The OPPORTUNITY

Over multiple years of collaboration with illumiNations, Cloudfire has supported campaigns aimed at expanding awareness and funding for underrepresented areas of Bible translation work, in partnership with Future City Now.

For this initiative, the organization needed to communicate two complex and largely unfamiliar translation challenges to a general donor audience:

  • In some areas of the world, widespread illiteracy makes written Scripture inaccessible, even when a translated copy exists in the local language. This creates a need for audio Bible translation as a primary means of engagement.

  • Sign languages are often misunderstood or overlooked entirely, despite there being hundreds of distinct languages with their own grammar and structure, requiring dedicated translation efforts.

Across both initiatives, the core challenge was the same: educate audiences on overlooked translation barriers while motivating them toward meaningful financial support

The Approach

Cloudfire developed a series of campaign films that paired high-level education with personal narrative storytelling, designed to move audiences from awareness to emotional investment.

For the audio Bible translation story, the film weaves together contextual explanation of literacy challenges with personal accounts of transformation made possible through oral Scripture access.

For the sign language translation story, the narrative similarly combines educational framing with lived experiences, helping audiences understand both the linguistic complexity and human impact of sign language accessibility.

Across both pieces, the creative strategy emphasized a consistent arc:

  • Establish clarity around an often unknown translation barrier

  • Ground the information in real human stories

  • Connect understanding directly to donor participation and impact

In addition to the hero films, Cloudfire created a broader set of supporting narratives and campaign assets designed for year-round use across donor cultivation, engagement, and conversion touchpoints.

The Results

The campaign equipped illumiNations with a multi-asset storytelling system that extended across both digital/social platforms and live events.

At one live event, over $1.7 million was raised within 15 minutes after a video was shown and the invitation to give was extended.

By combining education-driven narrative films with personal storytelling, these pieces helped deepen donor understanding of both audio and sign language translation efforts, while strengthening engagement across multiple campaign channels.

The broader body of work has been used across ongoing fundraising and awareness efforts, supporting sustained donor communication and reinforcing illumiNations’ expanding translation priorities.

  • Kevin is absolutely wonderful to work with—he brings thoughtfulness, creativity, and excellence to every single project. When shooting this video in Guatemala, Kevin came prepared and organized, capturing content that went above and beyond what was asked of him. Our whole team was moved to tears after seeing the final video—it captured the emotions and gravity of the moments we experienced and beautifully told the story of the Achi people receiving Scripture.

    We shared this video with thousands of women, and in response, 1.7 million dollars was given to fund projects like the Achi.

    - LAUREN SINGLEY, FUTURE CITY NOW

FULL CREDITS

Client: illumiNations
Agency: Future City Now
Prod Co: Cloudfire
Director/Editor: Kevin Collins
Producers: Emily Vogeltanz, Lauren Singley
B-Camera Operator: Hamilton McAfee
Talent: Sadie Robertson Huff, Christian Huff