Video For Nonprofits: 3 must-do steps before
hitting record Personal Intro Creating video content is hard enough! Why isn’t it automatically engaging? Video is the most compelling way to engage
and educate an audience about the work your organization does. Creating dynamic videos has never been easier
and it is more in demand! Take youtube for example, 500+ hours of content
are uploaded every minute on the platform. And they are the #2 search engine on the internet
with over 180 million hours of
content uploaded daily. As more platforms come to stage, such as TikTok,
you’ve got to step up your game! There are many ways to present content in
video form. There’s the lecture style where someone
is put in front of the screen educating the audience on the topic.Think academic style
courses with a professor lecture. There’s tutorials where you walk your audience
through a process utilizing on screen examples. There’s also animation, video blogging,
Social commentary and so much more. Despite
these different forms of presenting
your content, what will make it engaging stays the same: you need to tell a story. No matter the content, your audience wants
a beginning, middle, and an end. Here’s how you create a narrative: Step 1: Establish a theme and main topic focus
of your video.[a] Make sure this theme is oriented in a way to benefit your audience
or answer a question you know they have. For example the theme of this video is about
making engaging videos for nonprofits, we chose thi
s because we’ve seen a lot of interest
in our 5 Tips for Fundraising Pitch Videos. And when we analyzed the search for “videos
for nonprofits” on TubeBuddy it showed low competition and decent volume. So, even though we actually have a couple
videos in this search, there is actually still value in competing with ourselves. Another tactic for choosing a theme that interests
your audience is to look at your own top content on your website using Google Analytics. Find a popular page that you could
turn into
video content, because you already have a built in audience that will watch it and clearly
the content is meeting a need. About one third of our channel’s traffic
comes from “external sources” and about one third of that comes directly from people
watching our videos on WholeWhale.com Step 2: Build your narrative around emotion. [b]Will this information make your audience
happy, sad, energized? How does the focus of your video help the
audience? Will this information encourage them to
speak
with their family and friends or become more active in their community? Figure out how you want your audience to feel
when the video ends and use that to create an emotional undertone. This video about video creation for nonprofits
is not likely to stir much emotion, because it falls into the educational category. However, I do hope we can motivate you to
start creating because video as a medium is too big an opportunity to ignore for great
organizations. Your first video won’t be a succes
s, your
tenth won’t be either, many of our first videos from 6 years ago! Still haven’t gotten more than a couple
thousand views. We view each video we create as another brick
in a great content wall, another helpful book in a library that will continue to generate
value for months and years to come. So I hope this helps you with the mindset
of value creation over time through entertaining, informative videos content that tells a story. Step 3: Write the script or narrative for
your video.[c] If
you are considering a story narrative or case study style video that shows
what your nonprofit does apply the If you want to keep it simple with an informational/educational
video try doing a how-to video that centers on a skill your organization or stakeholders
have and teach it. Or if you’re an animal focused organization
just get the camera rolling on the cutest animal you have and overlay a voice narrative. Your stakeholders or volunteers can even be
asked to send in broll (video they shoot
and you can splice together). Here are some quick tips on informational
videos: 1. Use humor, but try not to be corny. Humor is great for getting users into the
personality of the video/channel. 2. Get creative! Don’t be afraid to test different video
styles and editing techniques. Look at the content similar organizations
create versus the top youtube or facebook or tiktok video. Compare the two, what can you bring into your
video? 3. Show, don’t tell. The best part of video is that you can sh
ow
almost, if not everything, you will talk about. Use that to your advantage! Use b-roll, screen recording, photos, etc. 4. Tell one story at a time. Ke[d]ep your video’s focus to one video. Try not to pile multiple ideas on top of each
other. Too much information on multiple topics can
be ALOT and lead to your audience to turning off your video. For entertainment or more storytelling it
can be a little more complex. A classic approach to storytelling is to use
the three act play structure: Act
I: The Setup
[e]We intro the character and brief story then introduce an inciting incident or conflict. This is probably about a third of the content. Act 2: Confrontation and/or build
What is at stake? [f]Can you raise the stakes on what will happen
if you don’t succeed. For nonprofits this should come right to mind
as many organizations are working on intractable and often global issues. However this might be more effective if the
‘what’s at stake’ is made more locally understandable to the p
erson, animal, plant
or smaller scale level. Remember that the story of one person dying
is a tragedy, the story of a million is a statistic a brutal quote attributed to Joseph
Stalin but yet important reminder of how people process information to emotion. Act 3: Resolution or reward[g]
How has the world or main character changed for the better or worse as a result of the
journey? Is there are hopeful story shown that then
can reflect on the larger work of the nonprofit? This can be made even be
tter when the viewer
can be invited to join the story by donating, taking a specific action or volunteering, So to just summarize this, try to answer these
questions as you write: 1. Who is the character? 2. What do they want? 3. Why can’t they have it? 4. What’s at stake? 5. Who or what helps them? 6. How do they get what they want? 7. How are they changed? A quick note about length. While shorter is usually better, 8 to 15 minutes
are more than enough time to share information and keep your au
dience watching. Even more important is that the content in
your video is consistently useful, keeping your audience to the end. Audience retention is a HUGE indicator for
the YouTube algorithm that your video should show in related searches. Ok we hope this gets you a little more inspired
and curious about how your organization can create better videos. Take a look in the description for more resources
around tons of DIY creative tools you can use for video. Also, here is another video you migh
t find
helpful and please subscribe! For editing[h]
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