FAQ

An impact campaign is a strategic effort to turn your story into action. Whether you've made a film, written a book, or launched a creative project, an impact campaign helps you engage audiences, drive awareness, and inspire change. For example, campaigns may encourage donations, signing petitions, policy advocacy, or community engagement to address pressing societal issues. At Empact, we make this simple—giving you tools to partner with nonprofits, host screenings, collect donations, and track real-world outcomes, all from one platform.

To create an impact campaign, start with a clear goal—what do you want your audience to do after engaging with your story?

Creating an impact campaign involves:

1. Defining clear goals (e.g., raising awareness or driving action).

2. Identifying target audiences and partners (nonprofits, educators, etc.).

3. Developing calls-to-action (donations, petitions, volunteering).

4. Hosting events like screenings or workshops to engage communities.

5. Measuring success through metrics like participation rates and behavioral shifts

Use Empact to launch a campaign hub where you can feature calls-to-action, raise money for nonprofits, schedule events, and track audience engagement. No dev team or marketing agency needed—we've built the tools for you.

Successful impact campaigns often mix powerful storytelling with real action. For example, a documentary about climate justice might partner with environmental nonprofits, host grassroots screenings, and drive donations to clean energy initiatives. Check out the campaigns for 36 Seconds: Portrait of a Hate Crime and The Last Ecstatic Days as a few great examples!

Engage audiences by creating interactive experiences like live events, Q&A sessions with creators, or gamified calls-to-action. You move people with your story—Empact helps you move them to action. Use our platform to offer next steps: donate, volunteer, host a screening, or learn more. We make it easy for creators to turn passive viewers into active participants through embedded CTAs, personalized recommendations, and ongoing engagement tools.

Success is measured through:

1. 1. Reach: Number of people exposed to the campaign.
2. 2. Engagement: Actions like clicks, shares, or event attendance.
3. 3. Conversions: Donations made or petitions signed.
4. 4. Behavioral and Narrative shifts: Changes in attitudes or practices aligned with your goals Empact gives you a real-time analytics dashboard that tracks donations, signups, screenings, and audience engagement.

You'll see what actions people take, how they found you, and which parts of your campaign are working best—so you can prove impact to partners and funders. Our favorite campaigns use

Empact is the all-in-one platform built for creators to launch and manage impact campaigns. No spreadsheets, no cobbled-together tech stacks—just a simple, beautiful platform made for creators who care about change. Whether you're a filmmaker, author, or content creator, Empact lets you add calls-to-action, partner with nonprofits, collect donations, host screenings, and track real-time impact—all without needing a developer or agency. And trust us, we've done the homework. Our founder, Eva Zheng, spent a full year researching the media and social impact landscape (just check out our network partners !) to make sure Empact wasn't reinventing the wheel and actually building what creators really need.

You could—but you'd be missing the tools that actually turn attention into action. Most websites require hours of work, or simply aren't built to track donations, manage nonprofit partners, activate screening signups, or measure audience impact. Empact does all of that—automatically. Plus, your campaign becomes part of a growing ecosystem of impact-driven media. It's faster to set up than building from scratch, and gives you real-time data, donation routing via Every.org , and built-in tools for scaling reach and driving real-world change. Also, we see firsthand that independent filmmakers already have their hands full with festival submissions, distribution deals, publicity, and social media. That's exactly why we built Empact to be fast and stress-free. You can literally set up your campaign now and have a full digital impact campaign live in under 5 minutes. Just sign up here.

Start with organizations that align with your story's themes and values. On Empact, you can browse vetted nonprofit partners or invite your own. We make it easy to collaborate—helping you track donations, co-host events, and show shared impact.

Look for mission alignment, a willingness to collaborate, and an existing audience you can co-engage. Empact makes the partnership seamless by handling donation routing, action tracking, and shared impact metrics.

Yes! Empact makes it easy to raise money for nonprofit partners directly through your campaign. You'll see how much was raised, where it came from, and what actions your viewers are taking—so you can measure and share your film's real-world impact. Each call-to-action is tracked separately, giving you full transparency into what's working and where your audience is making a difference. This is also a great value proposition when approaching nonprofits—they benefit from increased visibility and funding, while you amplify the impact of your story. Donations are securely routed through Every.org , ensuring tax-deductibility and transparent delivery to your chosen partner.

Empact uses Every.org, a trusted U.S. 501(c)(3) public charity, to securely route donations to our nonprofit partners. When you donate through a campaign, your gift is made to Every.org, and you'll receive an instant tax-deductible receipt via email. Every.org partners with PayPal Grants to distribute funds to the intended nonprofit—like Peace Through Action USA—on a monthly basis (or semiannually for balances under $100). This setup ensures your donation is tax-deductible, properly tracked, and delivered with minimal administrative burden on the nonprofit. It's secure, transparent, and designed to get your donation where it needs to go—while keeping things simple for everyone involved.

Fiscal sponsorship lets you receive tax-deductible donations without having your own 501(c)(3). You partner with a registered nonprofit who accepts funds on your behalf. Empact can integrate with fiscal sponsors—so you can legally raise money for impact work while staying focused on storytelling. Our partners include E2AC (they take only a 3% fee) and Crowdfundr.

If you plan to raise tax-deductible donations or apply for certain grants, yes—having a fiscal sponsor helps. Empact works with or without one, but we support fiscal sponsorship if you want to maximize funding opportunities.

Independent filmmakers are moving beyond traditional distribution by embracing alternative strategies like impact campaigns, grassroots screenings, and brand partnerships. With Empact, your film becomes a hub for action—complete with calls-to-action, donation tools, and real-time impact tracking. Other creative approaches include releasing through educational networks (like NewDay Films), tapping into corporate ERG events, bundling with social causes, or using festivals as launchpads for hybrid events.

Reach out to educational distribution organizations like New Day Films or Roco Films. Empact lets you create customized campaigns for different audiences—whether it's an ERG screening at a company, a community center event, or a classroom activation. We help you manage RSVPs, collect feedback, and report on outcomes so you can keep scaling what works.

By partnering with nonprofits, brands, schools, and community groups, your campaign taps into existing networks that can host screenings, share your story, and engage new audiences.

Instead of relying solely on traditional film distribution, impact campaigns turn your message into a movement—opening doors to educational tours, corporate events, ERG programming, and grassroots activations. With Empact, every action taken becomes part of your distribution pipeline—measurable, meaningful, and built to scale.

Screenings and live events help grow your audience by building community and capturing email signups. With Empact, you can easily collect attendee info and activate them to host their own events—creating a viral, network-driven distribution model that spreads across schools, workplaces, and local communities.

Here are the alternative terms we use:

• AAPI → "Asian and Pacific Islander Voices"

• African American → "Melanated Voices"

• Disability → "Ability Representation"

• LGBTQ → "Queer Identity"

• Women → "Girl Empowerment"

• Mental Health → "Human Health"

• Climate Crisis → "Climate Environment"

• Native American → "First Nations Voices"

• Latinx/Hispanic → "Latin American Voices"

The Trump administration is restricting the federal government's use of several terms related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Among the banned terms are references to sexual ideology such as "assigned female at birth," "trans" and "pregnant person." Other terms target terms used to describe race such as "BIPOC," "Latinx" and "racial diversity." The Trump administration reportedly ordered some of the banned terms to be removed from government websites. It also called for materials containing some words, such as school curricula, to be eliminated. Help tell Congress → Don't censor America