Here is a continuing article from the San Francisco 2009 AHP International (Association of Healthcare Professionals) annual meeting. These gems were gleaned from Sandra Henningsen who presented a session on Maximizing Your eMarketing Success for Major & Planned Gifts.
The participants in the session got into a stimulating discussion about the use of video on the Internet. How much money should you spend? What type of production values should you use?
I was particularly interested as I have produced 18 videos in VHS and DVD format over the years. I serve as executive producer and interviewer and have found them to be the most powerful ways to make your case statement come alive to prospective donors.
Everyone stressed the importance of using motivating stories to enable donors to motivate other people. If you show a video segment an your annual gala, put a version on the Internet.
One of the younger people in the room wondered if a quick handheld video would be okay. While a handheld camera is less steady, it may seem more real to people. Lower production values make it more authentic.
My sense is higher production values are important with older donors who are used to television quality versus a more free wheeling “Blair Witch Project” format that younger people are used to.
One of the AHP staff responded that she was capturing video of the conference for posting on YouTube since their site couldn’t accommodate the video yet. She was using a $300 camera for basic video work. But, she strongly suggesting buying a high-end $150 boom microphone as people are more forgiving of video quality if the sound comes through clearly. Don’t count on the camera’s built in microphone to do the job well.
Keep patient and donor testimonials to 5 minutes or less.
All of this discussion on video content really got me excited. When we do our video work for campaign movies we’ll tape someone for 15 to 20 minutes to end up with 2 or 3 sound bites for the final product. I like to have 5 to 7 people in the 8 minute video to get a variety of perspectives. With this session, I got the great idea of doing multipurpose editing. Once we’re done with the major overview piece, we can go back and edit 3 to 5 minute solo testimonial for each of interviewees to let people capture more of their thoughts on the Internet. Usually we get so many good quotes that it’s heartbreaking not to use all of them.
And, of course, use YouTube to share videos of your organization. They have an entire nonprofit section and you can put links to your videos from your eNewsletter and website.
This article is part of a series. To read the rest of the series, please click the links below:
- Using the Internet to Increase Major and Planned Gift Fundraising (part 1 of a series)
- Using the Internet to Increase Major and Planned Gift Fundraising (part 2 of a series)
- Using the Internet to Increase Major and Planned Gift Fundraising (part 3 of a series)
- Using the Internet to Increase Major and Planned Gift Fundraising (part 4 of a series)
Permanent Link: Using the Internet to Increase Major and Planned Gift Fundraising (part 5 of a series)
http://majorgiftsguru.com/2009/10/using-internet-to-increase-major-and_11.html
0 comments:
Post a Comment