Q3 Goals (2024)

In Q3, we’re continuing to follow a few core threads:

1. We’ve 6X’d our volunteer application rate, and we need to support that growth.

2. We now understand the KPIs that make our programs successful, and we are driving growth there.

3. We’re continuing to refine our operations and the worthiness of our org for significant investment.

4. Since hiring our Director of Development, we’ve identified some core failures in our development department. We’re working intently on those.

5. We’ve achieved success in our long-form content, and we want to learn and succeed in short form.

Development Assistant, Bryce, on the grounds with attendee at Capulet Fest 2024.

Specifically, here is the list of our Q3 goals:

PROGRAM

• Form 4 new Reply Teams and create a non-team Replier role

• Build a recognition program for volunteers from months 1 to 6

• Increase % of mentorship matches meeting from 31% to 60%

• Increase % of repliers meeting from 34% to 80%

• Migrate volunteer training to Discord, and build a custom Application and Onboarding flow

OPERATIONS

• Complete BBB accreditation qualifications

• Recruit a Treasurer and Chairman for the Board

• Complete the 3-5 year strategic planning process

DEVELOPMENT

• Launch rebrand on socials and site

• Offer every recurring donor clear ROI for their donation

• Raise $65k to close the gap on the May Fundraiser

• Implement a donor CRM system

Outreach

• 5 viral short-form posts by end of quarter

• Drive 150 replier applications

Good News

Some noteworthy items to celebrate since our last monthly update:

• Ren (huge artist we have covered and helped 150+ of his fans talk about their mental health) posted about HeartSupport organically on his social media (650k+ followers) 😱

• We got our 100k YouTube plaque in the mail 🎉

• We will be sponsoring Furnace Fest in October 🏟️

• We initiated our largest corporate partner @ $3k/mo 💼

• We had the lawyer for Crisis Text Line work with us full-time for a month to secure our legal practices and operations 👨‍⚖️

• Each of our quarterlies aligns with our 2024 Strategic Plan.

• Our team is now reporting on their individual KPIs at our weekly team meetings.

• We are clearer than ever on who we are, who we are here to serve, and how we can uniquely execute that.

• We are on track to double our impact this year.

Thank you for your trust in HeartSupport and investing with us to heal the scene.

---

Influencer and HeartSupport partner, Misstiq, is our final fundraiser from the May campaign. If you’d like to donate and win one of her Nux Audio keyboards, please click the button below:

Q2 Results

Thank you for investing in HeartSupport. Q2 was a high-performing quarter for our team. We accomplished 83% of our goals from Q2. Read more below:

Build an exceptional volunteer experience

• ✅ Refined our Replier Training so that it’s more digestible

• 🔁 Improved our volunteer recognition, joy, and engagement

  • 4 of 8 milestones completed, continuing in Q3

• ✅ Activated our Mentorship Program “Engagement Volunteers”

  • Completed robust training, documentation, and management systems

• ✅ Automated weekly KPI reports for each staff member

Rally involvement to help heal the scene

• ❌ Raise $100k at our Mental Health: Challenge Accepted fundraiser in May (raised $40.2k)

• ✅ Drove 180 Volunteer applications

• ✅ Hired a Director of Development

Validate HeartSupport as a substantial media opportunity for bands

• ✅ Hit 100k subscribers on YouTube (watch celebration video above)

• ✅ Piloted a new “lyrics text program” for band partnerships

  • You can test by texting capuletfest to 15127684252

• ✅ Activated at Capulet Fest

• ✅ Activated 8 band collaborations (including Skillet and Shinedown)

Thank you for continuing to contribute and drive HeartSupport’s impact in the metal music scene. We’ll update you soon with our goals for Q3.

Org Update April 2024: Q1 Results, Q2 Goals

Thank you for investing in HeartSupport. You can read our Q1/Q2 update below, or you can watch/listen to Nate’s overview, including additional context here:

Results from Q1 2024:

• Build an exceptional volunteer experience

  • Document, automate, and/or delegate all moderation tasks ✅

    • We built our own moderation machine learning model that now identifies 90% of all inappropriate messages.

    • This complements our mental health machine learning model that identifies 95% of all comments asking for help.

    • We recruited two new moderators and have a robust training process for them.

  • Automatically report key impact to each staff member and volunteer ❌ (33%, moved to Q2)

  • Automate our mentorship program onboarding ✅

  • Fully delegate all BTS program engagement activity to MEAs ❌ (onboarding overhaul took 2X longer than anticipated, moved goal to Q2)

• Make HeartSupport worthy of a $1m investment

  • Increase recurring donations by $14k/mo ❌ ($5k of $14k increase)

    • In process, acquired funding for and board approval to hire a Director of Development

    • 150 applications, 25+ interviews in 3-stage process, and candidate selected - Shelbi!

  • Launch an email marketing funnel ❌ (10 of 60 emails written; moved to Q2)

  • Launch a PR campaign announcing the merger of HS & BTS ✅

  • Achieve BBB accreditation ❌ (8 of 20 items completed; moved to Q3)

    • Added Shawn Rodriguez to our Advisory Board, who acquired a 4-week sabbatical to assist on this project in Q3

• Validate HeartSupport as a substantial media opportunity for bands

  • Double our YouTube subscribers from 31k to 62k ✅

    • Herculean effort and accomplishment

    • Major impact: majority of requests for support now come from our YouTube channel

    • Major issue: needed more repliers to handle the influx; hired three short-term contractors to help with the surge and focus on recruiting more volunteers in Q2

  • Pilot a new “lyrics text program” for band partnerships ❌ (alpha of tech complete, 33% of lyrics complete, continue in Q2)

Preview of our Q2 goals:

• Build an exceptional volunteer experience

  • Improve the SWAT experience to be full of joy, attention, and recognition, imbuing it with milestones, communication, and a sense of impact (X of 9 SWAT improvement milestones)

  • Fully delegate all BTS program engagement activity to MEAs through robust training, documentation, and management systems (X of 6 BTS improvement milestones)

  • Automatically send each person KPI update messages on Discord with 3-5 core stats related to their role (X of 11 automatic reports)

• Create compelling offers that make people WANT to be involved with HeartSupport

  • Raise $100k at our Mental Health: Challenge Accepted fundraiser in May

  • Drive 90 SWAT volunteer and 90 BTS mentor applications

  • Hire a Director of Development ✅

• Validate HeartSupport as a substantial media opportunity for bands

  • Daily content creation to hit 100k subscribers and celebrate in a meaningful way

  • Pilot a new “lyrics text program” for band partnerships

  • Pilot new on-the-grounds HeartSupport Fest activation elements at Capulet Fest

  • Activate 8 social collaborations with prominent bands (view 1st here)

Story from the Community

As always, we want to celebrate lives that are impacted through our collective work. Watch Brian’s story below to see how HeartSupport helped him through a depressive season in his life: