These days, charities are getting a lot of encouragement to have a video presence on the web. Good thing, too.
YouTube, now the world’s second largest search engine, runs an excellent service for non-profits – with the ability to put links in your video that go directly to your website. It should definitely be considered as part of an effective SEO strategy – rather than just somewhere to shove old DRTV ads and odds and sods of old footage. Check out Michael Hoffman’s post on the subject to find out why.
One of the most vocal new promoters of video is See The Difference. If you haven’t sat through one of their infectiously enthusiastic presentations this year – where have you been? See The Difference, when it goes live sometime this winter, will be a spectacularly shiny environment, with all sorts of bells and whistles, where you can display your charity’s fundraising videos.
It represents what the web is about: fluid communication that allows you to move intuitively from one interesting thing to another, following your whims and hunches, donating a bit here, a bit there? The only question that keeps nagging at me is whether donors will bother to go there and look. I really hope they will, because the demo site is seriously cool.
But – and there is a big ‘BUT’ – people won’t watch your video unless it is emotionally engaging. No-one will give to your cause as a result of your film unless you have made a persuasive case. And no-one will want to watch any video online, no matter how worthy, if it’s long, meandering and doesn’t make an interesting point – and fast.
Doing this is simply not as easy as it looks.
If people have got short attention spans nowadays, there’s nowhere they’re shorter than online. (By the way, the optimum length for an online video is between 3 and 4 minutes.)
A while back I met with some lovely people from a medium-sized charity who had just made a See The Difference do-it-yourself-style film. They opened the laptop and pressed play. I watched footage, which ran for several minutes, without any voiceover, then stopped abruptly.
Apart from the missing branding and lack of logo (you might easily be left wondering which charity it featured), the missing case for support (who knows what they were actually going to do with your money?), and the fact that in their film everyone seemed pretty happy and healthy (you do have to illustrate some need when you’re fundraising) – it wasn’t too bad a piece (a bit worthy and dull, but not, you know, awful).
Perhaps these were basic errors that many charities would avoid? I’m not so sure.
The thing is, charities are often so passionate about the change they create, and so convinced of the need, it often makes them incapable of taking a critical view of their fundraising and realising potential donors might need a bit more persuasion.
But consider this: technology has brought production costs down so much now that making a video is within the reach of just about anybody. This means more and more people churning out their own mini productions (hence the phenomenal growth of YouTube).
Although that’s great for charities, it’s also going to make it harder and harder for your cause to stand out and be noticed. And it’s also going to get more and more difficult to persuade the average person to give up three minutes of their life to watch your film, instead of someone else’s – not to mention to watch it and donate.
What’s the solution? An old one I’m afraid. Unless you’re an expert yourself, find someone who is. As media channels have proliferated beyond all recognition, certain things have never gone out of fashion: ideas and craft.
No, you don’t have to spend a fortune on film any longer; a home video camera will do (or even a mobile phone). But you still have to work damned hard to get someone’s attention. You still have to think. You still have to use your imagination.
Frustratingly, this can’t be done with a checklist. Making a film like that is a bit like painting by numbers – it looks like a painting, but it doesn’t make you feel anything.
Moving images are still the most instantly emotive way to connect with people. Cleverly used they can make you cry, laugh, gasp with amazement and have you diving for your wallet.
So, remember, while you’re cutting costs, that you still need to invest in the skills required to make this medium sing sweetly. They’re worth their weight in gold (or pounds sterling!).
Tags: Charity, film, Fundraising, See The Difference, SEO, video, YouTube
Thanks for this, some very interesting thoughts – and the Michael Hoffman post is clear and useful. I still think that Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong charity are leading the way in using digital and social media – especially video — to raise money and awareness. It helps that they’ve got a celebrity figurhead, but we could all learn from them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YrutKTItL4
Hi guys
I don’t really agree with the above. I’d say we’re in the middle of an extraordinary period, when the nature and cost of video tools and distribution methods is changing dramatically. What we are facing is video ceasing to be something just for the professionals. Instead, anyone involved can do what they do, and just happen to film some of it.
I’m a co-founder of Akvo (we’re a not-for-profit tech foundation, that builds open source web and phone-based tools that make it easy to share progress on water and sanitation projects directly from the field teams, online). I encourage my team, and our partners to use video in a relaxed way, to document how they work and who they meet. This summer we spent a week at Stockholm World Water Week profiling different experts and issues at the Stockholm World Water Cube (http://watercube.tv) – it was an amazing success. There wasn’t a video pro in sight and we used basic editing. The result was what one person described as a “Video Linkedin”.
There’s definitely a place for polished or snappy video, but that fits just one element of what video can and should be – high-end short attention span fundraising videos. But the real power comes from weaving video into everything our partners do – so it becomes an internal and external reporting and fundraising tool.
