Underwrite the hard costs incurred for the twelve stories we publish a year, like airfare, accommodation, meals, transportation, ground support (if needed), visas, music licensing, gear rental, etc. Covering these costs makes it possible for creative contributors to donate their time and talent to create a Bittersweet story, resulting in an 860% ROI on average.

We want to guarantee that the assets we create are well-leveraged. By hiring a professional publicity team, Bittersweet work will penetrate traditional and social media at the local and national level by engaging influencers, building strategic partnerships, and more broadly marketing our content.

Bittersweet needs a part-time person to create and repurpose content for social media on a daily basis. We have dozens of creative contributors, 100+ organizations, 7,000+ monthly readers, 2,000+ newsletter subscribers, all of whom would be eager to participate in sharing and building the Bittersweet narrative if we could properly resource them and engage them consistently.

An annual Bittersweet coffeetable book, made available for purchase on our website and given as gifts to story funders. This extends the shelf-life of the story content we produce and empowers readers to become Bittersweet ambassadors with their friends and family. Minimum quantity of 100.

A feature film, distributed by Hillsong, that surveys the crises of our culture and poetically, prophetically imagines another way; illuminating pathways that lead us away from our individual, isolated selves and toward one another. This would become a revenue generating asset after running the festival circuit in 2020.

Bi-annual gatherings bringing together our contributing creatives, readers, supporters and partners to deepen the community value and celebrate the impact of the Bittersweet narrative. These gatherings can serve as fundraisers as well, promoting opportunities to support Bittersweet and upcoming projects. Costs include food, drinks, and prints/collateral to leverage.

A brand package that will be utilized by our Publicity + Engagement team, as well as our Social Media Storyteller, to strengthen the Bittersweet brand and build a cohesive visual language to support growth and scale. This would include a promo video and refreshed identity system (logo, mark, collateral templates).

In 2017, our story platform was recognized as one of the five best online magazines in the world. We'd like to continue innovating and also build an online store that allows us to sell story-related inventory as an additional fundraising mechanism. This will require both design and development time/cost.

We'd love to improve brand recognition through fun promotional gifts, like branded thermos' and gear bags and apparel. These pieces will travel the world with us and when given as gifts, allow us to invite others to become Bittersweet ambassadors simply.