Cheers to 20 Years: redpepper CreateAthon by the Numbers

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multiple authors

Updated on

October 23, 2026 1:22 PM

20 years, 486+ hours, 80+ nonprofit partners, and an unfathomable amount of coffee beans. Take a trip down memory lane with us to look back at two decades of CreateAthon highlights and a look forward to this year's incredible organizations.

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Once a year, we step away from our inboxes, stock up on coffee, and stay up all night making logos, videos, websites and whatever else can help local nonprofits tell their stories. It’s called CreateAthon and this year is a little special as it marks our 20th year participating.

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Along the way, we've had the absolute pleasure of working with (and befriending) founders, volunteers, and teams who do hard, important work in our community day in and day out. So before we fuel up for round 20, we're taking a trip down CreateAthon lane. Here's what two decades of caffeine, all-nighters and incredible nonprofit partners have added up to.

2022 CreateAthon Team Autism Career Training

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By the numbers

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‍20 All-day, all-night caffeine-fueled creative blitzes

486 hours of making creative storytelling assets for nonprofits in our community.

$2.2M+ in creative services donated.

80+ local nonprofits served. You can find the full list of who we've teamed up with since 2007 at the bottom of this page.

Unlimited cups of coffee. We stopped counting a long time ago.
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A Handful of Highlights

Building these partnerships has not only allowed us to partner with nonprofits during CreateAthon, but to follow their success long after our morning presentations.

During our 14th CreateAthon, we secured 200,000 impressions of donated media for Giving Smiles. Along with a new logo and website, we secured space on NashvilleScene.com and 10 digital bulletin ads around town.

During our 16th CreateAthon, we partnered with Futuro, an inclusive college-success and professional-development organization. Since then, Futuro has been honored and recognized in the community, served hundreds more students, and even launched a new program that will bring career readiness to a virtual space and provide access to hundreds (potentially thousands more).

Also during our 16th CreateAthon, our very own Matt Reed built a game for Wags & Walks called This Dog Exists, where you try to spot the one real (adoptable) pup among AI-generated ones. Fast Company covered it.

During our 17th CreateAthon, we branded and built Special Olympics Tennessee's bid to bring the USA Games to Music City. And it worked: Nashville will host the 2034 Special Olympics USA Games. You can watch the hype video we created below!

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The work behind the all–nighter

Our nonprofit partners get the same strategists, designers, writers and makers our clients do. Over the years, that's meant new brand identities, websites, videos, donor strategies, pitch decks and campaigns with donated billboard, radio and digital space (plus a few fun one-offs, like an app to track swimmers' progress, a custom bus wrap and a batch of bucket hats).

Every CreateAthon brings a fresh story to tell and another reason to keep up the good night's work. Curious what else we’ve created throughout years of CreateAthon? Check it out here.

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2026 Partners

Round 20 kicks off October 29–30 at Gear Seven, our home base for the fourth year running. If you caught our partner announcement, you already know who we’re staying up for this year:

Nashville Launch Pad: a network of safer, street-free overnight shelters for unhoused young adults, open and affirming to LGBTQ+ folks and their allies.
Saddle Up!: helps children and youth with disabilities grow through therapeutic, educational and recreational time with horses.
Unscripted: heals, empowers and connects the community through accessible improv program

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Stay tuned and follow along on socials to see it all come to life (the midday wonderful and the midnight weird). Want to learn more about CreateAthon and how to get involved? Email jesse@redpepperland.com.

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