Bright by Text

Parenting is scary. Trying to calm an inconsolable crying infant or toddler temper tantrum can take its toll on a tired, worried, stressed-out caregiver. Reaching low-income families can be challenging. Community organizations offer services that are underutilized, especially by those families that need the support the most. Through Bright by Text, parents and caregivers receive trusted, bite-sized doses of information, immediately actionable and delivered when they need it. Partner organizations across the country submit messages about local events and resources (i.e. flu shot clinics, library storytimes, parent support groups) which connects caregivers to an actionable network of tips, resources, and local services to support the health and resilience of both parent and child. Survey analysis shows that Bright by Text continues to positively impact caregivers, with 93% indicating that Bright by Text prompted them to try out a learning activity, play with their child, and/or read a story.

Research demonstrates that a major factor in healthy child development is reliable and responsive “serve-and-return” interactions between parents/caregivers and children. Studies also show that chronic stress in early childhood (caused by extreme poverty, for example) can be toxic to the developing brain and leave children unprepared for school. Bright by Text is designed to promote parent/caregiver knowledge and resilience as well as healthy child behavior and development. 

According to Kids Count 2019, 65% of fourth-graders are not proficient in reading. Positively affecting child developmental outcomes and improving school-readiness is challenging, but nudging parents and caregivers with consistent research-based parenting tips through Bright by Text has been proven to make a difference. An independent evaluation of our program showed a 3-month advance in language acquisition among low-income families subscribed to Bright by Text versus a control group. Recent studies also show that parents are overwhelmed with the quantity of parenting information available to them and underwhelmed by the quality of what they find. Bright by Text acts as a signal breaking through the noise of early childhood education resources, equipping parents with actionable tips that they actually read and utilize. 

Offered in English and Spanish, Bright by Text is free and easy to access for any of the 96% of adults who own cell phones (Pew Research Center, 2019). Our program serves caregivers with children aged prenatal to five, currently reaching over 57,000 subscribers in all 50 states. Bright by Text equips all families with evidence-based early childhood education, and we focus on reaching vulnerable and at-risk families. Our two-generation approach to strengthening families reaches caregivers with information and resources to promote healthy early childhood development, while enhancing caregiver knowledge and well-being. Over 35% of families served report their child is on Medicaid, CHIP, or no insurance. Bright by Text leverages publicly available data overlays to determine the risk factors that our subscribers face. 

Across the country, approximately 37% of subscribers live in areas that are considered both low income and Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA). According to independent outside research, 86% of text recipients experience at least one risk factor for an early childhood developmental delay. Our evaluation and evolution have always been inspired and grounded in human-centered design, leveraging the power of Bright by Text to send surveys and learn the ways that caregivers learn best. 

Bright by Text is a nationwide text messaging service that helps parents and caregivers of children prenatal to age five make the most of everyday interactions. Through free tips, information, games and resources, Bright by Text is proven to build nurturing caregiver-child relationships, strengthen families, promote healthy child development, and improve school readiness. Each week, parents receive three to five text messages, tailored to the age and stage of their child’s development, in either English or Spanish. Bright by Text aggregates evidence-based content from early childhood experts that includes developmental milestones, brain development, social-emotional health, and nutrition. Also included are local-market messages promoting resources and activities from Bright by Text key partners. Research shows that as a result of using Bright by Text, 92% of parents feel more confident in caring for their child. And 95% children whose caregiver subscribes to Bright by Text are on-track or above average in their language development.

We partner with PBS, United Way, and other organizations across the country with a variety of expertise and services to ensure families receive any support they need to raise their children. These organizations submit community messages that promote services and resources. This tool has been proven to increase visibility and attendance for programs and events. For example this message, “FREE 10 week group for parents and babies 0-6 mths. Learn more about your baby and improve your relationship! May 14, limited spots left!” saw a click-through rate of 53%. The message was sent to 340 subscribers in specific zip codes within the Metro Denver community and over half of these recipients clicked the link leading to more information about registering for the class. Recent surveys show that over 34% of our 57,000 subscribers have attended an event that they heard about through Bright by Text. 

