An Interview With Martita Mestey
Transparency builds stronger relationships than strategy. When I joined my first startup, I told them from day one that at my core, I’m a social entrepreneur building things that contribute to a better world. Most people thought that level of transparency was a red flag for getting hired. But that honesty actually strengthened our relationship and set clear expectations. They hired me, and I stayed with them as one of the longest tenured early employees. When my time came to go back to my social impact roots, my transition to starting Empact felt like a natural evolution, not a betrayal. People respect authenticity and follow-through more than perfect positioning.
As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Eva Zheng.
Eva Zheng builds technology that turns empathy into action. As founder of Empact, she connects impact-driven media with audiences ready to support the causes they care about, creating sustainable pathways between inspiration and meaningful change. Her background includes scaling Notion as an early employee and co-founding Cal Hacks, one of America’s largest collegiate hackathons. Her work transforms films, TV, and books into launching pads for social movements while creating new revenue streams for impact-driven artists and creators.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I learned early that empathy without action is just beautiful suffering. Growing up below the poverty line with my immigrant single mother, then attending Beverly Hills High School, I lived between two worlds daily. One day, I watched a classmate break down because his parents didn’t give him the brand of cereal he wanted. Meanwhile, I was trying to focus on biology after a night of emotional and physical pain. That moment taught me something crucial: suffering isn’t distributed equally, but what if understanding could be? This question followed me everywhere. At Notion, I helped scale a platform from 500K to 3 million users and saw how the right tools could transform how people work and think. Serving on nonprofit boards for a decade, I watched incredible organizations struggle to reach people who would genuinely care about and support their work. The pattern was always the same: audiences would watch a powerful film or tv episode, feel moved to tears, then move on the next thing. The entertainment industry created this perfect storm of emotional engagement with nowhere meaningful for it to go. That’s why I built Empact. We’ve gotten brilliant at making people feel something through storytelling, but we’ve failed at giving them a meaningful next step. There’s both an economic opportunity and a moral imperative in that gap. When someone watches a film about climate change and feels that surge of “I need to do something,” we capture that moment and turn it into sustained action. We’re not just moving audiences; we’re moving the world, one story at a time.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
We discovered our first real validation in the most unexpected way. Whenever I’d tell people about Empact, they’d say “wow, this makes so much sense. I’ve always wondered what I could do after some powerful movies. I’m surprised this doesn’t already exist!” I was curious too. What was the missing piece here? Maybe intention doesn’t always translate to action without the right infrastructure.
Then we partnered with 36 Seconds: Portrait of a Hate Crime for our pilot. Complete strangers started contributing hundreds of dollars to the film’s impact campaign fund. People the filmmakers had never met were opening their wallets because a story moved them. But what really surprised me was what happened after the screening. The discussion got so emotional as people from all backgrounds asked the most insightful questions, trying to empathize with experiences different from their own. They wanted to know about hate crime statistics that didn’t make it into the film’s narrative arc, like how the Department of Justice estimates 54% of hate crimes go unreported.
That’s when it clicked. Storytelling inherently creates curiosity, empathy, and interest. But we’re missing out on so much potential when screenings don’t give people meaningful ways to participate. The gap wasn’t in demand; it was in opportunity. We weren’t creating the desire for action, we were finally giving people permission to act on feelings they already had. Now I wonder how many powerful conversations and contributions we lose every time a film ends with just credits rolling.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
My first film screening taught me that some of the most important data can’t be measured with numbers. I had our quantitative metrics locked down because that’s the core feature of our platform, but I completely forgot to plan how I’d capture qualitative impact. People were crying during breakout discussions, and I could see profound emotions across attendees’ faces. But how do you measure transformation? Everything was just stored in my brain, which doesn’t exactly translate to sharing impact publicly beyond one-on-one conversations. So we built a testimonials feature into our platform to integrate qualitative feedback with our quantitative impact dashboard for every campaign. But then I realized, asking people to record their own reaction and send it to a filmmaker is a big ask. It’s so much easier to directly approach people at the venue during in-person screenings and ask them to share their thoughts on camera. There’s something about the immediate post-film energy that makes people more willing to be vulnerable and authentic.
