We create communications strategies to deliver fresh messages to new audiences, impact public sentiment, and modify behavior.
Cultural advocacy is the underpinning of positive social change for nonprofits, philanthropy, socially-responsible businesses, and media productions.
We specialize in integrating veteran voices into complex social issues.
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Explore what’s happening at Marvin Strategies
Chris Marvin served on MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE as a co-producer and impact producer, leading efforts to ensure the film ad a positive social message and the audience could be activated to bring that message to life.
MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE is a dark comedy drama that follows the journey of Merit, a U.S. Army Afghanistan veteran who is at odds with her family thanks to the presence of Zoe, her dead best friend from the Army. Despite the persistence of her VA group counselor, the tough love of her mother and the levity of an unexpected love interest, Merit's cozy-dysfunctional friendship with Zoe keeps the duo insulated from the world. That is until Merit's estranged grandfather—holed up at the family's ancestral lake house—begins to lose his way and is in need of the one thing he refuses... help. At its core, this is about a complicated friendship, a divided family and the complex ways in which we process grief.
Marvin Strategies played a crucial role in the development, roll out, and programatic strategy of Train SMART gun safety training. Billed as a gun safety program that was “created by veterans, but built for everyone”, Train SMART leverages the training, safety, and accountability that is inherent to military gun culture to build a program for prospective, new, and experienced gun owners. The principle behind this program and the ability to bring veteran expertise to the table are the resutls of the service provided by Marvin Strategies.
Learn more about Train SMART and sign up for a class
Read about Train SMART in USA Today
Here Chris Marvin talk about Train SMART on the Movement Builders Podcast
Listen to examples of the work that Marvin Strategies engages in by tuning into some of the podcast that have featured Chris Marvin.
How do we stop the Navy’s loudest jet from disturbing the peace of the quietest place on earth? Chris Marvin wrote for Backpacker Magazine about an NPCA-sponsored backpacking trip he took with other veterans to try to address this pressing issue inside Olympic National Park.
Marvin Strategies proudly supported the short narrative film MERTIT x ZOE. This powerful film by writer/director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes was designed to be an impact film aimed at the veteran community. Chris Marvin served as a producer and an impact producer on this project.
Marvin Strategies’ principal, Chris Marvin, led an epic series of road trips that touched dozen states and more than 25 national parks. This adventure was co-sponsored by the National Parks Conservation Association, Blue Star Families, Peace Vans, Kodiak, Homage, Travel Lodge, and Rocky Mountain Campervans. The trip followed the 1920 Park-to-Park Highway Tour, a barnstorming activism trip meant to encourage the paving of roads in the west. For Chris, the national parks are a tangible representation of what he fought for overseas during his military service.
“I served my country in combat. As a veteran, I view America’s National Parks as a tangible representation of what I fought for. So, I want to share and experience them with my daughters.”
In response to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Marvin Strategies worked with a group of outdoor industry leaders to create a short video demanding that the U.S. Senate pass a law requiring background checks on all gun sales.
When the National Parks Conservation Association wanted to launch a national Veterans Council, they turned to the leadership of Marvin Strategies. Featuring a small group of veterans from diverse backgrounds, the council helps NPCA advance their veteran engagement strategy. Read more about the role veterans can play in national parks advocacy and how national parks can be a legacy for veterans to pass down to their children in the guest blog that Chris published for NPCA.
Read the piece now: Finding Patriotism in National Parks
Marvin Strategies has works with clients on the drafting, pitching, and placement of dozens of op-eds each year. Here’s a sample of what we’ve been saying. Take the time to read more opinions from Marvin Strategies’ clients in Client Media.
“I believe in the Second Amendment, but I won’t even consider carrying a firearm openly in public. I haven’t exercised my right to carry a concealed handgun in more than four years.
The reason: I am Black.
”
“I am a veteran of the war in Afghanistan. I was trained in the three tenets of military gun culture: training, safety and accountability. ... In the civilian world, ghost guns and unsecured guns in the home belie these tenets of military gun culture.”
“Both international and domestic bad actors — terrorists, Nazis, anarchists, etc. — have recruited veterans because of their leadership skills and weapons training. The propaganda they spew, in combination with mis- and disinformation, can lead to detrimental results for our nation and our democracy.”
