Nonprofit Videos Must Offer Hope and Optimism
Posted by Catie Foertsch on Tue, Oct 06, 2009 @ 10:13 AM
Video is the best tool for telling a nonprofit's stories. But it's not enough to just have video. For people to feel a connection with your cause, your video must do several things, like tell a compelling story that people want to share and find hard to forget. One element in particular is crucial: your video MUST offer hope and optimism.
I'm not suggesting that you exclude stories that are sad. The work that nonprofits do is very often sad and difficult - think children with cancer, homeless veterans, acres of clear-cut forests, battered women, species extinction, etc. I'm also not suggesting that a nonprofit's stories should necessarily have happy endings. It's important that nonprofits not sugar-coat the stories they tell.
However, the goal of creating video is to connect people with the work you do, to find those that believe in your cause, and to convert them to donors and supporters. People want to be part of efforts that are working, and they want their donations to have an impact. And if there is no hope, then there's no reason to donate because the story's over.
One example: There's an annual slaughter of dolphins that takes place in coastal towns in Japan, and several videos have recently been made to publicize this event.
They are graphic and terribly sad, because they show thousands of dolphins herded into nets and brutally and inhumanely killed. The videos are informational, news-type videos and they include people who are obviously emotionally distressed, talking about how terrible the slaughter is. And that's it. The videos close with how terrible the slaughter is.
So - if your nonprofit were trying to stop the slaughter, and those were your videos, viewers would have no reason to get involved and support you, because the message of the videos is that the event happens every year, and it's not going to stop because some Americans are upset.
If, however, the point of the videos was that your nonprofit has come up with an innovative way to save some of the dolphins, well there's a great reason to donate. More money to you means more dolphins saved, which is what your supporters are going to want to do. Watching dolphins being slaughtered is not optimistic BUT offering a way to stop the slaughter definitely offers hope, and gives people a reason to donate and support your cause.
So when you're planning the video content you're going to make for your YouTube channel and your email newsletters and your website, make sure that the stories you're going to tell are powerful and unforgettable. AND make sure they don't stop at describing a sad situation. Give your viewers a reason to support your nonprofit - find a way to offer optimism and hope.