Oliver Russell Teams with Treefort Music Fest to Amp Social Impact

One of the exciting things about being a social entrepreneur is that you greet the challenge of using your business as a profitable force for social good every single day. And like any entrepreneur, you also get to invent the future as you go. Frightening to many, but energizing to the entrepreneur.

Lucky us, we get to combine the best of both in a new social impact partnership we’re forming with Treefort Music Fest.

Social Goodness Transforms Sponsorship Into Partnership

Not that there’s anything wrong with it, we didn’t want to be a corporate sponsor. So, unlike a traditional corporate sponsorship deal, which might simply guarantee logo placements and special access and representation at the festival, we decided to take another track. Our partnership will involve collaborating to promote and advocate for social impact in the community; assistance on Treefort sustainability initiatives; jointly conducting market research; and empowering Treefort’s audience to make its voice heard on matters of corporate social responsibility.

As part of the partnership, Oliver Russell is awarding a Social Impact Grant to Treefort valued in excess of $7,500 in cash and contributed services.

Some of our partnership projects are fully baked. We’ll conduct market research to assess the Treefort audience’s sentiments about social corporate responsibility. Along with Treefort, we’ll jointly release and publicize the findings through social marketing campaigns as a way to add social currency to the discussion about purpose-driven consumers and companies.

Some of the partnership efforts we’ll invent on the fly—hey, we’re both fairly entrepreneurial—throughout the year as we both scope opportunities and loop the other partner into the thick of things to mutually create more social impact. We’ve each got influence in different social media networks and combining efforts is one way to extend our reach

Treefort Pioneers An Innovative Model

Treefort Music Fest was founded in 2012 as a three-day music showcase for emerging local, regional and national bands. For 2015, it’s expanding to five days, from March 25-29 in downtown Boise, and will present more than 400 musical artists. It markets primarily to a Millennial audience, though young and old alike sandwich the M-generation when it comes time to crowd a stage.

Treefort has been a bit of an outlier in the world of music festivals, developing an innovative model that eschews big corporate sponsorships and puts artists and community at the forefront of its focus.

 “What sets us apart in the business is our artist-centric, ground up approach to doing things,” said co-founder Eric Gilbert in one of our Change Maker interviews. “We focus on relatively unknown talent for the most part and emphasize that Treefort is a curated festival for discovery.”

The founders of Treefort—Lori Shandro, Drew Lorona, Megan Mallan Stoll, and Gilbert—are committed to building a sustainable event that gives back and builds the community. (They have since expanded the Treefort leadership team by adding accomplished social entrepreneurs Decker Rolph and John Michael Schert.) Their definition of community covers a lot of territory, from geography (Boise) to the hundreds of up-and-coming bands from around North America who have gained an enthusiastic audience (and new fans) by playing the festival.

Treefort’s Sustainability Pledge

This year’s festival features Year Two of Treefort’s “sustainability pledge,” which includes composting, recycling and wherever possible replacing non-renewable energy with solar power, and new eco-friendly merchandise and reusable stainless steel cups.

“We bring a lot of people to a concentrated area of downtown Boise during the festival, and our audience—both at the festival and online—is growing considerably,” said Lorona. “Our impact can be what we want it to be, and it’s our intent to make our environmental impact as minimal as possible and use our social capital to create as much social good as we can.”

Last year, Treefort drew an estimated 9,000 attendees per day, including fans, press, volunteers, artists and sponsors. Based on early ticket sales, Lorona is confident even more fans will be in attendance this year as Treefort’s regional exposure grows.

Expanding the Community Brand Beyond Indie Music

Treefort will also engage the community beyond the music stage with related “forts” such as Hackfort, for computer developers; Yogafort, for those inclined toward downward dog; Comedyfort, which draws laughs from around the region; Storyfort, featuring literary raconteurs; Alefort, cheers (need we say more?); and Skatefort, for the Ollie-poppin’ crowd. Oh, there’s also a Filmfort and guerilla street performance art events throughout the festival.

“Treefort was built to serve a music and art scene and the community it resides in as opposed to any financial gain for anyone involved,” says Gilbert.

Shared Values At Core of Partnership

“We have often stated that we are a ‘for profit entity ran like a non-profit’ because we’ve always been a values-based project, driven by a purpose much more than the lure of profit,” adds co-founder Drew Lorona. “Oliver Russell’s values align with ours, and we look forward to this novel partnership allowing us to combine our resources to create positive social change.”

From the start, we’ve been impressed by Treefort’s commitment to the community and desire to forge progressive change in the world using its increasing influence. (So has the City of Boise, which named Treefort Boise’s 2015 Cultural Ambassador for its positive impact on the city’s visibility, economy and cultural scene.)

We’re excited to help build awareness for their innovative approach within the music festival world and amplify their influence for social and environmental good. It’s another way we are able to demonstrate our commitment to social corporate responsibility and contributes to our standing as a certified B Corporation.

(B Corporations are certified to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.)

Treefort’s leadership team is also in the process of seeking B Corp certification as a way to lock in the legacy principles the festival was founded upon.

We’re happy to see two creative groups get together to conspire for good. We’ll get to see if we can’t do a number on a mathematical equation and make 1+1 = 3.

Plus, we’ll get to listen to TV on the Radio, of Montreal, Josh Ritter and Hollow Wood, among others, at this year’s festival.

So who says being a social entrepreneur isn’t fun?

More information about Oliver Russell’s Social Impact Grants can be found here.