Welcoming Ben Howard as Senior Advisor of Entertainment and Media Investing
Impact Foundation is excited to welcome Ben Howard to our team. Bringing 30+ years of experience in the entertainment business, Ben is working to deepen Impact Foundation’s investment into the Entertainment and Media sector; recognizing that it is a critical mission field for faith-driven storytelling.
Ben’s work expands upon several investments that Impact Foundation has made into television, film, and other creative endeavors — including The Chosen, as featured in the Wall Street Journal. These powerful examples prove that success is within reach for content with hope and meaning.
Sample of Impact Foundation’s Media Investments
About Ben Howard
Senior Advisor, Impact Foundation; CEO Third Coast Content; Partner, Bonniedale Films
Ben Howard has been living at the crossroads of art, commerce, and faith for more than 25 years. Having worked with a variety of companies in the entertainment industry, he is currently playing roles in several companies.
In each of these entities, Ben brings his 30+ years experience in the entertainment business to help creatively gifted people exercise those gifts in a way that can build a ongoing business actively engaged in helping people find hope and meaning through storytelling. Ben spends a great deal of time working on the broken investment model that results in undercapitalized artists/filmmakers and a resulting lack of Christian-consistent content being released into our culture on one side, and investors who oftentimes are one and done in the media world. It is his vision to be a catalyst in connecting creative people with investors in long term mutually beneficial relationships that increase the impact of faith-connected storytelling worldwide.
He serves as Senior Advisor at the Impact Foundation, having joined in 2022 to bring greater expertise to their Entertainment and Media investing practice. Impact is actively involved in putting charitable capital to work in Kingdom businesses. Ben is also CEO of THIRD COAST CONTENT, a media company based in Nashville that develops and produces film and television projects with a goal of telling stories that inspire people to hope and finding meaning in life. The company released BLUE MIRACLE starring Dennis Quaid on Netflix in 2021, becoming the #2 movie worldwide. And in 2021, Ben launched Bonniedale Films in partnership with business partner Dennis Quaid to tell inspiring stories of American heroes who did great things against long odds.
After a stint in the music business, Ben made his first foray into film and video in 1997 when he joined the emerging entertainment company Big Idea Productions (VeggieTales). He helped establish Big Idea's first marketing department and founded its music division which became the No. 1-seller of children's music. During his time there, Veggie Tales became an industry-leading family brand, and more than 25 million videos were sold. His time there culminated with the successful release of Jonah, A VeggieTales Movie (Artisan), which went on to amass a $25MM box office.
Ben and several Big Idea colleagues launched their own company, Cedar Partners, in 2004. The upstart's primary projects included the motion picture The Second Chance, which starred Michael W. Smith and was directed by Steve Taylor (Blue Like Jazz).
In 2006, Provident Label Group (a Sony Music company) acquired The Second Chance and then launched Provident Films, partnering with Sony Pictures for distribution, and hired Ben to head up this new film venture. The goal of that company was to produce, market and distribute films targeting a faith audience. In this capacity, he has developed and nurtured Provident's fruitful relationship with Sherwood Pictures, the Kendrick Brothers, the Erwin Brothers, and Kirk Cameron. Box office highlights with Sherwood included Facing the Giants ($10MM), Fireproof ($33MM), Courageous ($34MM) and War Room ($71MM). Erwin highlights included October Baby ($5MM), Moms’ Night Out ($10MM), Woodlawn($15MM) and I Can Only Imagine ($83MM).
