Founders Meg Rogers-Baugnon and Jeremy Warshaw have opened New York-based Give A Damn Films, specializing in short films and PSAs for nonprofit organizations.
Rogers-Baugnon is a VP/ senior creative director at McCann-Erickson, New York. Warshaw directs spots through Maysles Films, New York, and makes documentaries and market research films through his own shop, The Observatory, also in New York.
Give A Damn’s first production is a three- to six-minute film for New York-based gun safety group PAX, to be shown at fund-raisers.
Give A Damn Films sprang from Rogers-Baugnon’s and Warshaw’s determination to provide nonprofits and public interest groups with an affordable resource in the media world. Rogers-Baugnon explained, "We connect groups—that want to get their messages out effectively to help the general public—with the people who have the skills to do that." On the creative side, Rogers-Baugnon and Warshaw rely on a network of colleagues eager to "give what they’re good at," according to Rogers-Baugnon. They’ve had an enthusiastic response: "People want to work on stuff that feels good to work on when they have the time," Rogers-Baugnon noted. "There’s a need, especially with the number of nonprofits and foundations that have sprung up over the past five years."
She pointed out, "Most nonprofits don’t have the money to really get into films and do it so that they have the best impact. What we can do is find people to give services at a reduced rate or for free. And the money that we have left over goes back into the production."
Rogers-Baugnon and Warshaw met about 10 years ago at Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, where Warshaw was senior VP/ management supervisor and Rogers (the "Baugnon" came later, when she wed in ’97) was a copywriter. In ’94, she moved to Portland, Ore., and opened Meg Rogers Copywriting, returning (now as Rogers-Baugnon) to Saatchi in ’97 as senior VP/creative director. She joined McCann-Erickson in August ’99. Meanwhile, Warshaw had started directing, and in January ’93 he opened The Observatory, making marketing films for corporate clients, documentaries and later spots. Since ’99, he has directed commercials through Maysles Films.
The idea of a production company devoted to worthy causes first occurred to Rogers-Baugnon and Warshaw when the pair collaborated on "Partners," a ’96 Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) PSA that Warshaw directed and Rogers-Baugnon wrote, developing the concept independently and then presenting it to GLAAD. Rogers-Baugnon recalled, "Both Jeremy and I felt that doing those projects was extremely fulfilling, and Jeremy said, ‘I wish I could have a company where that was all I did.’ Unfortunately, that’s not a way to make a living; we have other obligations and jobs that we really enjoy," she continued. "But it sort of dawned on us that that’s not a reason not to do it; we would just have to do it in our free time. So we set up this company."
Over the past year, Rogers-Baugnon and Warshaw have worked on developing Give A Damn’s prototype. Although at this time the company is not technically a nonprofit, "Essentially we look at Give A Damn as a nonprofit. In terms of making any money—we don’t!" Rogers-Baugnon laughed. "That’s not what we’re here to do; we both have incomes from our careers. This is what we do to give back. We’re actually set up to not profit at this point. And that’s because we put money back into the films."
Give A Damn has an unusually flexible business model. According to Warshaw, "We can work in different ways. Sometimes we act as an ad agency, letting the production company run the production. Sometimes the director will be loaned and the project will be produced through Give A Damn Films, which is a perfectly functioning production company."
Both Rogers-Baugnon and Warshaw are comfortable about taking on multiple roles, partially due to their backgrounds in advertising. At agencies, Warshaw pointed out, "You’re working with production companies and editorial houses—you become this jack-of-all-trades. Ultimately it’s not a whole different experience; it’s part of what we do as the total experience of getting messages made and sold. I can slip very quickly from director to producer to ad agency person."
While Rogers-Baugnon, Warshaw and Warshaw’s assistant/ production coordinator Lica Wouters currently comprise Give A Damn’s entire staff, the company is searching for a full-time producer, and a way to fund that position. Rogers-Baugnon and Warshaw hope to serve as Give A Damn’s executive producers, "meeting with these groups and discovering what their needs are," said Rogers-Baugnon.
"Because we are small we don’t take on a lot of projects," she observed. "Within a year, it would be very satisfying to have five or six projects in various stages of production throughout the year. But we are dealing with people who are volunteering their time." Luckily, clients’ schedules often allow for this: "Most of the time it’s not like a commercial client where they must be on air by a certain date. Oftentimes, people will have a big national meeting in a few months," which is where the film will be shown. "We work within the time they give us," Rogers-Baugnon explained.
For creative people often chafing under a client’s demands, Give A Damn offers another benefit: creative control. Warshaw declared, "If they [the clients] don’t buy our vision of the work, we’ll respectfully withdraw. There’s no other reason to do it. We’re not doing it to make money." He mentioned a client who refused Give A Damn’s choice of director, and Give A Damn dropped the job. Warshaw is unapologetic: "Our principle is that there is one director that is right for the job, and we’ll recommend him. We’re giving an awful lot. We’re often coming up with creative work, we’re subsidizing the project so that no client will ever have to pay anything like retail, and we’re producing it with the highest standards. So at the very least we would expect that they [potential clients] would accept our interpretation of which director and which agency and talent should be provided."
While no director/copywriter (the director will perform both jobs) has yet been named for the PAX project, Warshaw said, "It’s come down to three, and we have our favorite. We’re very insistent that if they want to work with Give A Damn, they should accept our recommended choice." He added, "It’s going to be a very stylized film, very eye catching, which is unusual for gun control!"
Much of Give A Damn’s work will be documentary or documentary-style films: "The majority of the work is reality orientated at this stage, because many nonprofits think it’s the best way to execute," observed Warsaw. "It’s a little less expensive, and most find that telling people what they actually do tends to be more of an honest approach. I would like us to work on documentary style, comedy, tabletop, animation. …"
Warshaw sees Give A Damn as a growing concern: "We believe there will be a brand in Give A Damn," he said firmly.
