Use Nonprofit Videos to Connect With Donors
People Give When There’s an Emotional Connection, and Nonprofit Videos Help You Connect.
Why are nonprofit videos so important when promoting a cause?
Because nonprofit organizations have heartfelt stories to tell. Stories that can help them connect with donors.
While most of their causes are obviously important—for example, fighting poverty, or feeding the homeless—the most successful nonprofits are the ones that can communicate. The ones that know how to CONNECT with donors.
How Nonprofit Videos Help
Without a doubt, video is the most effective way to make an emotional connection. And connections like that are a critical first step in persuading people to donate.
It’s one thing to hear about hungry children, or to imagine “poverty” in the abstract, but video goes further.
It lets us see with our own eyes, and feel in our own hearts.
Nonprofit videos bring us face to face with people in need, so we get a close, authentic look at families or children in need. And that makes us much more likely to open our wallets.
The bottom line: video tells stories in a way that makes people care.
Global Youth Ambassadors Program
For example, the Global Youth Ambassadors Program is an enrichment program started ten years ago by Atlanta politician John Eaves.
GYAP enables high school students from underserved communities to learn more about the world around us. These students literally learn foreign languages and travel overseas to experience other cultures.
To tell the GYAP story, I followed a group of about 16 students through their training.
I filmed their field trips to several German companies in the Atlanta area, including Porsche and Mercedes-Benz. I filmed them at the Bremen Museum, where they spoke with an actual Holocaust survivor—a moving experience to be sure.
The finished video explains the GYAP mission, and will be used to attract future sponsors, and of course, persuade other students and parents to take advantage of this amazing opportunity.
The Hambidge Art Auction
Here’s another example. The Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences is a creative residency program based in the Georgia mountains.
It empowers artists, authors and other talented individuals to explore, develop and express their creative voices.
To raise money for the program, the Hambidge Center sponsors an Art Auction in Atlanta each year.
To create the video, I filmed the event venue over several days. First, there was a private preview party hosted by High Museum Curator Michael Rooks. Then, I filmed the event set-up at the Goat Farm Arts Center. And finally, the event itself
Wheels 4 Walls
This last example of nonprofit videos is shown at the top of this post. It's for a Wheels 4 Walls fundraising event, sponsored by Our House, a homeless shelter in Midtown Atlanta.
Homelessness is often invisible. Many people experiencing homelessness—including families with children—spend each night sleeping in cars.
During Wheels 4 Walls, volunteers spent a night in their cars in a downtown parking lot, to collect donations.
I filmed a documentary of the event, interviewing the participants—and spending the night in my own car (uggghh). The finished video will be used to promote future Wheels 4 Walls events, and to promote participation.
Many thanks to GYAP founder John Eaves, to Hambidge Executive Director Jamie Badoud and Communications Director Dayna Thacker, and finally, thanks to Diane Douglass with Our House and Mike Martin with Jackson Spalding.
About the Author:
Harry Hayes is the owner and executive producer at Content Puppy Productions, a corporate video production agency based in Charlotte. Before starting Content Puppy, he spent 20+ years as an advertising writer and creative director.
