How Charities Can Create Videos on any Budget

Video is a powerful marketing tool for charities to inspire, engage, and gain new supporters.

We still all remember those emotional TV adverts in the 90s! A well-made video can have a transformative impact, from increasing donations to raising awareness and more.

With limited resources, many may worry that producing a high-quality video feels out of reach. But it doesn’t have to be, we’ve rounded up some tips and ideas to make video work for you, no matter the budget.

At Digital Finch, we understand the challenges charities face. Our creative director runs a community group & CIC, hosting workshops, running regular volunteer sessions (mostly as a volunteer herself), applying for funding and working with many other local groups, charities, and CICs, so we have personal and professional experience in this sector.

Here are a few ways charities and non-profits can create videos that connect with their audience while maximising their budget.

First Contact: Usually, when enquiring, it helps to be honest pretty quickly when talking to any video company about the expected budget, expectations, and deadlines. The video company will be honest and able to tell you quickly what’s possible and realistic, and what they can do to make sure your money goes further. They should be resourceful and usually be able to adapt their services to suit your needs. This honesty saves a lot of time on both sides.

Finding and Telling Your Story

Charity video production thrives on authenticity. A meaningful, genuine story will connect more than a polished, impersonal-sounding script delivered directly to the camera with perfection, which is more often seen in corporate videos.

To create this kind of video, define your video’s purpose. Are you raising funds? Recruiting volunteers? Thanking donors? Knowing your objective can help guide the story’s direction. Simply raising awareness can lead to a mixed result. You also need to know your audience. What kind of people donate, help, or share your news and campaigns? How can you appeal directly to them? What are their ages, and other interests? What is their typical family like?

We find that a focus on real people is the most emotive for charities, along with a great story arc. Beneficiaries, volunteers, and colleagues bring humanity and relatability to the story. Sharing their personal experiences and creating an emotional connection motivates viewers to act.

When we create charity testimonials and case studies in the studio here, we go through thorough pre-production planning and sensitive interviewing techniques to ensure your video captures the heart of your mission without overcomplicating the message or putting off speakers.

Planning Video with Your Budget in Mind

A common concern for video production is budget constraints. Many charities are unsure of what goes into the cost of a video and what the work actually entails – and what they can actually get for their money. The key factors when it comes to video cost to consider are:

Video Runtime

The length of your video significantly influences the budget. A shorter video requires less editing or animation time, while longer content needs more production work.

For our charity animations, for example, a one-minute video is almost exactly half as much work as a two-minute video in terms of the drawing and animation required for it. We also generally find a shorter video to be more impactful – up to 90 seconds for an explainer-style video is fine, but you can say a lot in 30 seconds if the budget is tight or you want maximum dynamism.

Production Complexity

Animation tends to be more labour-intensive than filming because of the complex illustrations and bespoke animations.

Generally, if the budget is tight, choosing a more simple design style will cost less than a very dynamic, highly detailed animation style. A company can typically show you the various explainer video quality levels and their associated costs, allowing you to make an informed choice and determine which one is best for you.

Animated characters also tend to cost more, as drawing, rigging and making them move realistically takes time. Therefore, a way to save money is to reduce the need for characters or omit them altogether—there are many ways to create empathy in animation without characters.

Factors such as location, actors or presenters, and the number of shoot days for live-action videos will also impact the price.

Efficiency in Filming

The number of shoot days is the main factor affecting the budget for live-action video productions, especially charity films like an About Us or testimonials. Organising interviewees (such as stakeholders, staff, volunteers or clients) at a single location on the same day can significantly reduce filming days, saving both time and money.

With good planning, you can also ask quite a few interview questions on a few topics, creating content for several videos. For example, a lead can speak about the organisation in general, then specific campaigns and perhaps plans for the future, and you have a few videos here out of a one-day shoot. An experienced crew will also adapt the the visuals on the shoot (selecting a new room or new camera angle) so that the clips don’t obviously look like they came from the same single day either.

For example, we recently filmed the opening of a new recovery centre in the morning and interviewed various staff in the afternoon. The organisation got three videos for a fraction of the cost as if we had filmed each person and the event separately.

A video studio will work with you to create a cost-effective plan for your videos. For example, a one-day shoot might be enough to capture everything needed for a memorable video. Alternatively, they can produce a short, catchy animation highlighting key statistics or stories, helping you balance ambition with affordability.

Working with User-Generated Content (UGC) for Video

Charities often have access to user-generated content (UGC), whether a quick clip from a supporter’s phone, snapshots from an event, or a video the staff and volunteers film content themselves on a phone.

