What To Include In Your Nonprofit Video to Make it Impactful

Although most nonprofit organizations don’t operate with big budgets, there are plenty of ways to still create impactful and engaging video content that will raise awareness and money.  Four times as many people say they would rather watch a video about a product or service than they would read about it. This is why video production is so important nowadays for anyone with a message to convey and an audience to convince.

In this article, we look at what you need to include in your video to make it compelling and engaging.

A Clear Goal

Before you shoot a single frame of video, you need to decide on the goal you’re shooting for. Do you want to raise awareness to a specific issue? Do you want to solicit donations? Are you looking to draw people in who might benefit from a service you offer? All of the above? Whatever the objective, you should crystalize it first because it will determine what you do from then on out as you make your video, and it will allow you to track how well your video is doing based on the initial goal.

A Intro That Hooks

If the target for your video is one of the many social media sites, then you need to hook people in quickly otherwise they’ll scroll away and be gone for good. Even though people say they would rather watch a video than read, there’s too much content vying for their attention.

A good way to draw people in is to point out a problem or source of pain that they may be dealing with or familiar with. You can do this with a compelling image or through text. Just remember that it’s important to nail this part of the video, so make it good!

Captivating Story

People like stories, and they like stories about other people. When you’re crafting your video, tell a compelling story that gets people engaged. You can do this by telling a story that uplifts and inspires people, or you can tell a story that tugs at emotions and spurs them to take action. Sharing stories about other people’s struggles or triumphs in the face of adversity are great tools to get people engaged and interested in what you’re saying.

Keep in mind that it’s not just the visuals that tell the story, but the music and sound must be considered too. Look to mainstream films for inspiration in how to use music to make someone feel particular emotions.

The most important thing to remember is to make the story about someone else rather than yourself. If you make the story all about you, people will see through that as PR or advertising. When you make the story about other people — people who are experiencing pain, joy, grief or other real human emotions — it makes your video more authentic and fosters good will from your audience.

Testimonials or Quotes

One thing that helps build trust between organizations and their audience is the verification that comes from outside sources. If you look at the world of advertising, it’s good for a company to include quotes or testimonials from customers because it makes the company look more trustworthy because the praise is coming from someone other than the PR director or copywriter.

While your video may not serve ‘customers’ per se, having a real-life story from an outside source makes the video stronger and makes your organization look more trustworthy.

Call To Action

Now that you have a compelling story and you’ve decided on the length, you have to decide on a call to action. A call to action asks your viewers to do something after watching the video. The call to action could be as simple as “like and share this video.” Or, maybe you want your viewers to donate to a cause or volunteer to help. Regardless of what it is, your video won’t be a success unless it calls your viewers to do something.

Ultimately, the successful nonprofit video makes a human connection and tells a story that people can relate to — it’s never about the company. Making a compelling, engaging video gives viewers a sense of trust in your organization and can inspire them to want to do more. And, with the ubiquity of smartphones and the easy access people have to video streaming, it doesn’t make sense to not take advantage of this powerful too.