Videos Your Nonprofit, NGO, Charity
or Other Mission-based Organization Should Have Online.


cave-drawing-like representation of a person using a camera phone to film a person celebrating something.

Video continues to surge in popularity as a way to meet just about any outreach goal. And that means every nonprofit, big or small, needs to be thinking strategically about what videos it needs to produce and share - and where it should be sharing those videos.

Videos aren't difficult to produce: if you have a smart phone that records video and/or audio, you can create videos to share online about your organization. That includes Androids, not just Apple devices. If any employee or volunteer has an Apple Macintosh computer, you have easy-to-use video editing software already on that computer: iMovie. Affordable video-editing software for non-Apple computers is easy to find online. Even if you have only photos, you can use them to create a video with audio for most of the proposed activities below.

This page on my web site doesn't just talk about platforms; it emphasizes content. So many articles about how a nonprofit, NGO, community group, etc. should be using online video just talk about platforms. But what nonprofits struggle with is content - what should they be talking about or showing in these videos, particularly micro-video sites?

One of the challenges to offering this advice is that social media and video-sharing platforms keep changing. How many seconds or minutes they allow a video to be, or the limit in a videos size can be, also changes. I've written this advice to be of use no matter what platforms come along. But double check the information here regarding such limits before you invest in making a video for a particular platform.

 

Video-sharing platforms:

Please note that you do NOT have to use every social media or every video-sharing platform! The vast majority of nonprofits not only do not have the time to maintain a presence on everything, they don't have a reason to.

In addition, platforms change frequently in terms of popularity. Remember Vine? SnapChat? My Space? When you invest in using a social media platform, accept the reality that the platform may not be around in even two years. That means you need an offline archive of all videos you produce specifically for such channels! If you find yourself looking at a lot of videos on Instagram, for instance, for even personal reasons, that may mean you need to invest time in posting videos for your nonprofit there - if a platform is popular with you, it's probably popular with others.

YouTube and Vimeo are terrific for long-form videos - anything three-minutes or more. In addition, any of the videos you share to short-form sites like TikTok should also be available on whichever of these long-form channels you choose, so that you have ALL videos in ONE place.

As of now, TikTok videos can be as long as 3 minutes. The reality is that the videos that are 60 seconds or less are best for this platform.

Depending on the video post type, Instagram videos can be between 3 seconds and 60 minutes in length. It breaks down by post type like this:

The maximum size of the Twitter video is up to 512 MB, and video length can be 2 minutes and 20 seconds or less in length.

What about Facebook? I prefer to use Facebook only for short-form videos. I prefer to put a link on Facebook to long-form videos,

Whatever platform you use, make sure the text description that goes along with that video is as full as it can be. Someone looking at that video, no matter what platform it's one, should know what organization it comes from, what it is, why you are sharing it, etc. Use key words and phrases in the accompanying text message or description as well, so it can be found by others looking for such based on certain keywords.

 

Volunteers can help:

If you don't have an employee that can produce these videos, volunteers can be a great help.

I've produced such videos with just my Android phone, or using clips other have recording on everything from cheap smart phones to high-end cameras, and my Mac laptop using iMovie.

Volunteers can also provide closed captioning and transcriptions of videos.

You could recruit online volunteers ONLY for these video production and editing tasks!

Volunteers can also help you brainstorm ideas for videos your nonprofit should create.

Always encourage volunteers to share video they take while performing volunteer service, or about their volunteer service, for possible use by your organization.


Before you record:

Ask all volunteers, at the moment that they sign up to volunteer with you, to sign a photo and video release form, saying that you give them permission to use any images of you that are taken by an employee or another volunteer in the course of volunteering, including event attendance, online or onsite. You can find samples of such releases on any Internet search.

Announce at events that you will be filming, and how video will be used. I sometimes say, "If you are worried that someone is filming you closeup, and you don't want to be, raise your hand to the camera. When we see this, we will know you do not want any closeup of your face to be shown in any video we produce, and we will do our very best to honor that request." 

Have written rules for employees, consultants and volunteers about what should and should not be filmed. Client interactions, for instance, should not be filmed, except by permission and signed release forms. Make sure these rules are WELL communicated.

Have a written process for what employee has the final approval of videos before they are shared.

 

Long-form videos:

Long-form videos are those that are three minutes or more. Three minutes may not seem like long, but anything longer than three minutes is too long for some platforms.

Note: you can repeat audio and images in different videos! For instance, if you have a great testimonial from a client, that can be featured in multiple videos, as appropriate.

Note: you may want to use clips from all of the aforementioned to create 30 second, one-minute or three minute videos to share on other platforms.

 

Short-form videos:

Short-form videos are three minutes or less. They get shared on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook. Their purpose may be to build awareness about your organization or the cause that it promotes. Their purpose may be to just give a fun, human feeling to your organization, to make it feel more approachable.

