Video

Ah, video content marketing. It’s been a hot topic in 2013, and many end-of-year predication posts assert it will be more of a focus in 2014. Why? Well, as Forbes explains, people respond to faces, voices, movement and emotion — and video often contains all four of those elements, making it one crazy-powerful marketing tool.

Creating a video for online fundraising always starts with a plot. Here’s a roundup of four videos, each with unique plots, that you can follow as examples for your next fundraising video:

1. Connection plot fundraising video — Trinity Grace Church Brooklyn: A New Morning Service.
2. Challenge plot fundraising video — International Justice Mission: A Ray of Hope.
3. Creativity plot fundraising video (example 1) — Innovation Africa: Bringing Israeli Innovation to Africa.
4. Creativity plot fundraising video (example 2) — The Adventure Project: Give a Stove This Holiday

There are a few nonprofits doing great work that stand out because they are adapting better to an online, mobile world. Take, for instance, DigDeep, an organization dedicated to making sure everyone has easy access to clean water. DigDeep is running a campaign designed raise awareness online to understand what a lack of water means offline. More than a billion people around the world have access to only about four liters of water each day, and the 4 Liter Challenge is designed to show us what that’s like.

In this webinar we discuss the fears surrounding mobile & text-to-give, interactive websites, and video… and how to overcome them.

Over the last six months, it’s fair to say that Instagram Video and Vine have taken the app world by storm. This has definitely not gone unnoticed by nonprofit marketers, with a number of high-profile organizations starting to utilize these channels to communicate with their audiences, both cheaply and effectively.

If you’re still unconvinced that Vine and Instagram are right for your brand, then the following seven examples should be of interest.

Let’s be honest. Videos about programs end up putting people to sleep instead of making them feel something. I’ve learned that compelling, money-raising videos are about people, not programs. So here’s how I turn a program into an emotional story: 1. Find a protagonist. 2. Lead with a story. 3. Leave the board members out. 4. Ask questions that lead to storytelling. 5. Include shareable stories.

Ultimately, platforms like video on Instagram make it easy and fun to produce short videos that can be shared on social-media platforms while engaging your community of supporters. However, much like every digital-marketing initiative, it’s important to plan in advance ensuring that there is focus in the content that is being created.

The following are best practices to follow when implementing a short-video marketing initiative via Instagram's video app: 1. Have a purpose. 2. Tell a story. 3. Be creative. 4. Don't over-post.

Google is shutting down Google Checkout worldwide and replacing it with Google Wallet Nov. 20, so at the very least those nonprofits taking advantage of YouTube’s Nonprofit Program that also take the necessary steps to accept donations through Google Wallet and YouTube, will be the best positioned when wallets go mainstream and transform online and mobile fundraising. That said, for your inspiration, below are five nonprofits maximizing YouTube’s Nonprofit Program and YouTube’s new channel design: ASPCA, Natrue Conservancy, Oxfam, SOS Children's Villages and WITNESS.

See3, YouTube and Edelman have released a new report and guide for nonprofits about using video. The report, “Into Focus: Benchmarks for Video and a Guide for Creators,” is based on a survey of 500 nonprofits and interviews with experts (including me). The report describes current nonprofit use, adoption challenges and best practices.

The big takeaway: Nonprofits overwhelmingly agree that video is crucial to their communications, but many feel they do not know how to use it effectively or measure its impact — yet.

While at the Nonprofit Technology Conference last week in Minneapolis, we were on hand to see the winners of the 2013 DoGooder Video Awards announced. Four finalists were chosen for each category, and then the winners were selected by the public. The winner of the Best of Nonprofit Video Award was the Rainforest Alliance’s “Follow the Frog.” Why it works? It's entertaining, relatable and has an easy-to-follow call to action.