Because at the end of the day, one person’s genuine testimony about how a film changed their perspective might be worth a thousand numbers. You need both, but you can’t forget that behind every metric is a human being whose life might have just shifted in a meaningful way.
Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?
We’re solving a massive inefficiency in how social change happens. Right now, millions of people watch powerful films, feel deeply moved, then have nowhere meaningful to channel that emotion. It’s like having a fire hose of empathy with no way to direct the water. Empact captures people at their most emotionally engaged moment and converts that energy into sustained action for the causes and creators driving real change.
We’ve onboarded filmmakers through festival initiatives like Climate Film Festival NYC and Asian American International Film Festival, where we provide impact strategy consulting and pro bono campaign sites for their screenings. When someone watches a documentary about food justice, they can immediately donate to relevant organizations, volunteer for local initiatives, or join fundraising campaigns. We’re not just helping individual viewers take action, but also creating sustainable revenue streams for impact-driven filmmakers to monetize their social missions so they can keep doing important work. These campaigns activate audiences and connect them with local community partners, then we provide impact metrics to festival organizers so they can showcase festival impact beyond just attendance numbers and standard metrics. We also recently led a webinar with TechSoup (shoutout to Elijah) showing nonprofits how to partner with filmmakers and use impact screenings to mobilize donors, drive volunteer engagement, and build trust in a crowded digital landscape.
We’re also educating filmmakers about fiscal sponsorship through our partnership with Entertainment 2 Affect Change (E2AC), a New York-based 501(c)(3) that produces digital, cinematic, and live entertainment for underserved communities. A lot of people don’t know there are different fiscal sponsorship models (Model A through D), each with different structures and levels of involvement. So, I’m grateful to be able to use and share my expertise from serving on Hacker Fund’s board for the past ten years, a nonprofit that serves as the fund for hackers — inventors with creative technology skills who help the disadvantaged, educate communities, and protect the environment. This knowledge helps impact-driven creators access funding structures they never knew existed, turning their passionate projects into sustainable ventures that can drive lasting change.
The ripple effect is what excites me most. Every story becomes a starting point for contribution rather than just consumption, while festivals can demonstrate measurable community engagement alongside their cultural programming. Filmmakers can focus on creating powerful narratives knowing their work will drive measurable change. Nonprofits get introduced to passionate new supporters who are already emotionally invested in their cause. And audiences finally have a bridge between feeling something and doing something meaningful about it. We’re turning movie theaters, film festivals, and streaming platforms into launching pads for social movements, one story at a time.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
I structure post-screening discussions by creating breakout groups of 3–5 people with clear ground rules: everything shared in that circle stays within the circle unless someone gives explicit permission to share their story elsewhere. These become incredibly safe containers where people feel permission to be vulnerable about topics the film has stirred up for them.
So, it’s not uncommon to see people cry during these discussions. But one story really blew my mind. Six months after a screening, an attendee revealed to tell me she had finally started going to therapy. She said she’d been thinking about it for a while but could never make the executive decision to start. Something about our discussion group that night gave her the push she needed, and she’d been going ever since.
This was huge for me. It showed that we’re creating spaces where people feel seen and supported in ways that ripple into their personal lives. Sometimes the most profound impact isn’t someone donating to a nonprofit or volunteering for a campaign. Sometimes it’s someone finally taking care of their own mental health because a story and a conversation reminded them they deserve healing.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
First, we need to rethink how we measure media success. Right now, we celebrate box office numbers and view counts, but we don’t have an industry standard of tracking whether stories actually moved people to action. Communities and media organizations should start asking: did this film change behavior, not just minds? When we start valuing impact metrics alongside entertainment metrics, creators will naturally build more pathways for audience engagement into their storytelling process.
