in response to the change. We covered their new singles and extended our support for the fanbase throughout the year, providing a total of $19,238 of mental health support to their community.

Other Collabs

  • John Cooper, vocalist of Skillet, shared the heart behind the song “Monster” and collaborated with HeartSupport to inspire 17 fans to open up about their mental health struggles. Our trained repliers responded with 44 replies to support those fans. We also reacted to the track and provided 241k minutes of encouragement to their fans.

  • Guitarist of Nothing More, Mark Vollelunga, opened up about his struggles with anxiety on a partnered interview with HeartSupport. We covered their new track, House on Sand, on our Therapist React YouTube series, and through our partnership, we were able to provide 96k minutes of encouragement and 38 evidence-based replies to 14 fans who opened up about their current struggles seeking help.

  • Kasey Karlsen, vocalist of Deadlands, opened up about her mental health struggles to encourage her fans and helped us recruit over 35 volunteers during our physical outreach event at Capulet Fest in the summer of 2024, which provided over $8,400 of peer support value to our scene.

  • Tool

    241 fans helped and trained. 11.7m minutes of encouragement through content. $45,000 of mental health value to the Tool Army.

  • NF

    200 fans helped and trained. 5.5m minutes of encouragement through content. $25,898 of mental health value to their community.

  • System of a Down

    96 replies written to 32 fans asking for help. 5.3m minutes of encouragement through our video content. $24,720 of mental health value to their fanbase.

  • Falling in Reverse

    133 fans supported and trained through our programs. 4.3m minutes of encouragement through our videos. $19,980 of mental health value to their fans.

  • Rammstein

    87 replies written to 29 fans asking for mental health support. 4.6m minutes of encouragement to fans around the world. $18,653 of mental health value to their fanbase.

  • Bring Me The Horizon

    39 volunteers supported and trained. 111 responses to struggling fans. 1.4m minutes of encouragement through our content. $16,673 of mental health value to their fans.

  • August Burns Red

    40 peer support and training sessions to fans. 1.2m minutes of encouragement to their fans through our content. $13,057 of mental health value to ABR fans.

  • Korn

    120 fans directly supported and trained. 350 evidence-based replies. 2.6m minutes of encouragement through our content. $12,893 of mental health value to their fans.

  • Metallica

    171 trained replies written to 60 fans asking for help. 2.9m minutes of encouragement through our content. $11,543 of mental health value to Metallica fans.

  • Alice in Chains

    698 replies written to 234 fans asking for mental health support. 3.3m minutes of encouragement through our content. $10,185 of mental health value to AIC fans.

  • Pink Floyd

    44 fans supported and trained. 2.3m minutes of encouragement through our content. $8,978 of mental health value to their fans.

  • Five Finger Death Punch

    190 evidence-based replies written to 65 struggling fans. 960k minutes of encouragement through our content. $8,434 of mental health value to FFDP fans.

  • Pearl Jam

    128 fans supported and trained. 2m minutes of encouragement through our content. 378 trained replies to their fans. $6,675 of mental health value to their community.

  • 63 Other Bands

    We provided support and training for hundreds of other fans for 60+ other contributing another 12m minutes of encouragement and $136,459 of mental health value to fanbases in our scene.

  • "You guys don’t know how much this is needed right now. I commented and you guys replying today when I needed it the most is crazy. If you’re ever unsure if what you are doing is working, I’m telling you it is".

    - From a Ren Fan

  • "Thank you for those kind words. If it wasn’t for my girls I would have already given up. But I can’t even begin to describe what a difference you just made in my mindset today."

    - From a Bad Omens Fan

  • "Never in my life have I felt so understood, the amount of empathy it takes for someone to reach the depths of my mind like this must be insane. Seriously, thank you so much for this."

    - From a Slipknot Fan

  • "You probably saved my life tonight by saying this. I have so much respect for this place. Thank you for taking the time to reply, much love to you and everyone struggling out there. Bless you."

    - From a NF Fan

  • "I just started today seeing an online therapist because of your video for me. I appreciate this channel and especially allowing me to be honest and share my experiences. I love music it has helped me but I think therapy will be good for me. I appreciate you."

    - From a Staind Fan

  • "Woaw, thank you. You really do something good here… I will remember your advice. These words stuck in my head and my day today was so much more productive and nice… I don't know how few simple words can do so much for people who are a bit lost and don’t know what to do.

    From a Korn Fan

  • "I really appreciate your kind words. We really need each other in the music community."

    - From a Nothing More Fan

  • "We may not know each other outside of these few words but that you had the kindness to write to me is amazing, it helps and I’m not sure why? Today is a good day. Thank for such kind words, they truly help a lot."

    - From a Rammstein Fan

  • "Thank you for everyone involved to help people struggling with mental health or any issues. Having someone, even a stranger on a YouTube channel, to simply acknowledge someone…it means so much."

    - From a Ren Fan

Looking forward to the future:

Band Partnerships in 2025

With our new 5-year strategic plan, HeartSupport has set our sights on becoming the mental health partner for bands. We are working to train their fans in evidence-based peer support and connect struggling fans in healing relationships that will improve their mental health self-efficacy. We want to enrich fan communities that already exist with the tools and resources to thrive. We’ve secured our first pilot partnership with Imminence to work directly and intentionally with the band to impact their fans.

Finances

Expenses

Landing about $10k under budget for the year, our $512k expenses were lean, on target, and focused on high impact projects.

Income

With support for the year totaling at $520k, we ended in the black. Our development department implemented relational best practices with our donors, and fundraising feels like community building.

How are we different:

Program Differentiators

With so many mental health resources out there, we didn’t want to re-invent the wheel. What we do is unique in many ways:

  • Music makes it easier for us to talk about our emotions and our struggles.
    Our support is always connected to music so we can reach people who wouldn’t otherwise talk about their mental health.

  • We built machine learning models that automatically detect when someone comments about mental health struggles. It alerts our repliers and we bring support to the user directly on social media.

  • Mental health resources are more accessible than ever, and yet 3 in 5 people who struggle don’t seek help. We can’t wait for people to come to us.
    That’s why our outreach is built to actually initiate conversations, not wait until they happen.

  • Every replier is trained in four evidence-based practices, given multiple continuing education courses each month, and organized in teams to offer multiple perspectives in reply to the same fan.

    Every reply is handwritten, and every fan gets 500+ words in response to their post, with 93.6% people reporting getting the support they needed.

  • When life itself feels impossibly hard, seeking help has to be easy. That’s why we’ve designed our products to be a one-step process.

    Open up here. We’ll get you help. No account creation, no hoops. Just share your heart and we’ll get you support.

  • Talking about our struggles in places where others can see them has an anti-stigmatic effect, showing people it’s okay to open up about their struggles, not just telling them.

Why it matters:

Impact Stories

When people connect others who are trained to support their mental health, it has a profound impact.

Lys was at the end of her rope when she found HeartSupport. Our repliers helped her choose life over suicide.

Sarah kept the words that HeartSupporters wrote to her in her darkest times taped in her journal.

Fund help every month

Donors drive our impact. For just $5/month, you can support individual fans in need, or for $40/month, you can fund a Volunteer Replier who will respond to 100 fans over six months. Your contribution helps fans develop a more optimistic mindset, cope with stressors and difficulties, and establish a pattern of seeking help when they struggle.