We’ve worked with several nonprofits and political campaigns who want to use video to raise awareness, fundraise, or educate. Our video templates perfectly lend themselves to these types of replicable stories. But time and resources can be scarce for nonprofits, so we put together this list of Best Practices to fully prepare you as you begin your filming program.
These are based on what we call The 4 C’s: Create, Capture, Curate, and Connect. They are the 4 phases of a Storyvine project that help our clients successfully execute their filming programs.
Create
Have a project champion who owns the project.
Understand the value of storytelling to your different audiences. Who are your audiences? Why are the stories you’re capturing relevant to them?
Understand that it's going to take resources beyond money. Be active in how you train your staff and volunteers. Create training materials and have training sessions.
Film stories that are as evergreen as possible, not ones that will be tied to an event or end date (unless you’re filming about an event).
Think about the kind of data that you want to capture to search for later. For example, the Barnstormers for Pete (Buttigieg) campaign captured zip codes and topics, which made it easier to discover, organize, and compile stories.This can just be done in a simple spreadsheet.
Capture
Make it clear what's in it for the person sharing their story. Why is it in their best interest to film their story? Provide support, training, motivation, and the inspiration they need to be able to take the risk of sharing their story.
If you're having an event, dedicate people to capturing the stories at the event so you can capture the stories as efficiently as possible.
Capture more content than you think you need.
There is no set time or tone for the “perfect” story. Some stories are long and intense, and some are short and pithy.
Set expectations for the process and how these videos will be used. Be transparent on the length of the approval process, and let people want to know where their stories are going to be shared.
Curate
Make sure that it's someone's job to watch the videos that you get in. The worst thing you can do is capture someone’s story and then not use it.
Filter videos based on your intended audiences. You might have a video that is good for internal use, vs. one good for fundraising, vs. one good for engagement and social media. Think about the different destinations and uses for each video.
Remix and leverage content as much as you can:
Compilation videos
Instagram posts of pictures
Blog posts from some of the features that were captured or topics discussed
Social media content
Connect
Share the video with the person who created it, and encourage them to share with their audiences if that is appropriate.
When capturing a story for development and fundraising, create videos that will appeal to a specific donor.
Use your best videos as examples to inspire other people, who can model their own storytelling after those videos.
We hope this list of best practices answers some of your questions and provides inspiration! Reach out to Mac McIntosh with any questions. mac@Storyvine.com. 720-449-7077 x 105.
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