Our program uses a “whole-child, whole-family” approach by equipping subscribers with content that both reduces parent stress and encourages family interactions leading to increased caregiver confidence and improved child developmental outcomes. Bright by Text families are invited to respond to surveys that assess child development, caregiver confidence,and family technology use. We also ask for feedback on our service delivery and write-in responses for what families found valuable. Program engagements and validated survey responses are tracked along with demographic and risk factor data reported by parents/caregivers. We use this data to inform the early childhood ecosystem and improve our program.

Bright by Text leverages the simple channel of text messaging to nudge caregivers with actionable tips and information on early childhood development and family well-being. Each message contains a concept, resource, or activity, and links to a landing page with more detail and examples, related resources, and many include a short modeling video. Text messages are tailored to the age of the child (prenatal to five years old), which the caregiver enters when signing up. Families also enter their zip code which enables Bright by Text and our extensive nationwide partner network to send targeted local messages promoting services and resources in communities nearby to the subscriber. 

Our unique ability to send messages to specific zip codes and counties is an especially innovative application of text message technology. Partners across the country leverage this tool to impact more families. We increase visibility for organizations who otherwise lack communications channels to effectively drive participation in community events and resources. Instead of competing, we collaborate with platforms like Vroom who contribute expert content to Bright by Text’s message library. Bright by Text differs from other digital support services for families by leveraging a diverse partner network of local expertise to send messages promoting nearby resources in the community at no additional cost. Our service also extends to a larger age range, reaching parents and caregivers who are expecting and equipping them with actionable tips till their child is 5 years old.

Bright by Text is a SaaS product driving customer growth through unique keywords leased by our paying customers who provide the service to families in their community. We developed this proprietary service in-house which distributes library of content to the right caregiver. Families input their child’s age in days upon signing up and our software sends messages accordingly. When families input their zip code, we enable community organizations to send messages about specific resources by toggling and targeting families subscribed in specific zip codes and counties. Bright by Text is driven by a proprietary software hosted on Google Cloud Platform, which is linked to Twilio to distribute messages through mobile carriers. We supply each customer with multiple real time data dashboards through Microsoft Power BI to track subscriber uptake, click-through rates of local messages, and program impact assessed via targeted surveys. In the past year, our retention rate is currently 85% for all subscribers; however, when those families receive the program for over 30 days, that retention rate jumps to 94%. 

Bright by Text is measuring qualitative and quantitative values of impact through subscriber count, subscriber feedback and a formal evaluation conducted last year. Compelling results include:

• 97% of respondents are likely to recommend the program to a friend or family member

• 92% of subscribers report feeling more confident as a caregiver as a result of receiving texts

• 3-month advance in language acquisition among low-income BBT families vs a control group

• Only 9% of Bright by Text subscribers report overwhelming stress, compared to 21% of comparison group with similar risk factors

• 76% report reading to their infant four or more days a week compared to a national sample where only 37% of parents reported reading at least four days per week

Bright by Text puts caregivers first as we develop our program as a multifaceted resource for families. As the Early Learning Lab claims in its latest report, “solutions created with parents instead of for parents are much more likely to meet their needs.” Bright by Text families have been invited to respond to five surveys: the Profile Building Survey, the Getting to Know You survey, Bright by Text Feedback survey, Technology Use survey, and Parent Stress Scale survey. Every program engagement and validated survey response is tracked along with demographic and risk factor data reported by parents/caregivers. By using this information, we seek to understand the right combination of intervention, message, mode, and frequency of communication to provide the ideal mix of information for optimal parent learning.

Current subscribers: 57,000

July 2020 subscriber projection: 110,000

5 Year Subscriber goal: 1,000,000

Our goals for the upcoming year are to:

1. Contracts totaling $350,000 of annual recurring revenue from key partners across five verticals: PBS, United Ways, Healthcare, Cultural Institutions and Community Spaces for Families, and National/State/Local Delivery Service Providers

2. Reduce annual cost/user to $13 or less 

3. Develop national scaling staffing model, hiring to meet needs in marketing/communications, business development, account management, data and research, and content development

4. Increase message library by 20%, adding content addressing topics of importance to parents and informal caregivers, with a focus on content covering second trimester-1 year old and 3 to 8 years old

5. Examine learning agenda, data governance charter, data audit, and determine next steps for determining overall evaluation strategy.

