How the Anti-Recidivism Coalition brought social series to the nonprofit world

This story is the latest in a series exploring how brands craft standout social media strategies. If you’d like to chat about how your brand is approaching social, Katie Hicks wants to hear about it. Reach out to her at hicks@morningbrew.com.

Incarceration is no joke. What happens afterwards, however, can be more of a laughing matter.

That’s the premise of the Formerly Incarcerated Office, a weekly social series from the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC), a nonprofit that advocates against mass incarceration in California and works to help currently and formerly incarcerated people reenter society. The show intentionally uses humor to subvert notions of what it means to be formerly incarcerated and what it’s like to work at the organization, Ben Lear, director of communications at the ARC, told us.

Lear runs the brand’s social presence with his colleague Sarah Florez, who first noticed scripted social series produced by brands like Bilt last year. Lear, who is also a filmmaker, said he had a feeling that a docu-style series similar to The Office could be an untapped opportunity for ARC, if not only because of the humorous moments he’d witnessed at work.

“It felt like not even a lot of brands are doing this right now—definitely not any nonprofits,” Lear said. “We’ve always been really interested in pushing the envelope of what a small nonprofit comms team can do with social media.”

We spoke with Lear about how the series, his team’s biggest lift to date, has helped the nonprofit change perceptions, get in front of new audiences, and ultimately advance its mission.

Office dynamics

For many people, the Formerly Incarcerated Office is their first exposure to ARC, which is by design. “This is how you discover what we do,” Lear said. “We want to provide value through entertainment, but also through educating you on the space.”

The show, which features scenarios ranging from an emotional-support snake in the office to dress code implementation, is partially scripted, but the content is based on real-life scenarios from the 200 or so employees at the ARC, 75% of whom are formerly incarcerated, Lear said.

“We started sitting down and saying, ‘Hey, talk to us about, what’s the funniest thing that happened to you? What’s an experience that we wouldn’t understand, not being formally incarcerated?’” he said. “[We were] really getting as much of the raw material directly from our staff as possible, which shaped pretty much every single episode that we’ve done.”

When it came to casting the actors, Lear’s team tapped employees with longstanding rapport, like Norma Cumpian, ARC’s chief of staff, and Jacob Brevard, chief of programs, as well as those who “couldn’t help but be themselves, on- or off-camera,” Lear said.

“Everybody’s playing a heightened version of themselves, which is what hopefully lends to a sense of authenticity,” he added.

The team shoots the minutes-long episodes in batches, at one point recording six in a four-day stretch, Lear said. He quickly learned that to make a social series, “there cannot be a split second of dead air,” unlike in other mediums. By relying entirely on organic engagement, he’s also realized that algorithms are impossible to predict; just because a certain type of episodic content performed well for one organization, like Bilt’s sitcom-style series Roomies, doesn’t mean it will for another. So far, the top-performing episode is one about prison politics that Lear originally feared wouldn’t perform well.

“On one hand, I was like, ‘All right, well, I can’t predict this,’ but on the other hand, it was really gratifying because it showed that I think just that it wasn’t engineering the perfect hook that made the difference,” he said. “It was the story itself.”

Series regulars

To date, ARC’s TikTok following has doubled as a result of the show, which Lear said was a surprise given the organization’s primary focus on Instagram. ARC has also seen engagement increase episode by episode and the series recently hit 1 million views across TikTok and Instagram. Ahead of a possible second season, Lear said his team is also looking at whether this could be a long-form series on a different platform like YouTube, or if it could expand into a podcast, which would also open up roles for ARC members interested in production.

“I love the idea of being able to provide [opportunities] directly through the production work that we’re doing, but also through providing real hands-on training so some people can go off and work for other social media departments and do brand work and film work and everything in between,” he said.

Lear said he hopes other nonprofits see the marketing value of vertical series, and that funders see the value of investing in media strategies to help brand recognition and awareness.

“There’s no reason why a nonprofit shouldn’t think of their marketing and media strategy the same way that a brand does,” Lear said. “If you want people to fall in love with your work the way these platforms work, you have to find a way to get their attention before you can start to share your more programmatic, in-depth stuff that ultimately is the real, nourishing value for people.”

Brevard told Lear he’s been recognized in the wild as a result of the series, which Lear said is only further proof that human connection and shared experience are an effective way to reach people.

“That’s really our job, is trying to get the word out about ARC and trying to get more people to care so that they ultimately push their lawmakers to support a bill that will help people come home or provide funding support for something that we’re doing,” he said. “That’s the goal.”