'People Need to Know You Exist:' Supporting Nonprofits With Airtime

Financial stability is an ongoing challenge for many nonprofit organizations. While providing financial aid is one of the most common solutions to this issue, NBCUniversal took a different approach to addressing this challenge. The media giant offers nonprofits airtime on NBCUniversal platforms — like local television stations, Telemundo and Peacock — to showcase their work. 

The program, called Creative Impact Lab, offers grants to organizations that employ apprentices from underrepresented communities, hoping to spread the word about the nonprofits' impacts while supporting future creative professionals. 

"To get the funding, people need to know you exist,” Hilary Smith, executive vice president of corporate social responsibility at NBCUniversal, told TriplePundit. “Creating awareness and visibility for these nonprofits is essential, we're also really providing opportunity for apprentices to learn the trade. We very much want to champion the next generation of storytellers and creatives, and this gives real life experience."

In 2024, content from the Creative Impact Lab generated over 143 million impressions, and the program granted $785,000 to its nonprofit clients, according to an annual report.  And the participating nonprofits are gaining more visibility than that, including increased search traffic online and more people scanning their QR codes, Smith said.

One of last year’s videos ran as part of the 2024 Olympics promotion on NBCUniversal’s platforms. Created with Challenged Athletes Foundation, the public service announcement featured two-time Paralympic medalist Derek Loccident and highlighted the organization’s efforts to empower individuals with physical disabilities through sport. During the promotion period, the Challenged Athletes Foundation website saw a 47 percent increase in traffic compared to the year before, according to the annual report.   

Last year, 15 nonprofits across the arts, education, sports, technology and health services took part. And 50 apprentices from those organizations received coaching, feedback, and training in skills like storyboarding, shoot planning, and post-production from NBCUniversal employees who volunteer their time. 

NBCUniversal employees are involved in the skill-building process from day one. They strategize in meetings with agencies and clients, offer one-on-one mentoring, help brainstorm communication strategies and offer creative guidance. As a result, 100 percent of the nonprofits involved this year highlighted the lab’s educational value in a study of the program’s effectiveness. 

"It's really important to our employees that the company shares their values and provides an opportunity to give back in a meaningful way, and this program does exactly that,” Smith said. “It's really a great example of employee engagement, and a company taking what we view as our unique gifts and figuring out a way to give that back to the world to make a meaningful difference.”

The program has generally run smoothly, Smith said. A few improvements were made over the years to address any challenges that arose, including adding backup mentors and creating a catalog of music that the nonprofits have the rights to use.

Since its launch in 2022, the lab evolved from an internal program into a collaborative effort with an expanding network of organizations. As 87 percent of this year’s nonprofit clients said they are “extremely satisfied” with the final results, the lab is on track to continue to grow in 2025, Smith said. This year, it will be open for outside partners and corporations to raise awareness for their own grantees, too. 

"I'm a firm believer that corporate social responsibility is the one industry that is not competitive, and we can only have so much scale if we do this by ourselves,” Smith said. “My hope is that other companies will join in this with us and co-fund the Creative Impact Lab so we can have even more scale."