6. Participate in randomized control trial assessment of parent engagement in partnership with Too Small to Fail, Tips by Text, Early Learning Lab, Parents Together

Our 5 year vision is to: 

1. Offset 100% of Bright by Text operating costs with our social enterprise model

2. Reduce cost/user to $5

3. Increase content inventory so families with children aged prenatal to 8 receive three or more messages per week

4. Develop and incorporate on-demand content in which parents and caregivers can request messages on specific topics by texting ‘sleep’ or ‘math’ 

Bright by Text is a universal service for any caregiver of a young child, but we focus our promotional outreach to those who can benefit the most. In particular, we are seeking to increase participation among informal caregivers as well as Spanish-speaking caregivers. While the value proposition of the service is consistent among caregivers, the culturally-informed promotional messaging that will resonate across these audiences certainly varies.

Additionally, Bright by Text has been approached by large health systems including Children’s Hospital of Colorado to be the preferred method of parent education and awareness outside of the clinical visit for the families they serve. We are currently preparing for HIPAA compliance to enable partnerships with hospitals and other healthcare providers. In order to enter into contractual arrangements with hospitals and health systems, Bright By Text must conform to certain provisions of HIPAA, in particular the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

In order to effectively reach informal and Spanish-speaking caregivers, we will pursue a three-part strategy. We will seek partnerships with national organizations that serve these communities, such as AARP, National Council on Aging, Hispanic Heritage Foundation, and National Alliance for Hispanic Health to develop key messages that will resonate with these caregiver audiences. We will leverage these key messages in outreach, including digital outreach through social media and website banner advertising. Finally, knowing the importance of trusted personal referrals in these communities, we will pilot a message asking current subscribers to sign up others who care for their child. 

We are currently preparing for HIPAA compliance to enable partnerships with hospitals and other healthcare providers. We have contracte Drew Labbo, a HIPAA Security & Privacy Consultant, to audit our system requirements and make recommendations to ensure compliance.

4 Full Time Employees

6 Contractors

Bright by Text was launched in 2014 and successfully piloted our scaling model in 2017. We are currently applying learning from our initial scaling efforts to aggressively ramp subscriber growth and earned revenue from customer acquisition. 

Our CEO, Jean McSpadden is charged with all facets of leadership and management to support Bright by Text’s vision and mission. Jean works directly with the board of directors to establish the strategic direction of the organization, and serves as chief liaison with community groups. Jean’s background includes serving as Director of Education with the Vail Valley Foundation and prior as a Director of the US Olympic Committee responsible for securing major gifts and as the founding executive director of the Children’s Literacy Center.

Serving as CIO since 2016, Nim Patel leads the development of Bright by Text. He has been working with early-stage ventures for over 20 years as an investor, board member, and senior executive. Currently, Nim is Principal of NimbleIQ a software and operations consulting firm and COO of Colorado Enterprise Fund. Nim is also co-founder of EngageMyHealth digital health SaaS offering. He has held senior roles with RemedyConnect (CEO), Stoneside (CFO), Mobile Accord (CEO) and WebTone Technologies (VP). 

Our COO, Kathryn Harris leads business development initiatives to scale Bright by Text. She also oversees content management and evaluation for Bright by Text. Kathryn served as President and CEO of Qualistar, a statewide nonprofit that elevated the quality of early childhood education in Colorado. 

Current market partners lease annual keywords to provide Bright by Text to their communities. Paying the licensing fee for their keyword enables partners to track subscriber uptake, understand who they are reaching, as well as interpret survey results sent to all subscribers. Customers include: Denver Preschool Program, UW of Central New Mexico, UW of Northern Utah, UW of Yellowstone County, UW of Greater Austin, UW of Southern Cameron County, UW of Midland, Dallas PBS, El Paso PBS, San Antonio PBS, Fresno PBS, Arizona PBS, North Carolina PBS, NYC PBS, Indianapolis PBS, Alabama PBS, Alaska PBS, Detroit PBS, Kentucky PBS, Louisiana PBS, Maryland PBS, St. Louis PBS, Vegas PBS, Syracuse PBS, Cookeville PBS, Tallahassee PBS, Norfolk PBS, Muncie PBS, Wisconsin PBS, Bethlehem PBS, Pittsburgh PBS.

