MATCHBOX TWENTY’S NFT AUCTION RAISES NEARLY $75,000 FOR RADICAL HOPE AND YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH
New York, N.Y. (April 8, 2021) – RADical Hope today announced the sale of “Unwell,” a multimedia NFT experience from 3-time Grammy winning, multi-platinum, international superstars, Matchbox Twenty, raised nearly $75,000 for the Foundation and mental health programs for youth. The auction, which closed Tuesday night and also benefitted The Trevor Project, resulted in a winning bid of 12.2 Ethereum (approximately $24,000 USD). In support of this NFT auction effort, and the important conversation it inspired, a donor committed an additional $50,000 to RADical Hope.
“This gift will support our mission to ensure that those experiencing the grip of emotional and social isolation – like Matchbox Twenty so poignantly sang about 18 years ago in ‘Unwell’ – understand they are not alone,” said RADical Hope CEO Liz Feld. “America is experiencing a youth mental health crisis, and Matchbox Twenty’s generosity will have a direct benefit in the lives of young people today. We are enormously grateful to Kyle (Cook), Paul (Doucette), Rob (Thomas), and Brian (Yale) for this donation and for their advocacy for mental health supports. We look forward to continuing this partnership as we go into mental health awareness month in May.”
“What we’re really talking about is the mental health of our future generations,” Mr. Thomas said in a Clubhouse call announcing the auction last week. “Who we’re going to be ten years from now depends on how we treat these people now, and I think the Trevor Project and RADical Hope are pinpointing a…huge group that we might lose, if we don’t let them know how special they are and how normal they are.”
RADical Hope was established in honor of Chris Martin, who died by suicide in 2017 while he was a junior in college. The foundation works with proven, frontline engagement programs that deliver on its core priorities: connectivity, empowerment, emotional regulation, and engagement.
The “Unwell” multimedia NFT included:
- Non-commercial Licensing rights to the 1 of 1 multimedia experience;
- Non-commercial Licensing rights to High-Res digital images of the two original lyrics sheets, and
- The physical, Rob Thomas-signed proof of NFT, as seen at the end of the NFT video, framed and shipped.
Matchbox Twenty partnered with DFND.io, a creative agency and technology company, to deliver the “Unwell” NFT.
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Matchbox Twenty is Kyle Cook, Paul Doucette, Rob Thomas, and Brian Yale. The group has sold over 40 million records worldwide, and earned multiple chart-topping singles, countless accolades, including five GRAMMY® nominations, four American Music Award nods, and a People’s Choice Award for “Favorite Musical Group.”
Fueled by such classic songs as “Real World,” “Back 2 Good” and the No. 1 smash hits “Push” and “3AM,” the RIAA Diamond-certified Yourself or Someone Like You proved a worldwide sensation and instantly established Matchbox as global superstars. The next release, the four-times Platinum Mad Season, containing the No. 1 singles “Bent” and “If You’re Gone.” Matchbox’s third release, More Than You Think You Are, also was certified Platinum and featured the No. 1 hit, “UNWELL.” The greatest hits compilation album with six new songs, Exile On Mainstream yielded yet another No. 1 track, “How Far We’ve Come,” while the band’s most recent album, North, exploded into the top position on the Billboard 200 – Matchbox Twenty’s first-ever chart-topper and No. 1 debut.
About RADical Hope:
RADical Hope is committed to addressing America’s youth mental health crisis by building resilience in young lives. The Foundation works with proven, frontline engagement programs that deliver on its core priorities: connectivity, empowerment, emotional regulation, and engagement. It was established in 2018 by Pam and Phil Martin in honor of their son, Chris, who died by suicide during his junior year of college.
Last fall, in partnership with New York University, RADical Hope developed RADical Health, a wellness program for college students to build resilience and support their own mental, physical and emotional health. RADical Hope will scale RADical Health to campuses across the country with the aim of reaching one million students in the next two years. The Foundation has also made a multi-year investment in Bring Change 2 Mind (BC2M), a high school peer to peer program dedicated to encouraging dialogue about mental health. RADical Hope’s first investment was in PeaceLove, an expressive arts program that promotes mental wellness by using creativity and expression.