If your budget is very low or zero, this phone-shot UGC alone will help boost your online presence and is worth pursuing. Consistent posting has been shown to increase engagement, and most social platforms favour video – so all it takes is your time and creativity to promote yourself. As we see online so often, some of the most popular videos have been shot on a phone, but they still need some good planning, and it takes time to edit on Capcut or Edits as well as shooting itself.

UGC is a more accessible way of using video for promotion that can usually be done in-house. You can think of ideas for a fun series based on popular questions, speaking to members of staff and volunteers, or doing promos for any events and event highlights. It’s worth investing in a tripod and a mic if you want a higher level of in-house professionalism. For creating very short basic animations, platforms like Canva can offer some animation elements to add a bit of oomph to photos or phone videos, for example adding captions.

You can also follow trending memes and create your own version pretty quickly if they’re relevant and you have a dedicated social person in the organisation. This is a good way to increase awareness and reach new audiences, but you need to be pretty quick. All kinds of organisations, including the National Trust, create memes alongside their more informative and less casual content.

And while these assets might not always look as professional on their own, they can become part of a polished video with the right editing and structure.

If you want to elevate this kind of content and have a small budget, you can work with a video production company. They specialise in transforming your existing content into cohesive narratives. By editing UGC with branded visuals, music, and subtitles, they can help create videos that maintain an authentic feel while elevating their overall quality.

For funding purposes, for example, showing impact, here’s where UGC mixed with a professional company who are experienced with creating a story arc, using music to build emotion, etc, can be more beneficial.

When is it worth spending more on a Charity video production?

We’ve discussed reducing costs by looking at runtime, design style, and filing days. But when is it a good idea to gather funds and spend more?

With animation, the cost primarily depends on the number of days spent on production. The more time dedicated to the illustration and animation, the better. With higher quality, meaning many scenes, a more unique design style and smooth transitions between scenes – keeping the viewer immersed.

High-level animation, for example, is a great way to convey emotion while safeguarding and including personal stories, as you are not showing real people who may be vulnerable. You can do this with or without animated characters, and by spending more (ie higher quality usually), the animation will be more dynamic and moving to watch.

Often, lower-budget animation means fewer scenes and less on-screen movement, but this will hinder you if you need animation to be emotive and highly engaging.

Sometimes, a one-day video shot with a two-person crew can be sufficient and create a great video for your organisation, plus a bank of shorter videos for socials. But if you don’t have any videos and want a bigger impact, a large video series (filmed over four or five days) can boost your channel and website and give viewers tons of info and emotion on a broad range of topics and ideas. A number of videos like this will keep the users browsing videos and really immerse themselves in your world.

For a conference event where you show videos to potential funders during meetings, a professional video will always put you in the best light and give that wow factor.

With any big-budget project, it’s good practice to get several quotes and look through a variety of video portfolios so you can select a company that aligns with your vibe. It’s also worth having a quick chat to see if you actually like the company too.

Including Video in Your Funding Applications

Are you planning a video as part of an evaluation of a larger project? Including video production in your funding application can be a good idea. Funders often value the ability to demonstrate a project’s outcomes visually. A professional video, hearing directly from participants, can play a great role in project evaluations and provide evidence of impact.

You can show the impact of a long-term project by interviewing participants before, during, and after to get the full range. Or you can just speak to people at the end of the project to capture their feelings and the before and after. If you talk to a video production company to get a speedy quote, this will help you allocate an appropriate budget within your funding proposal.

This video is not only good for funders to see but also shows proof of your impact on the wider world, as you can usually share these videos on the website and social media.

Making Your Videos Accessible and Inclusive

Accessibility and inclusivity must be a priority for a charity‘s message to reach a wide audience. Videos should be available to everyone, regardless. This includes providing subtitles and clear visuals and ensuring the tone and structure suit diverse audiences.

For example, we provide professional subtitles as standard and ensure the design is accessible in terms of colours and tones. We also offer localisation if your audience doesn’t have English as their first language, we regularly recreate the whole video faithfully into the chosen languages, or provide human-translated SRT files as subtitles. This attention to inclusivity broadens your audience and reinforces your commitment to equality and accessibility.

On many platforms, automatic captioning now exists – so you can opt for a DIY approach, but you need to go through it thoroughly to make sure it’s all spelt correctly and that it has detected the correct words – as this automatic function is still very hit-and-miss.

Final Thoughts

Creating a high-quality video isn’t just for large charities with expansive budgets. With careful planning, clever resource use, or a trusted video production partner, your charity can produce videos that make a lasting impression. And you can do a lot in-house with a very small or no budget if you have the time.

At Digital Finch, we’re passionate about helping charities tell their stories. We’d love to hear from you if you’re ready to create a video that moves your audience to action.