HeartSupport’s 2025 Impact
If you were looking for HeartSupport in 2025, it was easy to find this mental health nonprofit: we went wherever heavy music fans did.
2025 was a year of pivoting towards tangible presence in the lives of people who need it most. With a commitment to heal the scene through music-focused, peer-powered mental health support, HeartSupport began 2025 after a few years of ground-up rebuilding. That positioned the organization well for 12 incredible months of impact.
Here are just a few highlights of what that impact looked like.
On the ground at 12 festivals and 25 club shows
With the new, ultra-light inflatable Support Wall, HeartSupport was able to deploy at 12 of the biggest rock and metal festivals in the U.S. They also partnered with bands and venues for one-off shows, and with Citizen Soldier for a full tour.
At each festival, fans could write out anonymous calls for support and receive responses from peers in real time. They could put on lyric tattoos carefully chosen for their therapeutic nature. And they could learn more about long-term support options from HeartSupport.
The result? Many, many thousands of lives impacted.
470+ fans opened up about their mental health
1,800+ fans replied
“I’ve gone through a lot, and life has been really hard. But it’s important to make sure to be there for others. To stand up and protect people who are getting bullied.”
Heart to heart with Support Calls
When 2025 began, the peer mentorship program Support Calls had only barely relaunched. Now, it’s more than tripled in size.
Every participant in need of support is paired with a trained peer mentor who shares their interest. For at least a year, they meet for an hour a week, sharing life through all its ups and downs.
Many people came to this program through festival experiences: their taste of community made them hungry for what it might feel like to stop facing life alone.
The program continues to grow, with over 65 peer matches currently meeting— an increase from 40 individual participants to over 135. That represents over 800 hours of supportive calls.
Better still, HeartSupport knows it’s working. Every single one of their program areas is research-tested and proven by practice. Support Call recipients reported a 17% increase in their ability to handle their mental health (just a 5-10% gain is considered clinically significant).
“I am proud of being able to open up to someone without feeling uncomfortable or feeling I couldn’t share things about my emotions or hardships. That for me personally is already a huge step as it is something I have never felt comfortable with.”
Online outreach
HeartSupport has always been a movement that is both deeply rooted in the experience of concerts while also transcending it. Even with so much renewed life born from on-the-ground efforts, online outreach had a significant impact in 2025 as well.
HeartSupport completed their wildly popular Therapist Reacts series, videos which led to over 2,000 listeners connecting to supportive responses in online comments.
Artists stepped in to share about their own mental health in moments of solidarity with fans, with formal collaboration with 15 artists total, including:
Citizen Soldier
Jonathan Davis (Korn)
Chris Daughtry (Daughtry)
Imminence
Asking Alexandria
Lacey Sturm
Chad Gray (Mudvayne)
Powered by partnerships
Everything about HeartSupport functions collaboratively, so the strength of their partnerships just makes sense.
Headphone company Heavys created custom shells benefiting HeartSupport. Those shells appeared in the last several Therapist Reacts videos, and are available at https://www.heavys.com/products/heartsupport-shells.
The festival deployments were made possible by everyday people like you who believe in the mission, and by the generous community behind the Access Foundation.
The HeartSupport’s board and subcommittees also took their most full and effective shape yet in 2025. You can learn more about the full board at https://www.heartsupport.com/about.
Looking towards 2026
HeartSupport has more plans for 2026 to heal the scene by being present in the scene. We need your help to make that possible!
An end of year donation allows us to reach even more people in the year to come.
On average, HeartSupport took every dollar donated in 2025 and multiplied it into $1.26 in impact through careful stewardship of resources and volunteer time. You can trust that your resources will be used well; in fact, in 2025, HeartSupport earned Better Business Bureau accreditation as a top-tier nonprofit.
2026 will give HeartSupport the chance to expand on our successful signature programs, but it will also give fans the chance to expand them as well: we’re inviting communities to fundraise and have their own Support Walls at local venues. Be sure to join our email list for more news about how you can get involved.
Every hurting heart soothed in this scene is because of your dedication to this cause, showing up alongside us. We cannot thank you enough. Let’s do it again in 2026!
See our full 2025 impact and financial report here. Visit our news page for stories from throughout the year.
“This is what HeartSupport exists for: music fans and complete strangers connecting on a human level, offering each other unconditional love, support, and non-judgement.”
