MemoryFox Unveils The Six Inaugural Foxie Award Winners
2023 was a milestone year unlike any other for MemoryFox. Originally built in 2017 as a tool to capture the lived experiences of elderly family members, Founder & CEO Chris Miano quickly realized that the simplicity of the tool could make a massive impact by allowing community stories to be shared in an ethical way. Since then, MemoryFox’s mission has been to elevate the authentic stories of real human beings.
As of this year, MemoryFox has
- Helped 300+ mission-driven organizations bring their missions to life.
- Collected and stored over 75,000 photos, videos and written testimonials.
- Voiced the importance of authentic storytelling by attending 14 conferences, hosting 15 webinars, and presenting on 18+ podcasts, panels and speaking engagements.
To celebrate this incredible year of growth, MemoryFox is proud to announce the six inaugural winners of the Foxie Awards. As we unveil the winners, we invite you to join us in celebrating the creative spirit of all the wonderful mission-driven organizations we have the privilege to work with. The Foxie Awards recognize outstanding storytelling achievements in six distinct categories:
- Photo of the Year
- Video of the Year
- Story Page of the Year
- Campaign of the Year
- Storyteller of the Year – Individual
- Storyteller of the Year – Organization
These awards not only honor the recipients and pay tribute to the honorable mentions, but also serve as a testament to the diverse and inspiring stories that are integral in shaping the nonprofit sector as a whole.
Meet the 2023 Foxie Award Winners
Photo of the Year Winner: Blessman International
A testament to the power of a single image, this award acknowledges the organization whose work has left an indelible mark by evoking emotions and telling a compelling story in a single frame.
Blessman International exists to bring South African children and their families the gospel of Jesus Christ through faith formation and locally sustainable programs. Blessman International has captured their mission beautifully in 2023, by crafting 14 campaigns with over 2,000 photo submissions. The MemoryFox team was particularly moved by the sheer joy of this photo, deemed the 2023 Photo of the Year:
Support Blessman International.
Photo of the Year Honorable Mentions: YMCA of Greater Indianapolis, Sierra Health Foundation
Video of the Year Winner: Cal’s Angels
It’s never been more important to share stories via video. Highlighting the dynamic world of video storytelling, this award honors the organization who captured an exceptional video that has masterfully combined an original concept with a stunning, emotion-provoking message.
Cal’s Angels is a pediatric cancer foundation with a mission of granting wishes, raising awareness, and funding research to help kids fighting cancer. Cal’s Angels is known for their constant creativity and top-notch modernization when it comes to their fundraising campaigns. Collecting an impressive 700+ pieces of content, one innovative way they used MemoryFox was for their Chicago Marathon fundraising campaign. Cal’s Angels recorded messages of encouragement from the kids they serve and sent them to marathon runners prior to the race, proving that big motivation can sometimes come from the smallest voices. The MemoryFox team chose the following clip as the 2023 Video of the Year:
Video of the Year Honorable Mentions: UNICEF USA, Kids’ Health Connections
Story Page of the Year Winner: Shade Out DM
Recognizing the importance of storytelling through multiple channels and expert presentation, this award celebrates the MemoryFox Story Page that has seamlessly woven a collection of photos, videos, and written testimonials into a cohesive and visually stunning narrative.
Shade Out DM is an organization dedicated to the awareness and support of Degenerative Myelopathy (DM) in dogs. They provide educational resources and support groups for pet owners and animals experiencing this awful disease. In 2023, Shade Out DM used MemoryFox Story Pages to share the lives of pets who have been diagnosed with DM using photos, videos and written testimonials. The 2023 Story Page of the Year is dedicated to Lady Ginger, whose Story Page went on to raise over $500 in an accompanying peer-to-peer fundraising campaign.
Story Page of the Year Honorable Mention: UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs
Campaign of the Year Winner: Wreaths Across America
Embracing the power of community storytelling, this award commends the organization who crafted an exceptional content collection campaign that inspired an enormous amount of engagement amongst their supporters, staff and volunteers.
Each December, as part of their year round mission to Remember, Honor and Teach, Wreaths Across America coordinates wreath-laying ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, as well as at more than 4,225 additional locations. This meaningful annual event cannot be executed without the dedication of millions of volunteers. Following the 2022 Wreaths Across America Day, the organization sought to capture a variety of perspectives, and were floored when over 6,000 photos and videos flooded in from more than 800 different individuals, like this one displayed below. To date, this is the most content submissions to a MemoryFox campaign.
Support Wreaths Across America.
Campaign of the Year Honorable Mention: Heart of Illinois United Way
Storyteller of the Year – Individual Winner: Kylie Lyman of Horizons National
The pinnacle of recognition, this award honors an individual’s commitment to ethical storytelling and uplifting community voices. The individual storyteller of the year routinely goes above and beyond with kindness, creativity and storytelling knowledge, inevitably leaving an enduring impact on the MemoryFox community.
Kylie Lyman is the Director of Marketing and Communications at Horizons National where their mission is to advance educational equity by building long-term partnerships with students, families, communities, and schools to create experiences outside of school that inspire the joy of learning.
Kylie is an exceptional storyteller who not only understands the importance of building a culture of storytelling, but thinks outside-of-the-box to use storytelling effectively. She has crafted 13 unique campaigns, but perhaps the most notable was the collection campaign which sought out videos to secure a grant. In this campaign, she crafted 7 thought-provoking prompts that in turn brought her 19 video submissions (like the one below) to create one stunning compilation to submit with the grant application.
It is an absolute honor to serve people like Kylie in their storytelling efforts. She is a tremendous credit to Horizons National and to nonprofit storytellers everywhere. Her commitment to elevating the stories of others is unmatched, and I look forward very much to what she has in store for us all in the upcoming years.
Chris Miano, Founder & CEO of MemoryFox
I remember when I first met with Kylie, she was was eager to create a better environment for storytelling amongst her community because she knew much of an impact it would make on the Horizons network. Seeing all of this come to life has been so inspiring to witness and a story I frequently share with other nonprofits that want to take this journey with us. I can’t wait to see what’s in store next!
Danielle Miano, Sr. Business Development Manager
Storytelling of the Year (Individual) Honorable Mentions: Jennifer Chase of Villa Marie Home & School for Exceptional Children, Andrea Culwell of Greater Northwest Kansas Community Foundation
Storyteller of the Year – Organization Winner: Arbor Day Foundation
The most prestigious honor, and subsequently the most challenging to designate, this award recognizes the organization whose body of work is exemplary through every step of MemoryFox’s “Collect, Organize & Share” process. This organization’s commitment to storytelling is unmatched – as seen through their consistency and dedication to community stories that are unique, widespread and impactful all year long.
Arbor Day Foundation’s mission is to inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees. They are a MemoryFox superuser, creating hundreds of campaigns sorted by season, sponsor and location. One of their most impressive campaigns collected over 2,000 pieces of content from the Charlotte, NC area, including stunning images like these:
Support the Arbor Day Foundation.
Storytelling of the Year (Organization) Honorable Mention: Linc Housing
MemoryFox is proud to be the premiere technology solution for impact-driven organizations to bring their missions to life. A dazzling culmination of impact, creativity and visual storytelling, the six inaugural winners of the 2023 Foxie Awards represent storytelling excellence in the nonprofit sector.
To learn more about MemoryFox, we invite you to invest 30 minutes of your time with our team to:
- Talk through your storytelling process and identify ways to apply an ethical framework.
- Show you a brief presentation of our platform and the resources we provide.
- Determine if adding MemoryFox to your toolkit would be beneficial to your organization.