Current content partners contribute evidence-based messaging, video content and related resources. These organizations partner with us to distribute their evidence-based content which increases their brand awareness and impacts more families of young children. These partners include: PBS Learning Media, Sesame Street in Communities, Vroom, Cooking Matters, Delta Dental, Nurse-Family Partnership, Behavior Insights and Parenting Lab at the University of Chicago, and the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington. 

Our business model is an SaaS product that leases keywords to partners enabling them to distribute the service to families in their community. Customer verticals include PBS Stations, United Ways, healthcare organizations, municipal agencies, and statewide resource centers. Each of these customers offers a unique skill set and industry knowledge to best support the families they work with. Provided with their own custom keyword, these agencies will be able to promote Bright by Text to the families they serve and utilize Bright by Text as a communications channel to promote programs, services, events and other resources that they offer to families in the community. Using live dashboards available to partners and funders alike, we track subscriber counts, opt out rates, click-through rates on messages, survey results, and local messages sent. We also track new paying partners and the number of trainings we have conducted with community organizations.

With 14 partners paying annual licensing fees to implement Bright by Text in their market in 2018, we established that partners are in fact willing to pay for the implementation of Bright by Text and that they value local messages in their community. Generating revenue through leased keywords has proven to be a viable social enterprise model contributing to the national scaling of Bright by Text. We project that by 2021 Bright by Three will offset 100% of Bright by Text operating costs through earned revenue. Leveraging learnings from our initial launch and harnessing partner enthusiasm, our social enterprise model continues to grow. In 2019, Bright by Text onboarded a partner in Montana and 16 more PBS Station partners through the Ready To Learn Initiative. We overhauled our technology infrastructure to support rapid subscriber growth and more partners leveraging data for their community. Based on the learning and feedback we have received from our partners over the past few years, we intend to apply this experience and expertise to continue to scale Bright by Text.

We are continually refining our business model and we hope to determine additional promotional channels that will work for us as well as our paying customers. After exploring targeted Facebook campaigns in specific markets, PBS interstitials and Google Adwords, we want to nail down a marketing plan that can support our scaling goals. We anticipate that Solve and its mentors can help us finalize our financial model for national scaling and catalyze our marketing initiatives. We also look forward to best practices from Solve to reach more Spanish-speaking caregivers by leveraging channels like radio. We are also excited to leverage MIT Solve’s diverse cross-sector community to network with funders and partners alike. 

We want to continue exploring our new customer verticals to diversify our program offerings across the country. Partnering with players in the healthcare sector like children’s hospitals and mental health organizations enables those families to receive the evidence-based Bright by Text program along with relevant information about well-child checkup reminders, flu shot clinics, vaccination schedules, etc. We also seek to expand partnerships with PBS stations, regional United Ways, state and local service delivery providers, and community gathering spaces such as museums and libraries. We will continue to collaborate on Bright by Text content in order to provide the most comprehensive mobile service available to parents and caregivers. Specifically we hope to engage American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) for additional health and obesity-prevention messages, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for immunization content, Read on Arizona for literacy messages, StoryBlocks for their video content, Boston Basics for their parenting tip sheets, and Understood for creating content directed toward children with learning differences. We will continue to partner with other evidence-based content providers including universities, Too Small to Fail, Parents Together, and Tips by Text.

We leverage the power of AI to collect information about the demographics of our users including data that is considered PHI (patient health information) defined by HIPAA regulations. Pediatricians and family practice clinicians are in search of ways to provide educational support to the families they serve outside of routine clinical visits. Bright by Text has been approached by large health systems including Children’s Hospital of Colorado to be the preferred method of parent education and awareness outside of the clinical visit for the families they serve. In order to enter into contractual arrangements with these large hospital systems Bright by Text must conform to certain provisions of HIPAA, in particular the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Bright by Text already has many technology safeguards in place to protect the data in our system but compliance with HIPAA requires additional internal documentation, policies and procedures as well as legal review. With support from the Innospark Ventures Prize, Bright by Text will prepare for HIPAA compliance to enable a partnership with Children’s Hospital of Colorado and other healthcare providers. This will include a gap analysis and risk assessment analysis with a HIPAA compliance consultant, as well as findings and recommendations moving forward. We are working on other features that will leverage AI including community-based referrals to resources based on demonstrated need (direct request or survey assessment responses) as well as two-way communication in the form of on-demand content keywords.