Why Video Production is Important to Non-Profit Fundraising

The Friendship Circle volunteer Rebecca and her friend Amanda

The Friendship Circle volunteer Rebecca (left) and her friend Amanda (right).

While my daughter Rebecca was in High School, I became intrigued by her involvement in a non-profit organization called The Friendship Circle. The Friendship Circle, established in Pittsburgh’s Jewish Community in 2006, helps children and young adults of all faiths with special needs to become more fully integrated into the broader community by pairing up with a teen-age volunteer, and they can meet each other in different places like the park, the church or even in sites like chatempanada.com that is great for make friends.


The Friendship Circle

The idea with the pairing is to develop a unique friendship between one another.  The volunteers and children/young adults with special needs “hang” together regularly in their homes, in school, at the movies or at the mall. As I began to witness the bond between Rebecca and her friend Amanda grow, I also saw remarkable changes in the two of them that could not be adequately communicated verbally or through the written word. I felt I had to capture those moments, their friendship, their bond and their story in a video.

The power in producing a video is the power of a story. Capturing an interaction between Rebecca and Amanda, or Colton and Clayton or hearing the story of a parent with a child with special needs speaks louder than any text on a page. You suddenly feel the essence of the organization, its passion and its mission. We accomplished telling the “story” of The Friendship Circle through the eyes of the participants.

The Friendship Circle volunteer Clayton and his friend Colton

The Friendship Circle volunteer Clayton (left) and his friend Colton (right).

You could hear a pin drop when we played the nine minute video our company Fox Learning Systems produced, before 500 people in attendance at The Friendship Circle’s Annual Fundraiser. Through the high school volunteers, the special needs teenagers and their parents, the community continues to learn the essence of what The Friendship Circle does and the clientele it serves. The video has been made into a DVD to play for potential donors, is uploaded onto You Tube in the original version and a shorter version, and clips are used on Facebook. The founders of The Friendship Circle Pittsburgh are thrilled with the video’s outcome and this emotional non-profit video continues to be successfully used for fundraising purposes.

Keys for Successful Non-Profit Corporate Videos

    • The best non-profit corporate videos tell a story. Make sure you tell your company’s story through the eyes of others. Your message will come through loud and clear if you focus the story on the people you help.
    • Hire a video production firm that understands the art of the interview. Having a good interviewer can make the difference between a memorable and emotional “story” as opposed to a boring, non-substantive and unmemorable video. You may have to pay more, but it is well worth the investment.
    • Consider the length. In most cases, the shorter the better. Four minutes is an average length.  But there are exceptions. For instance, the video we produced for The Friendship Circle is 9 minutes and 34 seconds, long by most standards, but the emotion flowed and the message resonated. We have been able to shorten the video and use it on Facebook, You Tube, and make DVD’s for fundraising purposes.

Watch the video below for a look at the Fox Learning Systems The Friendship Circle non-profit video.

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