Made of Millions Foundation

Aaron Harvey is the cofounder of Made of Millions — a global nonprofit on a mission to change how the world perceives mental health. He is also the cofounder of Ready Set Rocket — an innovative NYC-based shop that creates award winning experiences for clients including the NBA and Carnegie Hall.

Aaron founded Made of Millions in 2016, born from his personal experiences with OCD. After struggling in silence for 20 years, he recognized a gap in the quality and accessibility of mental health resources. He put his digital expertise to use, and founded an organization dedicated to using design, technology and marketing to demedicalize mental health resources. Made of Millions platforms reach over +3m sufferers from over 200 countries each year. 

Aaron is a marketing and tech thought leader who's been featured in publications including Fast Company and Forbes, and spoken at SXSW, Techweek NYC, amongst other notable conferences. 

We’re in the midst of a mental health crisis. Roughly 450 million people worldwide currently suffer from mental disorders, placing this among the leading causes of ill-health worldwide. This number does not include those who suffer in silence. 

Additionally, there is a 10 year treatment gap, meaning those who experience challenges suffer in silence for an average of 10 years before finding help. One frequently cited reason young adults do not seek support is that they have insufficient knowledge of mental symptoms and treatment options — a feature of poor mental health literacy.

Our project aims to democratize access to mental health resources, improve mental health literacy, minimize the treatment gap, and break the cycle of suffering. We plan to do this through a mandatory workplace learning system (MADE Academy), as well as MADE Live — a schedule of free, educational conversations featuring leading doctors, advocates and culture makers. 

One in four people will be affected by a mental disorder at some point in their lives. In 2020, that’s roughly 1.9 billion people. In rich Western countries, two-thirds of people with a mental issue do not receive treatment. In poor and middle-income countries, hardly any do. 

When ignored, mental illness can lead to decades of hardship and contributes to other systemic challenges such as homelessness, poverty, addiction, suicide and incarceration. 
 
Currently, more than 33% of countries allocate less than 1% of their total health budgets to mental health, with another 33% spending just 1%. On top of that, there is only one psychiatrist per 100,000 people in over half the countries in the world. 
 
Simply put: we are failing to provide any level of baseline mental health education that could save lives, minimize suffering, and produce a healthier global population.Our project hopes to fill this gap by reaching millions of sufferers via accessible, digital-first channels through which we deliver resources that improve mental health literacy, normalize intervention and decrease pain.

Overtime, we aim to destigmatize mental illness across all cultures, connect people with proper treatment, and drive progressive policy.  

Our initiative is two-fold: 

1) MADE Live: A schedule of ongoing mental health conversations featuring leading doctors, advocates and culture makers. MADE Live brings mental health education to the masses through social media based video content covering a range of topics including condition types, treatment options, mindfulness recommendations, personal storytelling, and more. Longterm, we hope to grow MADE Live into the internet’s go-to destination for mental health discussion that doesn’t only address clinical topics, but embeds emotional wellness into the cultural conversation.

2) MADE Academy: A first of its kind corporate learning platform that delivers on-demand mental health training to today’s workforce. MADE Academy aims to transform the corporate landscape by including mental health education and empowerment as a mandatory component of employee training. In doing so, it’ll deliver life-saving information to millions of sufferers who were not reached with such resources in early childhood. 

MADE Academy is unique in that it is a design-centric platform that goes beyond the usual “crisis management” message, to offer actionable information to employees. This platform will feature leading HR and D&I experts, CEOs, small business entrepreneurs, and doctors. Overtime, the platform will scale to incorporate resources for specific industry verticals and geographic regions. 

All of our work intends to serve sufferers of every age, gender, sexuality, condition type and country. To ensure we are uplifting intersectional perspectives, we lean on our diverse board of doctors and advocates to vet the content we create, as well as our online community of sufferers who are vocal about the resources and information they’d like access to. 

In the immediate, MADE Live content will be delivered in English to a majority U.S., U.K. and Canada based audience. Overtime, we hope to scale this to include additional languages and conversations tailored to specific countries and cultures. 

MADE Academy will serve a diverse workforce, starting in the U.S. media space and expanding to global workers in a wide range of industries. 

Both initiatives were created with the belief that our community should be directly involved in everything we create. Real voices and testimonials are featured in both platforms and a diverse group of experts and advocates act as consultants during the content development phase.  

Mental health is a unique social cause that affects every person around the world, while simultaneously playing a role in broader systemic challenges such as homelessness, poverty and incarceration. Increased mental health awareness has the power to transform global societies and start chipping away at some of our world’s biggest challenges. The first step towards doing so, is increasing mental health literacy and access to information. 

MADE Live and MADE Academy are crucial resources in an age where people still struggle to find understandable and free mental health information. These platforms have the potential to reach millions of global sufferers.

Both MADE Live and MADE Academy were inspired by our team’s personal challenges with mental health. In particular, the years we spent suffering in silence due to a lack of accessible educational information and stories that sounded like our own. 

