Research shows that people who watch non-profit videos are more likely to go on to make a donation. Consider this as well – people under the age of 30 expect video to be part of communications. The reality is, professionally crafted videos can engage an audience in a way that simply reading just can’t, so if you haven’t produced a video for your non-profit, you might want to give it some serious consideration.
Before shooting a video you have to ask yourself a lot of important questions, such as what is the purpose of the video? Who is the target audience? What actions do we want the audience to take? What channels should we use to display our video?
Remember, the point of any video is to convey a clear and relevant message. Here are some examples of organizations that have produced effective videos.
#1 First Descents
First Descents is a non-profit charity that supports young adults fighting cancer. As you will see in their company profile video, they use inspirational music, short testimonials, and concise written text to explain their mission. The video is about 2 minutes and 20 seconds long, but relays a powerful message.
#2 Pencils of Promise
Pencils of Promise focuses on educational opportunities. They have produced a number of videos, but the following is a production from 2009 that demonstrates how you can get your message across in a simple, straightforward manner with the use of images and dialogue.
#3 Greenpeace
Greenpeace, the organization that is known for environmental advocacy and conservation produced this video a number of years ago, but it still draws attention today. It uses a combination of time lapse and the sound of breathing to communicate a strong message.
#4 The Girl Effect
The Girl Effect is all about ending poverty. In the video below you can see how they used simple, yet active images along with powerful music to tell a compelling story.
You can make your non-profit video stand out like the ones posted above by following some simple steps:
- Summarize messaging – before beginning your video production, clearly define your message. Writing down what your goal is in a simple paragraph is a good way to start.
- Choose a format – decide ahead of time if you will use people, text, images, voice-over, music, subtle movements, specific backdrops etc. You should also choose the tone of your video. Will it be serious or will it be humorous?
- Get input – talk to colleagues about your ideas. Once you have a rough cut of the video, which means most of the editing is finished, let colleagues or friends preview it and give you feedback.
- Keep it short – it may seem like everything is important and everything should be included, but trust that shorter is always better and review, revise, review, revise, until you are sure you have the best version possible.
- Include contact info – every video should include a trackable URL, email address and/or phone number at the end.
You can produce an incredible video but it means nothing if it doesn’t get seen so work hard at getting it out to your audience. There are multiple options, which you should think about from the beginning of your video project. There is posting on YouTube or Facebook and linking it from your LinkedIn pages. You can put it on the company website, you can tweet about it, embed it in a blog, send it out in e-mails, or you can even run the video in waiting areas of the office and at special company events.
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