We’ve published a number of pieces on our video strategy and outlook, which may be useful. They’re all creative commons so steal away (but feed us back any improvements please!).
This is a good place to start:
http://www.akvo.org/blog/?p=264
Here’s our more in-depth video strategy:
http://www.akvo.org/labs/index.php/Akvo_video_strategy
Here are examples of how we approach video as a team:
http://akvo.blip.tv/
http://watercube.blip.tv/
We’ve also been working with a great team at Africa Interactive to embed local independent African video reporters into projects, with them creating videos often using mobile phones. Here’s the story behind that: http://www.akvo.org/blog/?p=116
AI is now filming numerous Akvo project videos, helping bring each project to life so it attracts funds.
See also this video discussion between me and Vic Keegan on the potential of camera phones for videoing development projects:
http://www.akvo.org/blog/?p=339
Hope this is all helpful.
Mark
As a producer, there’s nothing more frustrating than going into a meeting with an organisation that wants to make a campaign film and finding out that they have no clue as to where it will sit in their overall campaign strategy or they haven’t thought about promotion (or resources for promotion). And then they wonder why people aren’t signing up to get the DVD or they aren’t getting the views…
Good post.
I particularly agree with your point about See The Difference. It seems the organisation is packed full of media and management types but fundraisers are conspicuous by their absence.
We know that the issue is going to be driving traffic – having a great website isn’t going to raise money.
And we know fundraising is not just about getting a good story out – we need to answer donor needs. And I don’t think See The Difference have the right balance yet.
Anything that brings more donors to charities should be welcomed as should anything that increases engagement, I just seem to get the feeling a naked emperor might be shuffling around somewhere.
Best of luck to them though.
Hi Mark @ Akvo,
Thanks for the reply. I’m not sure we disagree as much as you think. I’m not arguing for video’s to be ‘polished’ and ‘snappy’. I am arguing that they need to be engaging. It’s simply a fact that people’s online attention spans are pretty short these days. As far as I’m concerned you can make a brilliantly effective piece on a mobile phone – the fact that’s it’s shot in such a low-fi way may be the core of its appeal.
Can anyone make a film? Yes. Can anyone make a good film? I don’t think so.
Too many people are making video without considering what their audience want to watch. Just because you’re passionate about a subject doesn’t mean that your video will be interesting or communicate well. It isn’t easy to make compelling film. The chances of someone with no experience doing it well are infinitesimally small. If your cause is important and you want other people to care about it, my advice is to get some help. Good intentions just aren’t good enough.
I wish you and Akvo all the very best.
Simon
Hi Simon,
Interesting post, but you got to the point, for me, at the end.
A good film is about good story telling. I’ve been doing a little bit of filming with work over the past couple of weeks and it’s surprised me how 90% (or more) of the work isn’t lining up a nicely framed and in-focus shot, but working out how you’re going to tell a story (with a beginning, middle and end that makes a point and gets people to feel things).
This is such an overlooked skill and charities need to invest in this area, even if in the end they go and shoot it themselves on their phone.
If organisations don’t, then all we’re going to end up with is a Youtube for charities – 99% blurry, boring rubbish, probably with some kittens falling over.
Thanks for the shout-out to my post about YouTube.
Every day here at See3 we live the issues you mentioned and that were mentioned in the comments. We have clients without a clue, who lack budgets, who want to talk about details instead of the emotionally engaging stuff. And we try to help them. We also know something about these platform for nonprofit media.
I was a founder of DoGooder.TV, which was the first such place for nonprofit video and launched around the time of YouTube. Today we also have CauseCast, the newcomer with some Hollywood and venture capital power behind it. We also have a zillion portals for nonprofit fundraising and the problem with all of these, I think, is that there is little traffic and even less community at these sites. So without critical mass, it’s hard to have an impact. You have to make that emotionally compelling video. But you also have to have a strategy for people to see it.
Thanks for the conversation.
Michael Hoffman
See3 Communication
@Michael_Hoffman
The democratisation of film-making reminds me of the initial arrival of Apple Macs. Suddenly everyone could be a graphic designer. But not everyone could be a great one. I don’t mean that handing the means of production to everyone is a bad thing; in fact quite the opposite. It just means that with more and more film for people/viewers/potential donors to navigagte through, there is an ever greater onus on fundraisers/campaigners/their advisors to produce dramatic, emotive, compelling stories, with a clear need, a clear way to make a difference, and enough inspiration to make me take action. Oh, and briefly too!
As far as see the difference goes, I get the impression they have involved quite a few fundraisers in developing their product. Time will tell.
Cheers
Derek Humphries, DTV
To introduce myself, I am a founder of a fairly new charity called Child’s i Foundation. In my previous role I was a TV producer. My career has been all about getting an audience to engage with my product or brand. In order to do that you need to be either interesting, shocking, totally different or appeal on an emotional level.