Second, policymakers should incentivize impact-driven media the same way we incentivize other social goods. Tax credits already exist for film production; why not extend them to projects that demonstrate measurable social outcomes? When a documentary about housing inequality actually helps fund affordable housing initiatives, that should unlock additional support. We’re subsidizing the creation of content but not rewarding content that creates change.
Third, we need to normalize post-viewing engagement as part of the entertainment experience. Think about how concerts always end with merchandise tables, or how sports events seamlessly integrate fundraising for local charities. Society should expect meaningful action opportunities after powerful films, not treat them as an awkward add-on.
When taking action becomes as natural as buying popcorn, we’ll finally bridge the gap between feeling and doing. The infrastructure is there; we just need to shift our expectations about what entertainment can accomplish.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Leadership is being brave enough to make a decision and act on it, even when you don’t know if it will succeed. It’s knowing the world won’t end if it fails. My kind of leadership balances reality and pragmatism with optimism and faith, giving people hope without sugar-coating the truth.
We’re building a category that doesn’t exist yet — impact entertainment infrastructure. My biggest challenge is educating the market about why this matters while proving our value proposition. Filmmakers know distribution is broken, nonprofits know fundraising is hard, but few realize how powerful film partnerships can be for small brands seeking authentic customer connection. We have to convince creators that their social impact can generate revenue, prove to nonprofits that partnering with media drives donations, and show small businesses that storytelling partnerships build trust with values-driven consumers. The solution is obvious once you see it, but getting people to that “aha moment” requires perfect timing, clear messaging, and undeniable proof points.
So, being a leader means grit, tenacity, and never-ending motivation to come up with different solutions and try new things. So many startups fail because founders lack or lose conviction. I’m grateful my upbringing cemented the notion of believing in what is right and needed, and holding onto that until I see positive change happen.
As a solo founder, I’ve also learned this means creating systems that scale beyond yourself. Every quarter, I lead 5–7 interns who often come in without experience in their role, like grant writing, UX design, or outreach messaging. Instead of trying to teach them everything myself while building a company, I focus on teaching them skills to become autodidacts. Success comes down to three things: have agency and own your work, be bold enough to take startup-level risks, and communicate with brutal honesty. Knowledge at the beginning doesn’t matter. What matters is effort to learn, problem-solve, and grow from mistakes.
During our team sessions, I give direct constructive criticism and have them do the same with their peers. No beating around the bush. But I always balance reality with affirmations about their potential, reminding them of what I’ve seen them accomplish. I treat them how I’d want to be treated: feedback that comes from encouragement and faith, while reminding of their power and potential. Every quarter, I have interns that ask to extend their involvement beyond their initial commitment. I’d like to believe that means we’re doing something right, and building something that matters not just to our mission, but to the people choosing to be part of it.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
1. Don’t wait for permission to build something meaningful. Cal Hacks started as friends thinking UC Berkeley needed a bigger, better hackathon than had ever existed. We proved wrong everyone who doubted we could create a 1000+ person event in our first year. We never let someone’s “no” dissuade us; we found every resource and workaround possible, seeking solutions instead of permissions. Similarly, Empact began because I was frustrated watching powerful films with no way to channel emotions into action. When you’re solving a real problem that bothers you, you’ll find the right partners and solutions with grit — no matter what.
