This year, HBO’s Human By Orientation initiative partnered with AIDS/LifeCycle to raise awareness and funds for both Los Angeles LGBT Center and San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Due to stay-at-home orders caused by COVID-19, the physical bike ride was canceled. As AIDS/LifeCycle shifted the fundraiser online, with the #my545 challenge, we pivoted our partnership to drive online donations.
We worked with high level talent and AIDS/LifeCycle ambassadors to utilize their voices across social channels and encourage their followers to join in as virtual riders and complete the #my545 challenge. To encourage organic social posts and bring pieces of the ride to our talent and ambassadors, we created Rider Kits that included components inspired by Red Dress Day - a highlight for many riders during the race.
Our talent, including Nyle DiMarco, Billy Porter, Shangela, Jerome Lamaar, and Dashaun Wesley, created a donation page for AIDS/LifeCycle and drove awareness around the ride on their social channels. HBO’s Human By Orientation matched donations for each talent rider up to $15K.
Billy Porter and Shangela further engaged audiences by having conversations with AIDS/LifeCycle ambassadors, people who have a deep connection to the ride. These conversations, which they posted on Instagram, helped educate audiences around the race and beneficiaries and also helped keep the spirit of the race alive.
We helped drive awareness and donations around AIDS/LifeCycle’s digital #my545 fundraiser with our talent’s social posts reaching over 2.1 million viewers, totaling over 2.3 million impressions. Further, on top of HBO’s $100,000 donation to the fundraiser, we matched each talent’s donations up to $15,000 - totaling $205,000 in donations.
Despite global challenges, AIDS/LifeCycle rallied the community for the virtual experience in June 2020 and raised $8,134,375 for Los Angeles LGBT Center and San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
