Motion Graphic Animation for a non profit: NeuroMuscular Disease Foundation

The Neuromuscular Disease Foundation approached Rip Media Group about making a Motion Graphic animation video for their video marketing campaign to raise awareness about combating the disease.

When an opportunity to eradicate a terrible disease arises, you jump at it.  And often those opportunities involve raising money and the leaders at the NDF occasionally have opportunities to reach out to donors – or potential donors – to explain the disease, explain the foundation, and perhaps raise money.  

The problem is they often find themselves telling the same story over and over again – not only to donors but to scientists, doctors, patients and caregivers. 

So they wanted a video that lays out their journey, and the struggle to get the financing to cure the rare neuromuscular disease, and they wanted it to premiere at their annual fundraising event.

• So we got to work learning their complex story, boiling down the details involved with government agencies to the key essentials, and creating a script that condensed the powerful story of how regular citizens banded together to try and advance science and medicine.
• From there, we began the arduous task of illustrating.  With the client’s help, we chose a whiteboard animation look to explain each step of the journey.
• After several weeks of motion graphic animation work, we delivered their video to a huge group of donors at their annual gala, helping them to raise even more money than ever before.

The response at their annual gala was phenomenal. Their fundraising expectations were exceeded. 

The partnership proved very fruitful for the Neuromuscular Disease Foundation, leaving them with a short video that can easily tell their complex story, and why the work they do is so important. They’re also going to use the video on their website and to send out to donors. 

For information on how Rip Media Group can help with all your video marketing needs, contact us today at www.ripmediagroup.com.

Video Transcription:

GNE myopathy, or HIBM, has long presented a huge challenge to patients and their families. So we created the Neuromuscular Disease Foundation to help facilitate a cure or at least to develop an effective treatment. 

From the beginning, it was a big ask. Finding a cure to any disease is a costly, confusing, isolating, and time consuming process. 

As a small team, we worked hard for years to learn more about HIBM and struggled to find scientists willing to learn with us and to help guide us along the way.

To get where we are today, we had to dig deep into our own pockets and had to reach out to friends, family, and anyone who would listen to help raise funds to pay for this groundbreaking work.  

Through our efforts, NDF amassed  a roster of incredibly generous and gracious donors, but it soon became clear that our reach had to expand beyond the population we already knew.

About that time, gene therapy, an expensive but highly accurate gene replacement method, excited the world with its promise of potential cures for many genetic diseases including HIBM. 

It was also in 2015 when we at NDF changed our strategy and applied a full time focus. 

We dedicated ourselves to identifying new patients and to rounding up a team of medical and genetic experts from every corner of the globe.

Gathering, identifying and coordinating patients, caregivers and scientists grew from one zip code to more than 30 countries and that’s been a game changer. 

To develop a treatment and bring it to market, we have to navigate the dense forest of the FDA approval process. We do that with solid scientific studies and good science takes time, expertise and money. In 2017 NDF funded Dr. Mendell and other experts to file a pre IND on this new gene therapy.

However, getting a new treatment approved and to market is a multi year, multi step process, each phase fully vetted and approved by the FDA before we can move on. 

Last year we received a copy of the filing and feedback from the FDA. The preclinical piece can be the hardest and longest step in the process. We need to be able to show the FDA that this therapy could actually work and the stakes are high.

In any clinical trial, it’s critical to know as much as possible before treating patients and in the case of gene therapy, it’s doubly important since the treatment can only be administered once. So we have to get this one right. 

This preclinical step can be lengthy and expensive and we feel we’re on the cusp of a breakthrough. The estimated cost of this challenging phase is close to $5 million and thanks to your help, we’re almost there.

We are actively seeking a biotech partner with substantial resources, enough to complete the clinical trials and to commercialize the treatment. But it’s a competitive field with more than 7,000 rare diseases vying for a very limited set of resources and that’s why we’ve been working so tirelessly for so many years to stand out in this crowded field and to attract the right partner. 

The results of our efforts are promising as they begin to bear fruit. NDF has identified hundreds of patients worldwide, unified the world’s greatest scientific minds, working on GNE myopathy and aggregated large amounts of scientific data. We couldn’t have achieved all of this without your support. We’ve spent the time, we’ve got a lot of data, and now we need the money to help us attract a first rate biotech partner. Please consider helping us become the generation that ends HIBM worldwide.