×
Heron Story Studio · A look at what could be
Most families have never heard of a health navigator until the week they need one. A small library of honest films can show them what Heron does, introduce the people it has helped, and bring them to a first call.
From your intake form
Two goals in your own words, two channels you’ve just opened, and two things we noticed on heroncare.org. Each one maps to a film or channel further down.
Increase understanding and awareness of the benefit of nonprofit, community-based health navigation.
Health navigation is a service most people can’t picture. Ninety seconds of a navigator at a kitchen table explains it better than a page of text.
Honor the people living with complex health conditions through their emotive stories.
You already call them Heron Heroes. Each one gets a short documentary that opens on their life, not their diagnosis.
A new page is an advantage: every post from day one can follow one plan, with nothing old to clean up.
Email is where a worried caregiver reads at 11pm. Build the sequence around films and every email has a reason to be opened.
heroncare.org explains the service clearly, but apart from Chris’s headshot it shows no people and no navigation in action. Families are deciding whether to trust a stranger with their care.
Weston’s family quote (“he came with a plan”) is the most persuasive line on the site. On camera, that family could do far more for Heron than a quote can.
We don’t make video for its own sake. Each film below has a job, a place it lives, and a number it should move: calls booked, care teams referring, donors giving, families who stay.
For a new nonprofit every dollar counts, so the plan is one shoot that becomes a year of content across your website, Facebook, LinkedIn and email.
The library
Filter by where each film works, or open any title to see its treatment, where it lives and what it should move.
Source: heroncare.org (October 2026).
Concept frames. The people shown are illustrations created for this proposal, not Heron clients. Final films feature real people, filmed only with their written consent.
Need 01 · Understanding
Film 1 replaces the hero of heroncare.org: Chris at a kitchen table with a family, turning a diagnosis into a one-page plan. A visitor sees the service in 90 seconds, then books a call.
Film 1 plays behind the headline, so the first thing a visitor sees is a navigator helping a family.
“Book a call” for people ready now, “I’m a caregiver” for the many who are searching on someone else’s behalf.
100+ conditions, certified navigator, 25 years in health education: the credentials already on the page, moved up to where they build trust.
Heron Heroes, For Care Teams and About Chris each get a page with their film, so links from email and social land on the right story.
What it moves: homepage visits that become booked calls. We tag every “Book a call” click that follows a play, so the film’s effect is counted, not guessed.
Need 02 · Honoring the people you serve
Your site ends with one line from Weston’s family. Heron Heroes turns lines like that into films: three people or families, each filmed at home doing what they love, telling what changed when someone came with a plan. Your own phrase is the series rule: we are not defined by a diagnosis.
What it moves: trust. Families decide faster when they meet someone like them, and these films are the heart of the email sequence and the GivingTuesday appeal.
Need 03 · Why Heron exists
A boy with a debilitating form of autism, a mother who would not stop advocating, and the career that followed.
That story is on your About section in four lines. On film it explains in two minutes why a nonprofit like Heron exists, and why families can trust the person who walks into their home. It is also the film that donors and funders most want to see.
What it moves: first gifts and foundation interest. A founder film is the case for support that an early-stage nonprofit can’t yet make with years of data.
Need 05 · The email campaign
One targeted campaign, three tracks. Each email leads with a thumbnail that opens the film on heroncare.org, so you can see who watched and who booked. Choose a track to see its sequence.
What it moves: booked calls, referrals and gifts. Emails with a video thumbnail usually draw more clicks than text alone, and every click lands on a page with a single next step.
Need 06 · Referral partners
Your site describes Heron as an extension of the care team. Clinicians refer when they trust that a navigator will make their job easier, not harder. A 90-second film for practices, plus the Heron Explains series, shows how Heron works alongside them and what a referral looks like.
What it moves: referring partners. One practice that refers regularly is worth more than any single post.
Need 07 · Donors and funders
“Nonprofit, community-based” is the part of your goal that funders will ask about. This film puts Doylestown on screen with the people Heron serves and explains why navigation outside the hospital system matters. It runs at events, in grant applications and on the giving page.
What it moves: grants and major gifts. Foundation officers can forward a two-minute film to their board.
How it fits together
Every audience takes a different path through the same library. Choose one to follow it from first view to first step.
The return
Five places the library earns its keep. Every input is an example for illustration, not Heron data. Change any of them and the totals update.
A practical schedule
Two filming days in Bucks County, with the founder film ready for GivingTuesday and the full library live in the new year.
Goals, audiences, and which Heron Heroes might want to share their story.
Chris, Finn + Happy ProductionsHeron invites three families; we hold consent conversations with each before any filming is booked.
Heron + HPFilm 1, Born to Advocate, Heron Explains topics and the email sequence outline.
HPDay 1: Chris, Film 1, Heron Explains batch. Day 2: Heron Heroes at home, Doylestown exteriors.
HPBorn to Advocate and Film 1 go live with the first donor email.
Heron + HPEach subject reviews their cut before release.
HP → HeronNew homepage hero, all three email tracks live, weekly Heron Explains on LinkedIn.
Heron
Optional · an early win
If we film Chris first, Born to Advocate is ready for GivingTuesday on 1 December, giving Heron a founder film for its first year-end appeal.
Work in the same world
Patients, families and providers on camera, filmed with written consent and reviewed before release.
Eight-day field production across five locations: patient stories and provider interviews.
Closest match to Heron HeroesA 25-year-old nonprofit with no library: two days, about 40 interviews, a year of content.
≈$8,000 in matched gifts attributedFormer sponsored children, now teachers, health workers and entrepreneurs, each filmed with a childhood photo.
Structure of a Heron Hero film
Need 04 · Social media
Two new pages, built right from the first post
Your Facebook and LinkedIn pages launched this month, so the “before” is a blank page. Here is what each looks like with the library in place, and the first 90 days of posting.
“Book a call” as the main button
Facebook lets a Page swap Follow for an action. Heron’s action is the Calendly link.
Two films pinned to Featured
What a navigator does, and one Heron Hero. A new visitor understands Heron in four minutes.
A cover that says the promise
“Nobody should navigate a diagnosis alone,” over a real frame from the shoot.
Reels for the caregiver feed
Short cuts from every film, written for the adult child who is managing a parent’s care.
Heron Explains, weekly
60–90 second answers from Chris, drawn from 100+ conditions: what to ask at a first oncology visit, what a dementia care plan covers.
Chris posts, the page shares
On LinkedIn a founder’s post reaches far more people than a company page. Each film goes out from Chris first.
A film made for care teams
An Extension of Your Care Team sits in Featured for the nurse navigator or social worker deciding whether to refer.
One look everywhere
Navy, teal and gold on every thumbnail, so Heron is recognizable in a crowded feed.