These short videos need to be tagged appropriately in their descriptions or comments so they can be found by people looking for such, and your staff, volunteers and clients should be encouraged to always like and share them. Examples of short-form videos for nonprofits:

Again: you may want to use clips from all of the aforementioned to create even shorter clips to share.


Cross-posting & descriptions:

Cross posting is key if you want to reach the widest viewership possible for your video. If you post a video to YouTube or Vimeo, there needs to be links to such on your web site and you should reference the video on social media more than once.

New videos should be announced on all of your social media channels, in your newsletter, at board meetings and at staff meetings.

If you share a short video on Twitter, share it on Instagram and TikTok as well, if you have accounts there.

Also: you MUST caption your videos. If there is any verbal information, in spoken word or in song, the video needs to have captions representing this. And if the video is just images and music, and delivers important information about your program, you need to have a second version of the video posted with audio commentary, for your audience that has sight impairments.

Adding appropriate descriptions that use key words and tags helps both with accessibility and search engine optimization.

 

How often should you be uploading videos?

I can't answer that question definitively.

I think if you are going to have a YouTube or Vimeo channel, you should add new content at least six times a year, every other month on average. But you could update it even more, if you have the time and you feel it's worthwhile. You might upload many videos in the summer, when your programs are most active, and none in the Fall and Winter, when you don't have anything going on, and that's absolutely fine.

If you are going to have an Instagram account, I believe it needs to be updated with photos and videos at least every other week.

If you are going to have a TikTok account, or whatever the flavor-of-the-month social media for short videos is, I think it needs to be updated at least once a month to be worth your time in doing. And I'm not even sure it's worth doing for the vast majority of nonprofits, not unless you see a definitive, worthwhile return on investment in such.


My own YouTube channel:

Here is my YouTube channel. I hope you will subscribe to it and "like" some of the videos! Note that I have my trainings for nonprofits, NGOs, etc. first.

I also have a playlist of all of my trainings, some of which are not on my own YouTube channel.


My video-editing services:

I'm can provide basic video editing services: splicing different clips together, adding in title slides, fades between scenes, intro music, captions, etc. Great for speeches, presentations, client testimonials, volunteer testimonials and instructional videos. This is a fee-based service. More about these services and samples of my video editing work.


Also see:

  • Daily, Mandatory, Minimal Tasks for Nonprofits on Facebook & Twitter
    There are a lot of nonprofits using Facebook and Twitter just to post to press releases or an event announcement. And if that's how your program is using social media, then your program is missing out on MOST. Facebook, Twitter and other social media are all about engagement. Social media is NOT one-way communication; you want people and organizations to read your information, but you also want them to respond to it. And they want YOU to respond to what THEY are saying. I broke these must-do tasks down into the most simple, basic list as possible - these tasks take minutes a day, not hours.

  • Getting More Viewers for Your Program's Online Videos
    Videos are a great way to represent your program's work, to show you make a difference, to promote a message or action that relates to your mission, etc. But just uploading a video isn't enough to attract an audience. This page on my site offers specific steps that will get more views for your organization's videos on YouTube. Note that many of these tasks would be great for an online volunteer to undertake, with guidance from an appropriate staff member.

  • Evaluating Online Activities: Online Action Should Create & Support Offline Action
    Hundreds of "friends" on an online social networking site. Thousands of subscribers to an email newsletter. Dozens of attendees to a virtual event. Those are impressive numbers on the surface, but if they don't translate into more volunteers, repeat volunteers, new donors, repeat donors, more clients, repeat clients, legislation, or public pressure, they are just that: numbers. For online activities to translate into something tangible, online action must create and support offline action. What could this look like? This resource can help organizations plan strategically about online activities so that they lead to something tangible - not just numbers.

  • A New Nonprofit's First Online Steps (& some software tips as well)
    You are leading a brand new nonprofit, charity, NGO or other community group. You have the basics for your program's existence in place: your board of directors, your business plan covering what you want to achieve in the first year and how you will do that, and you've filed, or are filing, your by-laws and other paperwork with the state and the IRS. But now, in addition to all of the other things you need to do next, you also need to take some first steps in terms of being online and what software you need to buy. This web page can help you.

  • Basic Press Outreach for Not-for-Profit and Public Sector Organizations
    Like fund raising, press relations is an ongoing cultivation process - the process never ends. Your program strategy for press coverage needs to go beyond trying to make a magical list of press contacts that will always print your announcements or trying to land one big story; you want the press to know that you are THE agency to contact whenever they are doing a story on a subject that relates to your mission. These are basic, low-cost/no cost things you can do to generate ongoing positive attention from the media, and thereby continually build your profile among various communities.

  • Outreach Via the Internet for Mission-Based Organizations
    It's more than just putting up a Web site or creating a facebook page: successful outreach via the Internet involves ENGAGEMENT: attracting comments and questions, making your own comments and questions, and more. It's pro-active, interactive and ongoing. Online outreach and online service delivery should also accurately reflect your agency's mission and culture.

 
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