AC Gives Back: Fountain House

Fountain House is a national mental health nonprofit dedicated to improving health, expanding opportunity, and ending social and economic isolation for people living with serious mental illness. With 350–400 employees and nearly 3,000 clubhouse members across NYC and LA, Fountain House uses its world-renowned Clubhouse Model to provide community, dignity, and pathways to recovery through work opportunities, wellness programs, advocacy, and peer-led support.

AC Gives Back partnered with Fountain House to help their lean communications team streamline social media processes, strengthen storytelling, and build a sustainable digital strategy. Through tailored training, we focused on capacity-building: simplifying workflows, clarifying platform priorities, expanding storytelling opportunities, and supporting influencer and paid media efforts. The result is a more strategic, manageable, and mission-aligned digital presence that amplifies Fountain House’s leadership in mental health advocacy.

Problem Areas Identified by Fountain House:

1. Limited capacity for digital storytelling: While Fountain House has a deeply meaningful mission and stories, much of its communications were operational rather than strategic.
2. Under-leveraged member voices: The powerful stories of clubhouse members were not consistently shared digitally, limiting visibility into the lived experience.
3. Content planning complexity: With many units and programs, it was difficult to maintain a consistent, mission-aligned content calendar.
4. Engagement vs. awareness: The team wanted to drive deeper engagement (not just raise awareness) — to highlight community, recovery, and advocacy — while respecting member dignity and participation.
5. Resource constraints: The communications team was lean and needed scalable systems to support ongoing content creation without overburdening staff.

The Results and Impact:

1. Built a streamlined social strategy tailored for a very small, bandwidth-strained team, focusing on achievable workflows and simplified processes.
2. Clarified platform priorities (Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook) and advised on de-emphasizing lower-impact channels to conserve time and energy.
3. Provided content ideas and storytelling structures to better highlight member experiences, advocacy wins, and organizational milestones while maintaining dignity and privacy.
4. Developed a lightweight planning system for scheduling, drafting, and organizing content across units — reducing overwhelm and improving consistency. 
5. Supported influencer and partnership strategy, offering guidance on expanding mission-aligned collaborations without requiring paid activation, including a roadmap for non-fundraising paid media, explaining when and how to use boosting or targeted ads to increase awareness.
6. Helped define a refreshed brand voice rooted in storytelling, community, and mental health advocacy.
7. Reviewed current content and shared best-in-class examples (e.g., Humans of NY, Vera, Trevor Project) to inspire new creative approaches.