If you’re a nonprofit with a small team and tight marketing budget, it can be tempting to avoid video marketing. It can seem expensive, resource-intensive, and time-consuming. Most nonprofits prefer to direct most of their limited funds to digital advertising – after all, the more people you reach, the more likely you are to get donations and engagement, right? It’s a game of numbers. It just makes sense.
Not quite. That’s oversimplifying things. Not all content is created equal. The impact of a call-to-action link to a donation portal, an infographic, or even a poignant still image is no match for the ability of a well-made video to elicit emotions — the kind that spur otherwise apathetic or unknowing individuals to care about something. From caring comes sharing, liking, and subscribing —all important markers of engagement. According to M+R Benchmarks 2022, video has the highest social media engagement score when compared to photo posts, links, and text. That’s why nonprofits need video marketing.
If you’re here, you probably want to invest in video, but aren’t sure how to keep your costs low. In this blog post, we’ll give you an A-Z on all things non-profit video production and share some strategies with which you can make great videos at economical rates – when you work with us, our team at Rock Creek can help you take your video budget further, and create work that exceeds your goals.
What Makes a Good Nonprofit Video?
A good nonprofit video is one that tells an authentic, compelling, and well-paced story. For it to meet your engagement goals on social media, it has to fit the form that best serves the platform it’s on. For example, YouTube might reward longer videos, but for Instagram and TikTok, content needs to be under a minute long.
With diminishing attention spans, a single, clear, focused message, communicated with emotional resonance and ending with a clear call-to-action (CTA) works best. Throw in some strategic visuals and high-quality production and you have it.
But don’t just stop there. After your video is live, make sure you distribute it well and keep an eye on the analytics (Google provides free tools to nonprofits to do that).
We’ve written more extensively about how to create high-impact videos for nonprofits here.
How Do You Make a Promotional Video for a Nonprofit?
When you work with us, you’ll find that video production follows a clearly defined process, which loosely looks like this:
Step 1: Strategic planning
This is where we sit down together to have a long discussion: where you set goals, brainstorm ideas, lay out measurable objectives, develop the creative approach, craft the messaging, and lay out a video marketing strategy. By the end of this discussion, you should have a rough idea of the narrative (see figure below for examples), the target audience, the platforms it will be on (we recommend Facebook and Instagram), and the call to action.
Step 2: Pre-production
This is where the fun begins (and where your proactiveness will pay off in terms of the overall cost — we’ll get to that in the last section). This is where we create a script together or a scene-by-scene storyboard. What are the shots you want in your video?
It’s alright for this to be a rough draft– it can be refined later. What’s important is to have a clear direction for your video and the semblance of a well-structured narrative.
After you’ve done that, assemble all your resources: this includes but is not limited to the equipment you have on hand, your production team, actors (or interviewees), volunteers, existing raw footage that might be of use, and a production schedule. Rock Creek Productions can help you identify and scout locations, define wardrobe, acquire props, audition and cast talent, brief interviewees, and coordinate and schedule production efforts. We’ve got a detailed guide on how to do this here.
Step 3: Production
This is where we capture the footage for your video (we always try to get more than you need). Our team will follow a highly organized shot list and capture the footage we need using our high-quality professional equipment. Having a detailed, well-thought-out production plan in place before production day is always key to enabling our efficiency and ensuring we get everything we need.
Step 4: Post-production
It is said that films are made in the editing room – this is where we’ll put together all the audio and video, and edit it and complete your video with any animations you might want to add on. We’ve written a 101 on video editing here.
This is where the technical stuff ends and the video marketing kicks off, i.e., where you implement the strategy you came up with in step 1.
Saving Costs on Nonprofit Video Production
The biggest costs involved in making a nonprofit video tend to be in the production (filming, acting, direction, etc.) and post-production (animation and editing) stages.
To be resource-efficient and streamline production, you’ll want to focus your energies on pre-production activities and spend plenty of time planning ahead to make the most of your budget (and avoid duplicating your efforts in the long term).
We gain a lot of professional satisfaction from working with nonprofits and when you choose to collaborate with us, we’ll do everything we can to keep your costs low. But there are a few things that’ll help.
From our experience working with dozens of nonprofits with shoestring budgets, here are some things that have helped our clients save costs:
1. Communicate clearly with our production professionals
During the strategy stage, be as clear as possible on your project’s objectives, target audience, key messages, and desired outcomes – and create a detailed brief that leaves no room for miscommunication. This will help our company understand the project scope and minimize unnecessary revisions that could increase costs. Be upfront about your budget constraints so we can work together to come up with creative solutions to optimize your funds.
2. Maximize the resources you already have
Make the most of existing assets, such as photos, graphics, or previous video footage you already have, to reduce the need for recording new material. This could include existing interviews, event b-roll, and more.
3. Use volunteers or in-house talent
Find as many volunteers or staff members as you can for on-camera appearances, voiceovers, and logistical help. This will reduce the costs involved in hiring actors and voiceover artists; as well as crew members. Also, do try and schedule filming on a day when everyone is free, to avoid extending production time.
We shot a fun video for the Asheville-Buncombe County United Way, where we had real donors dress up in superhero capes in a video that highlighted their contributions to the community. As long-time benefactors of the nonprofit, they were more than willing to be a part of this effort.
Link: United Way | Asheville Video Production | Rock Creek (rock-creek.com)
4. Opt for a simple concept
High-concept videos with multiple locations and elaborate narratives can be great, but they are also expensive to produce. Opt for simple concepts that can be done well on a smaller budget. Some ideas are behind-the-scenes tours, or user-generated footage of the beneficiaries of your NGO talking about the impact of your work.
Limits on your budget don’t need to be an impediment to your creativity. Feel free to get creative.
5. Think beyond one video
Think of ways your video can be adapted across various marketing channels, such as social media, email campaigns, and the organization’s website. For example, a longer video you make for your website or YouTube, can be leveraged into shorter versions for Facebook and Instagram in the editing room. Also, plan ahead and see how you can use a single day’s AV production work in multiple videos. While on set, record additional b-roll footage and sound bites to create a content library that can be repurposed for future videos.
When we worked with the Aspen Institute, we helped document and promote Aspen’s Young Leaders Fellowship program, shooting at multiple locations. Within 24 hours of shooting, we turned around a quick teaser video that Aspen used to promote the event through various social media channels. From the footage we took, we were able to create more polished videos to support their marketing and promotional goals for a long time.
Rock Creek Can Help You Keep Your Costs Low
If you’re looking to make a solid, persuasive impression with your videos, Rock Creek offers non-profit video production services that help you tell the best story while maximizing your budget. We’ve worked with some of the most renowned nonprofits, including Habitat for Humanity and the Aspen Institute.
At Rock Creek, we care deeply about the community and respect non-profits for their tireless commitment to bringing about lasting change. We are committed to helping you tell the best story you can, within your budgetary constraints.
We work out of Herndon, VA, outside of DC, and Asheville, NC, but have clients all over the country. Learn more about our nonprofit video production services, and reach out to us at [email protected]. We’re happy to help!
