There are many reasons why charities and non-profits benefit from video content. Here are a few top reasons why you should use video for your charity, from raising awareness, bringing emotion, being memorable and more.
Raise Awareness
Videos are a powerful way to raise awareness for your charity or organisation. They authentically depict your mission, goals, and the impact of your work, making your cause more relatable. This can be achieved through a mix of UGC (user-generated content), smartphone videos, such as live social media broadcasts, and professionally created video productions.
Video is more personable
Text can be dull and too long, and online, it’s shown that it’s very often skim-read, so it’s not even fully read. Video gives your organisation a proper face, whether it’s an animated character in an explainer video or a filmed video production. It creates that personal connection and empathy that is vital for charities to succeed.
Videos get shared
Videos are so easy to share; for example, social videos get 12 times more shares than text and images combined. This sharability increases awareness and engagement, which is great for attracting donors and volunteers alike.
Video by Anna Ginsburg
Video by Studio Birthplace
Video brings emotion
I don’t know about you, but I’ve definitely shed a little tear watching inspirational videos online—even falling for an advert! When you know you are changing lives every day through your non-profit and you’re passionate and driven about this important work, you can’t help but bring that emotion to a video audience and make an impact on them. A director speaking to your volunteers, service users and staff on site with a well-planned questionnaire and gentle and active listening can get some great clips for a video, along with editing and emotive music – telling your story.
Video makes you memorable
Video is considered the most memorable content across every age group, and viewers remember up to 95% of the content compared to just 10% of text.
They can help with fundraising
Fundraising campaigns with videos tend to do better! According to Indiegogo, fundraising campaigns that incorporate video receive 4x more funding than campaigns that don’t. This kind of fundraising video differs from a general campaign or introduction; you can be specific about what you need to inspire action, and don’t be shy to say how much you need!
Young people want video
Younger people and Millenials are more likely to be socially conscious and want to support charities. And young people want video. Just 22% of young consumers want emails from brands example, they prefer to see more social media content like video.
Videos are multi-purpose
Often, organisations use videos on their social media and websites and in meetings. To make a video work harder, you can make short versions of longer videos that work well as quick snippets, for example, some edited key sentences from a longer volunteer case study video on Instagram or TikTok. We’ve created longer form videos for those who want great details, but then edited 1-2 highlight Reels for social media that contain the biggest key points and most emphatic sentences. Inviting viewers to watch the full video on the website.
Video by Illo
Video by Rogue Films
Convey a sensitive message
Sometimes, you may want to hear from people who benefit from your services, but this can be tricky if the subject is sensitive, and they may not want to be on camera, or you need a safeguard of people, for example, when working with young people. This is where animation can come in, to say the powerful words that speak from the heart and tell a great story for your charity but anonymise the speaker.
It doesn’t need to be expensive
This might sound funny coming from a video production company, but you don’t always need to use professional services to create your videos; a blended approach can work great especially for social media. The story is important, and good branding helps boost a positive impression, but it can bring authenticity if you get your smartphone out and speak directly to your audience. You can also likely create these quick videos on your phone more often. This consistent and quick video content, mixed with high-production-value videos, works well for online audiences.
People want more Video
Year by year, people are watching more online video content. Studies show that 54% of consumers want to see more video content from brands or businesses they support.
A variety of video options for charities
There are so many kinds of videos for charities and nonprofits to use. For example, a case study where you film staff, volunteers or service users speaking emotively about the important work, a brand video to quickly tell your story, an animated explainer video for conceptual ideas for where filming isn’t appropriate, a volunteer video, an event video to promote what’s going on, and specific campaigns like fundraising videos. We’ve written more about the types of videos charities can use here.
So, here are some quick video ideas to consider. This list isn’t exhaustive, but it should help you start using video to promote your charity and raise awareness.
If you’re looking for a video for your charity, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. To see some examples of our videos for charities and non-profits, head to our charity video production page
Sources Hubspot, Reason Digital, Invideo , Charity Comms