2. Actions reveal true believers, not words. You’ll receive endless affirmations of support and encouragement, but the people who truly believe in you will introduce you to others, get you into the right rooms, or represent you when you can’t be there yourself. Jeff Abramson was one of those people for me. Despite his packed schedule judging for the Anthem Awards, speaking on impact panels, and advising several organizations including Bridge Entertainment Labs (where we met as members of the Listen First Coalition in the bridging movement), he still took time to get me into the right rooms and share event invitations, even when he wasn’t attending himself. Myles Matsuno has been another incredible supporter — he’s an amazingly compassionate, down-to-earth human (also an award-winning director and producer and Head of Acquisitions for NewDay Films) who also often refers filmmakers to us. It makes my day whenever I see new filmmakers book demo calls with me and reference someone from the industry who told them about our work. Having this kind of support as a solo bootstrapped entrepreneur means a lot. These champions believe in you with action, and that makes all the difference when you’re building something new.
3. Financial security comes first, even for world-changers. No matter how much good we want to do, impact campaigns are often afterthoughts because filmmakers’ top priority is securing distribution for a functioning career. This is why we integrated fundraising features directly into our campaigns. Creators can drive impact while monetizing that impact, making social change sustainable rather than sacrificial.
4. When people hesitate, dig deeper. What fears and doubts are preventing them from saying yes? What are they afraid to tell you to avoid confrontation? For example, when one filmmaker was hesitant to create a campaign with us, I asked compassionately and kindly for the reasons they were holding back. I discovered the root of their fear was that they didn’t want the campaign to distract from their own website. That taught me to better communicate that Empact never replaces their website; we always link back to their original source. We only want to add to their discovery and impact, never to compete for attention.
5. Transparency builds stronger relationships than strategy. When I joined my first startup, I told them from day one that at my core, I’m a social entrepreneur building things that contribute to a better world. Most people thought that level of transparency was a red flag for getting hired. But that honesty actually strengthened our relationship and set clear expectations. They hired me, and I stayed with them as one of the longest tenured early employees. When my time came to go back to my social impact roots, my transition to starting Empact felt like a natural evolution, not a betrayal. People respect authenticity and follow-through more than perfect positioning.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would inspire a movement where empathy becomes infrastructure. Right now, we’re incredible at making people feel something, but terrible at giving them meaningful ways to act on those feelings. Imagine if every story, every conversation, every moment of understanding came with a clear pathway to contribute. Not just donating money, but volunteering time, sharing resources, or simply amplifying voices that need to be heard.
Organizations like Impact Lounge, backed by Caspian Agency, are already creating spaces where visionaries, storytellers, and changemakers converge at premier festivals like Sundance, the UN General Assembly, and The American Pavilion in Cannes. It’s inspiring to see impact-centered festivals internationally too, like Socially Relevant Film Festival New York, Humanity Rising Film Festival, and Movies That Matter Festival in The Hague, Netherlands. We’re building on this foundation by partnering with festivals that care about community and impact, including Asian American International Film Festival, Climate Film Festival NYC, Conero Film + Adv, and CAAMFest to make impact support and office hours a standard offering for filmmakers. The feedback has been incredible — filmmakers are delighted to see festivals providing impact support they didn’t expect but find incredibly helpful and innovative.
Imagine if major festivals like Sundance, TIFF, and Cannes made meaningful action opportunities a standard part of every impact-related screening. When someone watches a powerful documentary at Sundance and feels that surge of “someone should do something,” they should immediately know how to become that someone. Film festivals are already cultural tastemakers; they could become change-makers too. Instead of audiences leaving screenings with just emotions, they’d leave with clear pathways to contribute.
When a friend shares their struggle with mental health, there should be simple ways to offer real support beyond just saying “I’m here for you.” We need to normalize turning our feelings into fuel for change instead of letting them evaporate into sympathy. The infrastructure already exists in pieces. We have crowdfunding, volunteer platforms, and social networks. But they’re disconnected from the moments when people are most emotionally invested. If we could capture human empathy at its peak and channel it into sustained action, we’d solve problems faster than any policy or technology alone ever could. Every heart that breaks for someone else’s pain can become a hand that helps heal it.