Online content production (charity or non-charity, video or non-video) is no different. The logistics may differ – it is a saturated space, the content needs to be shorter and snappier etc. but the challenge is the same – you need to find ways of making a connection with your audience. This of course is not an exact science.
Child’s i Foundation has used video content from the outset not only to inform our audience of the work we are doing but specifically to engage our community, make them feel part of the charity and enable them to influence decisions. It is part of our promise of transparency.
When we launched a year ago our mission was to set up a babies home in Uganda for abandoned and orphaned children. Since then we have been in a constant dialogue with our supporters and donors and collaboratively our goal has evolved into establishing a ‘baby abandonment project’ (essentially a prevention as well as cure scheme). We would not have achieved this level of interest, support and engagement without the use of video content – particularly during our last fact finding trip to Uganda. Video has helped us build trust and allow our supporters (worldwide) to feel part of the project.
I love the idea behind Akvo and I think this is where is is going but there needs to be a balance of professionally made content and raw, real, unedited, footage. It is all very well having content but if as Simon rightly pointed out if there is no story or hook then no one will waste their time watching it no matter how worthy the cause.
We have done things wrong, some things right, some of our videos aren’t works of art but it isn’t about that for us. We have played around with different videos and have a few examples of professional and pointing and shooting and dumping it on a timeline and uploading!
Celebrity lead Buy a Brick Campaign
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIGOh7FgtD4&feature=player_embedded
Professional shot and edited video outlining our mission
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bw4MG7nXZA&feature=player_embedded
Holding a Flip camera up and giving donors an unedited stream of consciousness from our planning trip to Uganda
http://www.youtube.com/user/childsifoundation#p/u/22/Zqa0WYGdhBU
All in all I am very excited to see the launch of See The Difference. It will enable more people to tell their stories in engaging ways. Not everyone will get it right first time but that doesn’t really matter. In my opinion great content when it does happen always shines through.
Thanks
Lucy Buck
http://www.childsifoundation.org
@childsi
The democratisation of video equipment is a great thing in that it puts tools into the hands of those who might never have had the opportunity before. But what this means, both for film in general but also for charities is that once you remove those barriers you are left with one vital differentiator.
Story.
As a writer/director who has worked with a number of charities, I can’t stress enough – whether it’s a feature film, a 3 minute video or a 30second ad – you have to have a story. And you have to have the skills and toolset to know how to to tell a story well. For me, that is where a professional film-maker is worth their weight in gold. A good film-maker will help shape your film and deliver an engaging piece that communicates precisely the right message. And a lot of the time, it takes someone outside of the organisation to be able to tell precisely what to show and what to leave out in order to achieve those goals.
Excellent blog post.
Joe Shaw
http://www.joe-shaw.co.uk
Hi Lucy,
Thanks for your comment – we have all been admiring your website.
I take your point about great content shining through and tt certainly doesn’t matter about video’s being rough around the edges.
The important thing is that people recognise when they have great content, and equally that they recognise those times when they don’t.
All the best,
Simon
Hi, it’s dom one of those “media types” from See The Difference. The conversation above is really interesting and certainly captures many of my views and the experiences we’ve had on a two year journey to create See The Difference in partnership with over 60 “pioneer” charities of all sizes (which included well over 150 fundraisers, campaigners, lawyers and finance directors).
We spent a lot of time asking givers about their needs – and the single feature of almost every piece of major research (public, private charity commissioned research, sector bodies ect) and our work lead by McCann Erickson Advertising was the overwhelming desire to a. know their money made a difference and b. to see proof if possible (without spending lots of money). (and we’ve also learnt a lot of other stuff).
So we set about trying to explore whether we could help charities meet that need. The background of many of us but by no means the majority is in media; looking round the office we have a singer, recruitment consultant, a peer, retail guru, a woman who got red bull started, a student of astronomy, my official Jewish mother and a chap who sold Dunhill goods to name a few of the ecclectic backgrounds) A year of working with charities to pilot low cost storytelling absolutely demonstrated the most valuable insight and help we could provide was in storytelling, making vivid the amazing work and passions of the charity sector for givers.
Finally we turned to a different collaboration of smart IT / net / social media brains to conjour up an online experience which not only starts to meet giver needs, but allows what you care about to be a social experience. (and for me that’s the most exciting part of the journey).
…. phew. So to date it’s been a 350-400 person collaboration and we will have to get round to taking one big photo.
In the meantime, we’d be happy to invite you to one of our regular webex briefings or if you want to come in with charities you work with we’d love to see you. Email either the normal change@seethedifference.org email or Jill Ross, who can arrange that for you at jillr@seethedifference.org.
… and of course join the facebook group and help us keep developing. (www.facebook.com/seethedifference.org)
dom
Hi Dom,
Thanks for joining what has turned into quite a discussion. I would encourage anyone to come and see what you have been up to. It’s a truly mind-expanding experience.
All the best,
Simon