In September 2025, the National Conference on Citizenship will release the newest addition of the Veteran Civic Health Index. Marvin Strategies was hired by VCHI partner, We the Veterans, to serve as the primary author of this report. The VCHI is an empirical analysis of the civic health and engagement of veterans, as determined by data from the U.S. Census Bureau. NCoC regularly creates CHIs for cities and states. This special VCHI looks at veterans and makes the case that they are and should be held up as leaders and assets to our communities.
The 2025 Veteran Civic Health Index will be available in September
Our Media Projects
Feel the impact of MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE
In support of films, television, and creative content designed to have a social impact, Marvin Strategies serves as an impact producer. Building an impact campaign can give both narrative and documentary projects a reach beyond the screen, empowering audiences to take action in support of the issues laid out in the project. One of Marvin Strategies’ most recent film projects, is MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE — the film about veterans that everyone needs to see.
Engage with Veterans for Gun Sense
Marvin Strategies designed and led Veterans for Gun Sense, a virtual forum hosted by the Everytown Veteran Advisory Council. The forum addresses pressing gun violence prevention issues that are important to veterans and discusses ways in which veterans can work to end gun violence in America. The forum was created in anticipation of the 2020 election and continues beyond around targeted moments and issues. Recorded Veterans for Gun Sense sessions are available on YouTube. Watch now.
The learn more about the forum, contact Marvin Strategies. Connect now.
Watch Voices of Resilience
A documentary short from Thoughtful Robot and Emmy-nominated director Michael Collins in partnership with Marvin Strategies. Originally aired on PBS, the film addresses society’s role in war through the lens of moral injury and resilience. Watch now.
Listen to Reclaiming Patriotism
A podcast from Crooked Media, hosted by Ken Harbaugh with production assistance from Marvin Strategies. Released in July 2019, the series features Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and other great Americans talking about what patriotism really means in the 21st century. Listen Now.
Our Research and Reports
The Role of Guns in Veteran Suicide
Analyzing how firearms play a role in the veteran suicide epidemic.
Marvin Strategies collaborates closely with the nation’s largest gun violence prevention organization, Everytown for Gun Safety, to produce an annual report desscibing the role of guns in veteran suicide. This report, Those Who Serve, uses VA-produced suicide data to draw a more clear picture of how, when, where, and why guns are involved with the hope of saving veterans lives.
Read the 2025 update of Those Who Serve
The Civic Health of Veterans
An empirical measure of the levels of civic engagement of post-9/11 veterans
In 2021 and again in 2025, the National Conference on Citizenship published the Veteran Civic Health Index with Chris Marvin as the primary author. The two editions — sponsored by The Mission Continues and We the Veterans, respectively — use census data to explores the level to which veterans are civically healthy and poised to benefit communities across the country. This includes voting, volunteering, talking to neighbors, helping neighbors, belonging to civic organizations, donating to charity, and more. In nearly all measures, veterans outperform nonveterans.
Read the full 2025 report: Defining Patriotism: The Civic Life of Those Who Serve
Read the full 2021 report: Defining Our Future Leaders: The Civic Health of the Post-9/11 Generation
Understanding Military Spouses
Qualitative marketing research on the military spouse community
The USO engaged Marvin Strategies to take a deep dive into the lives of military spouses. Using human-centered design principles, the project developed themes and insights by visiting a dozen military installations around the world. The final report was the center piece of the USO’s Salute to Military Spouses in November 2018, and the insights gained have been integral to improving existing USO programs and designing new initiatives to support military spouses.
Re-imagining Public Lands
Developing a campus for social innovation on an historic site
The Presidio Trust partnered with Marvin Strategies to conduct research for the future utilization of Fort Scott—a century old former military base now operated by the Trust in association with the National Park Service. The report re-imagined Fort Scott as a campus for social innovation and prepared the Trust to request proposals that would define the future of Fort Scott.
Advocating for a Modern Military
Exploring innovative ways to reform defense personnel policies
The Bipartisan Policy Center called on Marvin Strategies to build their Task Force on Defense Personnel. The engagement centered on recruiting diverse and representative task force members from the defense and national security communities, authoring white papers and the final report, and leading a listening tour on military bases across the country. Many of the final report’s recommendations have been incorporated into Congressional legislation, appropriations, and defense policy.
Our Impact Campaigns
Building narratives that will compel audiences to action.
Before the Moon Falls (2026)
My Dead Friend Zoe (2025)
Merit X Zoe (2022)
Almost Sunrise, PBS (2017)
Quarry, Cinemax (2016)
SIX, HISTORY (2017-18)
Our Clients
Marvin Strategies is certified by the Small Business Administration as a service-disabled veteran owned small business.