I also love that climate and sustainability are rising in the industry conversation too. As previously referenced, Conero Film + ADV was established in 2023 to honor champions in sustainability practices in film and advertising industries. Then there’s organizations like Earth Angel, a full-service sustainability agency reducing entertainment production’s environmental impact, and Green Spark Group that provides training and strategy for productions, studios, and corporations to change the climate of entertainment.
Lastly, I want to give a shoutout to community orgs like A-DOC, BGDM (Brown Girls Doc Mafia), and Global Impact Producers Alliance (GIPA). These orgs have provided so much support and resources to filmmakers and I can’t imagine a world without them.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
It’s less a quote and more a concept, but Martha Beck (Oprah Winfrey’s life coach) talks about “bug soup” — what happens to a caterpillar inside its cocoon. Before it becomes a butterfly, it completely disintegrates into a gooey mass. It’s not pretty, but it’s essential for transformation. The culture teaches us to resist this dissolution like crazy, but sometimes you have to let yourself fall apart to become who you’re meant to be. Starting Empact forced me into my own bug soup phase. When you build a company, it represents everything you are — your mission, values, even your style of communication and design. Everything you once kept private is suddenly public. You represent your company, and your company represents you. This became a massive journey of discovering who I am, who I was over the past 30 years, and who I’m becoming. The process has been disarming and vulnerable in ways I never expected. As you step into your true power, you have to question what you hold true and what you’re ready to let go. You have to be okay that you’re not the same person you were before this transformation. I feel like I am simultaneously the most powerful and most vulnerable I have ever been. The bug soup phase taught me that growth isn’t about adding more to who you already are, but rather about dissolving completely so something entirely new can emerge.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Ava DuVernay. She’s proven that you can tackle the most complex social issues through powerful storytelling while building sustainable systems for change. Origin showed how narrative film can explore something as nuanced as caste systems and make it deeply personal and accessible. But what really draws me to her work is how she’s created infrastructure around her storytelling through ARRAY and her distribution strategies.
I’d want to understand how she balances artistic vision with impact intention. When you’re telling stories about systemic issues, how do you honor the complexity without overwhelming audiences? How do you create pathways for action that feel organic to the narrative rather than preachy? She’s mastered something I’m still learning: making social change feel like a natural extension of great storytelling, not an obligation tacked onto entertainment.
Most importantly, I’d want to talk about what she’s learned about building movements through media. DuVernay has shown that one powerful story can shift entire conversations about justice and representation. As someone building infrastructure to help more storytellers create that kind of impact, I’d love to understand what tools and systems she wishes existed when she started. What would make it easier for the next generation of impact-driven creators to reach audiences and drive meaningful change? Sometimes the best insights come from the people who’ve already built the bridge you’re trying to design.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Find us on Instagram @empact.fyi! We post collaborative content with our filmmakers, organizations, and upcoming festival partnerships. You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how impact campaigns come together and see real stories of audiences taking action after screenings.
On LinkedIn, we share articles about the state of social impact entertainment, culture trends in media, and practical tips for impact producers and filmmakers about running successful campaigns and independent distribution. We’re pretty active there discussing what we’re learning about converting empathy into action and the evolving landscape of purpose-driven storytelling.
Our website at empact.fyi is where you can discover impact media and see our platform in action. If you’re a filmmaker, nonprofit, or brand interested in exploring how stories can drive measurable change, you can sign up for a demo call directly through the site. And if you’re someone who’s ever watched a powerful film and wondered “what can I actually do about this?” — that’s exactly the problem we’re solving. Take a look in our media gallery to see what meaningful action after storytelling can look like.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Thank you so much for highlighting amazing humans! I love reading your profiles, and am always excited about connecting with impact-driven individuals who are working to make the world a better place. So, to everyone reading this piece — my DMs are always open — whether you’re a filmmaker looking to amplify your social impact, a nonprofit seeking new ways to engage supporters, or simply someone with ideas about how storytelling can drive change. I’m here to support and uplift the work of anyone committed to turning empathy into action.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Eva Zheng Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.