A video gives OutFront Kalamazoo’s staff, volunteers, and neighbors the chance to describe, in their own words, what the organization makes possible.
For nearly 40 years, OutFront Kalamazoo has been a place where LGBTQIA+ residents can find services, community, and the chance to live without hiding who they are. But an organization can do that work quietly for decades and still remain invisible to the very community it serves and depends on.
In the branded content video, someone comes out for the first time in their 50s. A volunteer describes what OutFront’s men’s group means to him. A staff member walks through services most residents don’t know exist.
“There is a space for you no matter how you identify, no matter who you are,” one community member says. “There is somewhere in this world where you are welcomed and you are loved.”
For OutFront’s communications manager, Heather Sanford, the impact is already showing up in an unexpected place: it gave the organization’s leadership a clearer picture of what quality storytelling actually requires — work she says is often assumed to take “an iPhone and a couple of free hours.” That shift matters. Heather plans to use the video to anchor OutFront’s next major fundraising push at year’s end, giving the organization a foundation for the kind of visibility that, in her words, “builds compassion for our cause.”
The video…was a true gift to our organization. – Heather Sanford
