The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) is a community of leaders who work together to create and implement solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. Our “community of doers” partner to develop CGI Commitments to Action — new, specific, and measurable projects and programs to advance climate resilience, economic inclusion, health equity, humanitarian response, women and girls’ equality, and more. Through CGI, more than 10,000 organizations have partnered to launch over 4,000 commitments, making a difference in the lives of more than 500 million people in 180 countries around the world.
Our goal for this project was to produce a series of animations that explain how CGI turns ideas into action and how our community of leaders in business, government, and civil society, along with millions of grassroots supporters, are all part of something extraordinary in the world of social impact. We also hoped that the series would inspire members of this community to form new Commitments to Action. The series builds upon research indicating audiences want more information about how CGI does its work and how they can be involved.
The animations were designed to debut at the CGI 2023 Annual Meeting in New York City as part of a program that featured global leaders like His Holiness Pope Francis; Ajay Banga, World Bank President; Ruth Porat, President, Chief Investment Officer, and Chief Financial Officer of Alphabet and Google; Michael J. Fox, Founder, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research; Olena Zelenska, First Lady of Ukraine; and many more.
In the spring of 2023, we partnered with Questlove Supreme on an episode of his podcast celebrating June as Black Music History Month — an annual celebration President Bill Clinton initiated while in office. Through the project, we were introduced to a talented animator named Nick Polowy.
For years, and particularly considering the mountains of misinformation shared online before and after the 2016 campaign cycle, we had dreamed of developing a series to help explain how we do our work. Specifically, the series would help illustrate how the Clinton Global Initiative turns ideas into action and how the programs we run are fueled by the partnerships we cultivate and make a direct impact on people around the world by expanding economic opportunity, improving public health, confronting the climate crisis, and inspiring citizen engagement and service.
After meeting and working with Nick, we knew we had found the person to help us achieve this goal.
By partnering across CGI — and working hand-in-hand with President Clinton’s team — we formulated a series of four unique scripts for President Clinton to record so that we could leverage his gifts as ‘explainer-in-chief' and create a series that audiences would be more likely to consume and recall.
President Clinton has always been known for his ability to explain complex issues in a way that makes sense, and for finding a way to connect with everyone he meets. This series leveraged those talents to tell the story of CGI — our origins, our philosophy, our unique approach to driving progress, and our hope for how it can inspire people to take action in their own communities.
The scripts informed a rigorous process of creative refinement, and ultimately the storyboards that would become the final product. After recording with President Clinton, the pieces were edited, sound mixed, and polished off into the shorts. These debuted as interstitials throughout the CGI Annual Meeting program, where they played in between high-level stage moments. They were also shared online with our audience of millions.
The videos increased awareness and understanding of the CGI program and reinforced its mission and unique value in a crowded space.
As the videos played throughout the CGI 2023 Annual Meeting in New York City, they served as a powerful reminder for the audience of thousands of global leaders from business, government, and civil society that their participation in CGI makes them part of something extraordinary — and inspired them to roll up their sleeves and work together to address pressing global challenges. As a result of the meeting, leaders launched 160 new Commitments to Action that address climate change, Ukraine relief and reconstruction, the global refugee crisis, the rights of women and girls, and more.
As a nonprofit, we focus our resources on the programs we operate and do not engage in traditional ad-buys. To reach additional audiences, we leveraged our existing platforms, including the timeliness and momentum of the CGI Annual Meeting, and the online social media audiences of President Clinton, Secretary Hillary Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton.
The series was shared with our combined online audience of 10.5 million. On social media, including Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube, the videos have generated more than 690,000 impressions and 155,000 views to date.
We also received qualitative feedback from members of the CGI community on the videos' creativity and powerful nature.
