subject: Creating and Using a Fundraising Video [print this page] With more and more people hesitating to donate to worthy causes due to their own financial restraints, non-profits must find new ways to engage and motivate their potential donors. Using a video presentation to describe your cause and needs will touch not only the mind, but also the heart of your viewer, making it an extremely valuable tool in fundraising. Video can bring your cause to life if used well it must be powerful, sincere, meaningful, and relatable to your audience.
Utilizing the visual and auditory experience of video, your organization can tell the stories that show the true emotion of the people involved, and those they have helped or need help. Depending on your cause, the video can focus on just about anything rebuilding a monument, raising money for education, fighting a disease, and so on. Many groups are desperately in need of funding, and a video may be what you need to capture your audience (and their donations).
We find that our clients are using their videos to inspire donations at events (gala), meetings, the web, and even on public access channels. They have already brought the audience into the proper forum to address the situation, and now they have a tool in hand to tie the viewers' emotions to the problem.
Metro has recently produced several campaigns, including a video for The American Theater called "The Century Campaign." We partnered with The American Theater to produce a video to encourage the building of classrooms, renovations, and expansion of this historic landmark. The video was shown at each performance, and presented to their board of directors and local business owners. The capital campaign video was awarded a bronze Telly, and has so far raised $2.5 million in donations. We also just recently produced a video for the York Foundation for Public Education, which has a goal to reach $345,000 initially, then create a permanent endowment to support public teachers for years to come. The video is driven by testimonials from foundation employees, partnered business owners, and teachers that have received grants from The Foundation. The video will be played at presentations to businesses and at their annual fundraiser gala.
These videos can be distributed in a variety of accessible formats, including DVD (Standard and High Definition), web files (QuickTime, Flash, etc), podcasts, and BluRay.
