It’s 2 o’clock at the Park MGM in Las Vegas. In the back corner of a small restaurant in the lobby of the Park sits a small back table, where Mark Pan, President and Country Manager for Cotton On in North America, and Cynthia Germanotta, President and Co-Founder of Born This Way Foundation, are conversing over jazz music playing in the background. I had met up with Gaga after the previous night’s show, and as I exchange hellos and introduce myself to Pan for the first time, Germanotta chimes in to tell him a bit of my story — about how we met right as Gaga’s hip injury occurred on the Born This Way Ball over a decade ago, and how I somehow knew she wasn’t okay before even she did. From there, the rest is history, and I started doing more hands-on work with the team right as Channel Kindness was being built. Seven years after the launch of that program, we’re here due to a shared partnership between the two organizations called the Kinder, Braver Together campaign, centered around a clothing line created that not only raises awareness for their shared passion of supporting youth mental health by dispersing resources, but also raises the funds — to the tune of millions. 

The partnership, launched last year with Cotton On, an Australian retailer whose philanthropic arm has a mission to “empower this generation to create a world where everyone can thrive” committed $5 million for our work that inspires kindness, bravery, and helps to erase the stigma around mental health. In addition to each piece of merchandise in the line including a resource in the form of Born This Way Foundation’s Be There Certificate — which Germanotta refers to as “an online, free, self-paced, ninety–minute course that teaches you how to recognize and respond to someone experiencing a mental health issue”— both organizations are teaming up to amplify the work of our programs in the form of grassroots fundraising and grantmaking.

One of the ways that the two organizations have done this is by investing in local communities.  On top of including a QR code which links to the Be There Certificate with every piece of merchandise sold, the fundraising via the campaign also allowed for and attracted an additional 2,000 nominations to the Kindness in Community Fund — a program that raises money for grassroots organizations performing work in the mental health space, right at home. Since its launch in 2022, the Kindness in Community Fund has grown from awarding grants in the United States to awarding grants both domestic and in countries around the world including Australia, Malaysia, South Africa, United Kingdom, Brazil, and Thailand, amongst others. As the program increased in size, youth engagement did, too. From nominations to the initial review to selecting the shortlist, all the way to the final selections, the partnership values and centers young people’s input to ensure selections reflect their needs and priorities in mental health, reaffirming a sentiment Born This Way Foundation has shared since its iteration – young people are not only part of the foundation, but they also drive it. 

Perhaps most exciting for fans, the Kinder, Braver Together campaign also brought together ten contest winners who, after Lady Gaga performs her Jazz and Piano residency show, will meet the superstar backstage.  

Pan shares what inspired the Cotton On campaign. “We went out to our team, and our customers, and we asked them what is important to them. And outside of the work we were already doing with holistic education — because that was already there — the number one thing they told us that they cared about was mental health; the second one after that was the environment. And so, we expanded the focus of our foundation to include those three pillars: holistic education, which is the legacy of our foundation, but now mental health and the environment. So when we made the change on the feedback of our customers and our team, we reached out and wanted to look for an organization that we could partner with because we’re not the experts in this space, and we wanted to partner with an organization that could help us have a broad impact in the mental health space around the world. So we have a mutual friend that has a global view of mental health, it’s something that she specializes in; and she said she looked at that wide view and with what she knows about Cotton On Foundation and with what she knows about Born This Way Foundation, the two would be a perfect fit, and she was right.”

Germanotta shares the vision the two organizations had together. “One of the bigger goals was to raise awareness and accessibility of mental health resources in the respective markets; really globally. I think that was one of the biggest drivers. I know we can’t do that alone; we really believe in the power of partnerships. Cotton On has a scale and a presence that led us to the point that we’re at now.”

And where they’re at now is nothing to scoff at; with the support of the partnership, the Be There Certificate has over 1,000,000 visitors, 100,000 accounts, and 50,000 completions from countries all around the world.

Even in smaller communities, the campaign has found a way to make an impact – Pan highlights one of his favorite memories. “I met a team member in Macon, Georgia – and she told me how the campaign has created a safe space to be more open about her mental health, and that it’s inspired her to create that environment for her team. And the reason I point out that it’s in Macon, Georgia is because we operate a lot of stores in a lot of big cities, Mall of America in Minneapolis – but at the little Cotton On Kids store in Macon, Georgia, we’re able to reach that young woman who’s running that store and through this partnership create a safe space for her, so that she can create a safe space for her team, and hopefully that can continue to pass on.  So to me, that encapsulates the whole partnership.”

Germanotta agrees. “We’ve always had a goal to empower young people with skills and opportunities to overcome mental health issues or just issues in daily life, and seeing them now through things like the Be There Certificate have the confidence and the words to do that, to me, that’s been the most joyful and impactful thing to see. Now they have tools; they have confidence. They were sitting there, without adults, talking about mental health.”

Germanotta says the future plans for the foundation are bright, and her excitement is palpable.  “In some ways, I feel like we’ve only just begun,” she says. “We will continue the expansion of the Be There Certificate and also the Kindness in Community Fund — which we’re incredibly excited about. The Kindness in Community Fund is a grassroots grantmaking initiative that invests in local organizations that are already providing free, accessible mental health resources to young people. We started this initiative a few years ago and through Cotton On, are able to now expand it. We asked young people, ‘Who in their communities do they go to for support?’ Seventy-five percent of the grantees for this cohort were nominated by young people around the world, and there were over 2,000 nominations. And we are now in the process of granting 3 million dollars to 65 of those organizations.”

And as we wrap up in the lobby of the Park before Lady Gaga plays to a sold out crowd at the Park MGM’s Dolby Theater, I’m struck — by the authenticity of the work and the people behind it, even as someone who has been hands–on with the team for years. I’m reminded again and again that kindness and bravery isn’t just a mission statement taken on by Born This Way Foundation and Cotton On, but a philosophy. As I leave, wearing the merchandise from the line and head out to get ready to meet the ten Little Monsters that will be headed backstage after the show, I realize that I, too, believe that we can be kinder, braver, together.