MADE Live was started by our core team — Anastasia, Aaron, Lauren and Mary-Lyn — working together with friends, advocates and experts to bring livestreamed mental health webinars to our community for free. It has scaled with the help of strategic partnerships with organizations including the Drug Policy Alliance, NOCD, The Hidden Opponent, Amnesty International and others. 

MADE Academy is an extension of our May 2019 #DearManager campaign that raised awareness of workplace mental health challenges. It was created in partnership with Verizon Media and the 4A’s. What started as a digital campaign, quickly spiraled into an employee-led movement that reached people across industries, occupations and continents. It opened our eyes to the overwhelming need for better employee mental health education, and inspired us to begin developing the MADE Academy platform. 

Since childhood, the cofounder and Executive Director of the Made of Millions Foundation, Aaron Harvey, has been plagued by a near constant stream of graphic thoughts and images. They flash across his mind thousands of times a day, interrupting daily tasks and triggering severe anxiety. It took over 20 years before these symptoms were diagnosed as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, specifically a subtype known as Pure OCD. 

 These years spent suffering in silence were defined by mental anguish, self-harm and suicidal ideation. His unaddressed mental health symptoms bled into his work life, home life and hobbies. 
 
As Aaron entered therapy and began to heal, he couldn’t help but wonder: What if I had been met with information about my thoughts at a younger age? What if these resources were well designed and easy to find? What if we made them available in our schools, as well as our workplaces -- ensuring that people from all walks of life are met with the same information? 
 
Aaron’s personal challenges made him incredibly passionate about keeping future generations from experiencing the same pain he did. They opened his eyes to the need for free, digital-first mental health education and advocacy.

Aaron is a digital marketing leader with over 20 years of experience creating interactive web platforms and campaigns for cross-industry brands. He is also a mental health sufferer with extensive lived experience battling undiagnosed challenges and navigating a complicated mental healthcare system. 

Both his professional and personal experiences make him well-positioned to bring resources like MADE Live and MADE Academy to life, alongside other game changers in the mental health and tech spaces. To date, Made of Millions work has been successful because it uses modern tools to humanize the mental health experience and drive people towards relevant resources. 
 
In addition to Aaron, the rest of the Made of Millions team has lived experience with mental health challenges, as well as extensive design and communication skills. Our medical advisory board is made up of a diverse group of therapists and doctors who are deeply involved in our development of educational platforms and content. 
 

When we first founded Made of Millions, it was assumed that other like minded non-profit organizations would want to collaborate. Sadly, the combination of institutionalized thinking, organizational bureaucracy, and fear of losing a ‘donor’ or ‘sponsor’ to another non-profit project has proven to be a shockingly sad reality. We have experienced a lot of conservatism in the non-profits space. Our biggest lesson is that we simply have to go around it and find our own path forward until someone listens. Fortunately we have since been able to partner with some like-minded non-profits and collaborate on projects where both of our communities benefit.

We’ve also faced substantial fundraising barriers. To date, this project has been almost entirely self-funded — a reality that has limited our ability to reach more communities in need, and one that is quickly becoming an unrealistic long term strategy. We have pushed through to the best of our ability, and found support where we can. We hope that as we gain more exposure, we will continue to gain more funding and support. 

When Aaron discovered he had OCD, he was determined to become an informed expert and use his story and knowledge to save younger versions of himself from wasting +20 years suffering from a treatable mental condition. 

In 2014, he had only shared his condition with a few family members, until later that year, he decided to publish an account of his OCD experience in Fast Company. He was terrified of the potential consequences, but has since learned that vulnerability in leadership is not an option, but is imperative. 

To inspire people to do their best work, you need to give them the space to be open about their struggles, and that starts with leaders. Being open about his issues taught him to lead with empathy, and helped him avoid the management mistakes that he’d made in the years prior. In return, his team has supported him in ways that fill his heart with joy. He's also had employees pull him aside and share their stories.

He shared his mental illness with the world because he doesn’t want anyone to suffer the way that he did, and still does, as a result of 20 years of undiagnosed suffering.

Mental health stories are often told in clinical, stigmatizing ways. Even when well-meaning, the visuals and narratives we see reaffirm harmful stereotypes, and strip sufferers of their individual backgrounds, identities and experiences. 

Prior to launching Made of Millions, Aaron went on a journey of deep mental health research. He wanted to identify what was missing, and what could help people around the world who were suffering in silence. He came to the conclusion that the biggest thing missing for people was a soft landing - a platform where people could find psychoeducation that was relatable, digestible, visually inviting and hopeful. 
 
What is unique and innovative about Made of Millions is we are made up of independent creators who are using our design skills to rebrand mental health. We are bridging the gap between art and science by using storytelling and art to humanize the conversation, while simultaneously working with an emerging generation of clinicians to simplify psychoeducation. 

