Nonprofit Videos
You need to tell your story. It’s that simple: it’s how you raise consciousness and awareness—and it’s also how you raise money. Not through statistics, and not through guilt, but by simply telling your story.
But how can you tell it in a world overcome by compassion fatigue? How do you reach donors who can enable your work to continue?
Direct appeals work, of course. But in a faster-paced world dominated by the visual nature of the internet, the best way to reach people is to show them.
- Show them what you do.
- Show them the need that you fill, the problem that you solve.
- Show them where their support will be going, and what a difference they can make.
How do you show them? Through a well-written, well-crafted, compelling video. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then imagine how much more a DVD could be in terms of reaching your target audience! Use it during a conference, a marketing presentation, an awards ceremony. Put it up on YouTube and do some viral marketing around it. Let the world see and hear what you do.
I can help you tell your story. I’m a Yale-educated marketing expert and playwright providing compelling, moving scripts for nonprofits, academic institutions, and green corporate businesses. I work with an expert best-in-class video company and together we can walk you through conception to final product.
Sample scripts:
- MISSION MAIN: This 20-minute script was provided for a Boston-based housing authority that transformed itself from a dangerous, drug-infested locale into a safe environment for a daycare center, an educational/training facility, shopping, and more. The script was meant to help raise additional funding.
Excerpt: Imagine having lived without dreams for three generations—or more. Imagine not knowing that dreams are even allowed, that they are attainable, that they can be real for you. Imagine not being able to conceptualize how education, or computer and Internet access, or employment can change your life, the way that you see yourself, your place in the world.
And now imagine that someone helps you see your future.
- PEACE ZONE: This 30-minute script was provided for a school-based initiative to reduce violence among adolescents. Again, the goal of the script is to raise funding to enlarge the program.
Excerpt: At three different elementary schools in Boston, children are learning how to bring about change. They have signed a contract that commits them to finding peaceful solutions to conflict and to respecting themselves and each other. They start every morning with the recitation of Peace Zone’s Pledge for Peace.
(insert footage of children reciting the Pledge for Peace, also show it written somewhere to underline viewers’ understanding)
- URBAN LEAGUE: This 20-minute video was shown at a fund-raising dinner for the Urban League.
EXCERPT: And the very best thing about what we are doing is that this kind of success can be measured. There is immediate feedback. Every day, we see people altering their life’s direction, improving their sense of self-worth, gaining skills, daring to dream of a vibrant exciting future for themselves and their children.
Pablo Picasso once said, “Everything you imagine is real.” At the National Urban League, we are daring to do both: to imagine, and to make it real.
Want to see more? Contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for portfolio samples and a conversation about what my compelling videos can do for your nonprofit.
Related Articles:
10 Things You Need to Know Before Hiring a Video Company
Template for Video Production Briefs
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