What do you do when you’re trying to produce well-researched educational content on YouTube but you’re fighting for visibility in a sea of prank videos, short-form skits, and AI slop? If you’re Hank and John Green, the fraternal duo long known as the Vlogbrothers, you turn your production company into a nonprofit.
That’s what’s happening to Complexly, the unit that encompasses several of Hank and John’s educational hubs. By reducing the amount of external shareholder pressure in the Complexly equation, the Vlogbrothers are hoping that their scholarly channels — including the popular study aid Crash Course and the STEM-oriented SciShow — can stay afloat in a social media landscape driven by algorithmic decisions.
In a video on the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel, Hank Green explained why Complexly has a new 501c3 status (and a new .org URL to go along with it). He noted that Complexly has received multiple acquisition offers in the past, but he and his older brother wanted to ensure that channels like Crash Course and SciShow could keep fulfilling their educational missions as they continued to grow.
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A nonprofit structure turns Complexly into a public good, allowing it to maintain its esteemed tone while simultaneously keeping up with the rat race that is social media. “It’s never been easier to find information, but it’s never been harder to know what to trust,” Green said. “Complexly has been doing something about this by making educational content that has high standards but is still compelling.”
Donations to Complexly — which Hank and John are still soliciting — will now be tax-deductible, and the same rebate will apply to philanthropic backers like the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The brothers will give up their personal equity in the company they co-founded, but they will both have roles in the nonprofit. John will become Complexly’s “founder emeritus” while Hank will sit on the Board of Directors and will continue to host some educational shows.
Hank acknowledged that the nonprofit route is not a typical course of action for this type of venture. “Any normal company in this position would have figured out how to leverage this success into a premium subscription platform or a learning management system, or sold itself to an ed tech company,” Green said. While the Vlogbrothers considers those forms of expansion, they wanted to ensure first and foremost that their educational channels remained “open to every teacher, student, parent, and learner with an internet connection fast enough to stream video.”
The Green brothers understand the complex ins-and-outs of creator funding as well as anyone. Their company Subbable, which was eventually acquired by Patreon, was an early form of the fan funding model that has become indispensable for many creators. Ventures like the Internet Creators Guild and annual Project 4 Awesome fundraisers gave Hank and John firsthand nonprofit experience that will now come in handy.
With that knowledge in tow, the Greens can build Complexly into an even bigger operation. The Washington Post reported that the production company has set aside $8.5 million for new content initiatives. The exact details of those programs aren’t yet known — but you can bet that whatever Complexly produces will be as trustworthy as can be.