We have an advisory board that includes clinicians of diverse backgrounds -  not just in terms of skill set, but also culture. In doing so, we are ensuring that all members of our audience feel heard and seen, regardless of their culture, gender, sexuality or socioeconomic status.   

Globally, mental health literacy is extremely low. Access to quality mental health care — even lower. In the age of the internet, people in countries around the world should be able to search for supportive resources online, and be met with well designed, well produced and easy-to-understand educational information. In 2020, this is not a reality. 

Our platform will fill this gap by using modern tools — social media, videography, livestream technology, digital design — to raise awareness of mental health challenges, deepen the public's understanding of symptoms and condition types, and drive people towards treatment-focused resources. We believe psychoeducation at a young age is critical to normalizing mental health and putting people in the driver seat of their recovery. We also believe the internet provides an amazing opportunity to drive widespread awareness in ways that were not previously possible. 

Long term, Made of Millions aims to become the internet’s go-to destination for mental health discussion that doesn’t only address clinical topics, but embeds emotional wellness into the cultural conversation. We have already begun to see the impact that our platform is having with the receipt of thousands of messages and emails from people in our community:

“If it wasn't for this website, I wouldn't have been able to openly share the details of my intrusive thoughts to my therapist.” - From Jadi 

“I've never seen a site that categorizes and explains everything so clearly. I think this will be a massive help to loads of people, in both understanding their thoughts and explaining them to others.” - From Lauren

“I wish I had encountered this site when I was 9 years old. I am from Istanbul, Turkey. It’s great to know that someone out there is doing something.” - From Emirhan 

“You have impacted my life in so many positive ways. When I first found I had OCD your website saved my life!” - From Anonymous 

We believe that psychoeducation provides people with a path to having a healthier relationship with their mind. When mental health literacy improves, the treatment gap is significantly minimized.  

Currently our platform reaches 3m+ annually from around the globe. 

In one year we expect to serve 4m+

In five years we expect to serve 15m+ 

To date, we have 500m+  impressions in publications spanning Business Week, Ad Age, Fast Company, Refinery29. 

Long term, Made of Millions aims to become the internet’s go-to destination for mental health discussion that doesn’t only address clinical topics, but embeds emotional wellness into the cultural conversation. 

Partners to date have included the Drug Policy Alliance, NOCD, The Hidden Opponent, Mind Share Partners, TwentyTwenty Arts, Shopify, Verizon Media, Amnesty International, 4As, Thrive NYC, Tumblr, Berlin Cameron, Half the Story, Ready Set Rocket, Open Path Collective, She Writes Woman, Crisis Text Line, OCD Action, The 3% Movement, LatinX Therapy, The Big Quiet, SheSays, OCD Gamechangers, Trust Collective, Unstuck, and Orchard OCD. 

Society is failing to provide any level of baseline mental health education that could save lives, minimize suffering, and produce a healthier global population. There is a desperate need for mental health resources that are accessible, affordable and available globally through digital channels. 

Our organization is made up of design, technology, communications and mental healthcare experts who work together to create educational campaigns, platforms and content that democratize access to mental health information and advice. We meet people where they are online, with information that is well-designed, easy to understand and relevant to their experiences.
 
We have built infrastructure that allows us to partner with like minded organizations in order to bring custom educational series and resources to life for free. 
 
A few ways that we currently are monetizing our organization in order to continue to scale are the following: 
 
We have sponsors that support our MADE Live series, where for-profit organizations can sponsor particular series in order to gain exposure to our audience, and support our mission.

We have a licensing model with our MADE Academy project. In order to serve our mission, we will license the MADE Academy platform to corporations.

We are seeking partners who will cover platform development costs in exchange for becoming a strategic advisor with BETA access. Any strategic partners that come on board will receive discounted use of the platform equivalent to investment; and a joint press campaign announcing the platform release. 

We have recently secured our first large corporate partnership with one of the largest communications media companies . They have donated $250K, an in exchange will act as the BETA users for their 11K employees. In starting with one partner, we are able to increase the credibility of the platform, and scale it to other companies that we can license this out to. 

We also will continue to look for grant opportunities, and apply to grants when we meet the eligibility criteria.

In order to market our project and sell it, we will need $750k over the next 12months.  Funding can be in any form, but would prefer grants, donations, and sponsorships.   

We currently have one of the largest communications media companies  that is funding ($250k) our initial build of MADE Academy - this will provide proof of concept so that we will be in a better position to scale it. 

Expected expenses for the rest of 2020 are $400K. This will allow us to continue to manage things as they are. In order to scale MADE Academy, and continue to manage MADE Live, and other programs, $1.2 million over the next year (now until July 2021).   

Foundations that are investing in youth, mental health, technology and healthcare. 

Large companies with global reach - white collar and blue collar employees. 

Media partners to help advance our mission. 

Licensing partners - a big payroll company for example, so that they can act as the intermediary for MADE Academy.