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What Is Forge 54?
A collaborative, weekend-long event where marketing professionals and students of all disciplines – design, copy, strategy, branding, research, digital, social media, UX, PR, events, video production and promotions – converge to donate their time and talents to create, inspire, and help great causes. Before each 54-hour weekend, a non-profit organization is adopted. Then, at the kickoff, expert creative teams start working together to totally revamp the non-profit’s marketing and branding efforts. The weekend culminates in a client presentation of all the deliverables. Forge 54 is a fiscally sponsored project of OneOC. Forge 54 conducts marketing weekend events for non-profits across the United States.

History
Forge 54 started as a 54-hour marketing event on October 11-13, 2013, before it became an official 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in July 2014, and an annual happening.

2013
The Orange County Food Bank was the first Forge 54 non-profit recipient. It helps feed the 12% of the county’s residents who are struggling to make ends meet. This collaborative weekend-long experience was hosted by Sparkhouse, including 47 marketing professionals and students. The Forge 54 team members donated more than 2,500 hours and $161,000+ in services to the OC Food Bank. Deliverables included a new logo, branding, tagline, website, donation system, mobile app, three commercials, an infographic, revamped social media and a new PR plan.

2014
Using varied experience and skills, Forge 54 volunteers provided Playworks Southern California with the tools needed to help promote a mission to improve the well-being of children through safe, meaningful play. The campaign, created on September 12-14, provided Playworks with tools such as a mobile app for their “Playbook” of 500+ games, a iconography database for describing games within the mobile app, content management system, video commercials, animations, infographics, web design, professional photography, PR and Social Media plans.

Forge Principles
According to its website, Forge 54 has based its organization on five founding principles.

1) Collaborative Forge 54 encourages collaboration from individuals, teams and even the non-profits. Forge 54 does not like the idea of creating a competition, team against team, atmosphere, so every aspect of how they are structured is geared towards harnessing and encouraging teamwork. They see opportunities to educate by collaborating and courage all team members to work together for a cause.

2) Educational It has been reported that team members who participate walk away from Forge 54 events with newfound skills, techniques and processes and a new attitude towards the work they do. The schedule, structure and approach of the organization promotes an educational experience and an opportunity to learn from teammates and mentors who have a large variety of marketing experience.

3) Connective Forge 54 provides resources and opportunities for every member of the event to connect with other team members, leaders, mentors and other participants. Particpation in Forge has helped in shaping a culture that facilitates the creation of both personal and professional connections.

4) Innovative Forge 54 prides itself in bring fresh thinking, new ideas and executions, and new approaches to marketing a non-profit. Forge 54 use adaptive processes to create a dynamic, distinctive experience every time and results that achieve the goals of the adopted organization that normally could not be attained within budget constraints.

5) Fun As a communal effort of creation, creativity and inspiration, the organization intends for it to be as fun as it is productive for all those who participate.