Dragon Con, Atlanta’s annual pop culture convention, raised $320,000 for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Georgia in 2025, exceeding last year’s total by more than $110,000.
Since 2013, the Labor Day weekend convention has supported a different Georgia-based charity each year, with this year focused on mental health. Dragon Con public relations director Greg Euston said organizers believed the time was right to support a mental health charity.
“Dragon Con felt that mental health was an important issue, that if you just pay attention to the news, you can increasingly see instances where mental health is a factor in a lot of different things,” Euston said.
NAMI Georgia Associate Director Katie Cook said one in five people in the U.S. have a mental health diagnosis. According to a Forbes study, Georgia has the highest percentage of adults who are struggling with mental health, but can’t access care because of costs.
“In Georgia, roughly 80 of the 159 counties have adequate numbers of mental health care providers, which is why free public programming that we provide is so crucial,” Cook said. “We are now 47th in access to care but want to continue making progress, building on the momentum that has started.”
The $320,000 raised at this year’s convention will allow NAMI Georgia to expand free programs and advocacy efforts across the state.
“The money that’s raised, Dragon Con gives a dollar for dollar match up to $150,000,” Euston said. “The rest of the money comes from fans, the community who come to Dragon Con, who love Dragon Con, who make Dragon Con important in the way that they look at things. It’s an incredible gift when the fans support the charity the way they have.”
Science teacher Nikolai Curtis said the need for mental health care is personal.
“I think it’s fantastic [that Dragon Con raised over $320,000],” Curtis said. “Especially with mental health as a teacher, we deal with a lot of the struggle of helping students who struggle with mental health, and that’s a really important thing. I’ve been teaching for 23 years, and I’ve lost a number of students due to mental health struggles. And that’s a really important thing that we take more seriously now.”
For long-time Dragon Con attendees like Curtis, fundraising has become a key part of the convention’s identity. Even beyond the main fundraising efforts, fans create products to contribute.
“They have their traditional fundraising,” Curtis said. “Then they’ll do charity auctions; they’ll sell merchandise that’s been given by some of the celebrity guests. Especially older guests, they realize, ‘I’m 75, do I really need this?’ They’ll donate something from a movie, like a movie prop that they have or a costume. There are individual people who make things on their own. They’ll make them and donate them, as well.”
The variety of fundraising activities show the many ways guests choose to participate in supporting the annual charity. Junior Alex Moyer said they felt the impact of those efforts.
“I felt proud when I heard that they support mental health and have raised this much money for the cause,” Moyer said. “Mental health is something that many struggle with at some point in their life and, at times, it can feel like there’s no one there to support you. Knowing that an event I’m already proud to attend gives back to the community is something that I truly cherish hearing.”
Dragon Con’s fundraising partnership also brought attention to the role large events can play in mental health awareness.
“Big events like Dragon Con help break the stigma and provide hope to so many people in such a short time – it’s outstanding,” Cook said. “Every time mainstream culture, celebrities and large events highlight talking about mental health, they are being leaders in breaking the silence and stigma around the topic.”
Nationally, teens and young adults can access the NAMI Helpline for support: https://www.nami.org/support-education/nami-helpline/teen-young-adult-helpline/
