What comes to mind when you hear the word “story”?
Maybe you think of epic tales of adventure, simple children’s narratives, or fables passed down by through the generations.
Our animated nonprofit video for the National Council for Urban Indian Health earns audience trust through storytelling, centering real challenges inspired by the population it supports. See more from this project here.
When thinking about using stories to support nonprofit success, it’s less about telling your own grand story, and more about the stories your audience lives every day. That’s because we all think about our world in stories: We perceive the world around us in a certain way, shape narratives about what happened and why, create arcs and craft resolutions.
At Next Day Animations, we’ve been supporting nonprofit clients develop meaningful marketing campaigns for over 15 years.
And we’ve learned a thing or two: we know that the most successful campaigns focus on stories that audiences see themselves within. Why? Because the end goal of any great story – and every great nonprofit – is to provide solutions.
Successful nonprofit video campaigns drive trust and attention by finding ways to connect to audience stories, and provide relevant solutions. And video provides the perfect medium for storytelling, with NonprofitSource reporting in 2024 that 57% of people who watch nonprofit videos go on to then make a donation.
Ready to apply our secret recipe for success to your own nonprofit storytelling? Let’s take a closer look at the specific impact storytelling has in nonprofit marketing:
Storytelling for Nonprofit Success
You know the work you do at your organization is important. In fact, many nonprofits are handling extremely important issues, with implications as serious as peoples’ livelihoods.
So what does storytelling have to do with that? Let’s break down exactly how the humble story can provide a reliable foundation to the versatile challenges your organization is building awareness for.
The Power of Storytelling for Engagement
Stories are how we learn: as children, stories are used by the adults around us to inspire our dreams, to warn us against dangers, and to teach us other important lessons.
Fortunately for us, the superpowers of storytelling don’t fade with age. Effective storytelling draws audience attention, which can be easily transformed with the right calls to action: whether that’s to get involved, to donate, or to learn more.
Let’s say you are the developer of an app that helps people navigate the complicated health care system. Your audience is pretty much anyone over the age of 25 who is enrolling in healthcare. What are some of the stories your audience might be telling themselves?
- This is all so complicated — I don’t understand all this jargon and have no idea how to find a plan that works for me.
- What if I get really sick? Will I be covered?
- I get how healthcare works, but don’t really know how to navigate this new system.
The root of these stories is fear, insecurity, and confusion. So how can you cater your marketing to relate to these stories?
A successful marketer leverages storytelling by being the answer: by affirming audience concerns, while gently explaining how your organization can help them.
Your response to the familiar story is heroic: it is calm, confident, and exudes security. Your audience, drawn to attention by their story, is now paying close attention to the fact that you’ve got them covered.
This short video from the Electronic Frontier Foundation uses storytelling to draw in audiences by referencing a common concern: is my phone listening to me?
While the story may not always be a grand saga, it works because it is an emotional narrative which people will relate to and see themselves in.
Storytelling as History: Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
The strategy of using storytelling to inspire audience action is nothing new. In fact, it’s quite, quite old.
Western story structure originated with a thinker and writer you may have heard of named Aristotle. He was a playwright, and he noticed that audiences responded more favorably to some plays over others. What did the successful plays have in common?
Storytelling is an important part of human history. Check out this handy breakdown of the basic format for effective storytelling, as told by our beguiling mascot, ChickenKnight.
Do you know the answer? Let’s break it down:
As described in the video above, these successful plays all followed a simple formula:
- Act 1: Introduction (I can identify with these characters and situation)
- Act 2: Complication (Tensions run high!)
- Act 3: Resolution (All is right again)
2400 years later, we stick to the same formula at our studio. It appeals to a paradigm that the audience already understands, brings in the pathos of a problem, and ends with a solution. Check out this short list from Levitate Media, which features animated nonprofit videos that utilize storytelling.
Try embracing this simple formula for your next nonprofit messaging, and watch as audience engagement soars. And to set you up for even more success, read on for our award-winning studio’s short series of tips for successful nonprofit storytelling:
Tip for Success: Clarify Your Goal and Audience
An excellent way to ensure success in your nonprofit messaging is to be as prepared as possible. Take time early in your process to identify clear goals for your nonprofit explainer video.
At our studio, this looks like a dedicated project kick-off meeting with the entire production team. This meeting, which happens before any designing, is entirely dedicated to clearly understanding the ins and outs of our client’s brand, the video goal, and the metrics that will measure it’s success.
How to Determine Your Nonprofit Explainer Video Goals
Over 15 years, we’ve seen nonprofits use animated video to accomplish some incredible goals. Here are just a few ideas for how video could serve your organization:
- Mission Statement Video: center your organization’s mission, vision and values.
- Fundraising Video: use animation to inspire donations to your organization.
- Volunteer Training Video: use an explainer video to educate anyone who wants to get involved.
- Founding Story: bring audiences along in a recounting of your organization’s origin story.
- Gala Centerpiece: make a video the center of your next big event, highlighting key announcements or featuring concurrent information.
Because animated video doesn’t rely on live actors, real locations, or physical resources, the limit to what is possible is truly your imagination when it comes to your nonprofit explainer video.
Getting clear on what you want most from your animation is a surefire way to ensure the best results.
Determining Your Target Audience for Your Explainer Video
Knowing your audience is everything when it comes to impactful video messaging. If you learned anything from our Storytelling 101 above, you understand now that telling meaningful stories implies a deep, clear understanding of audience concerns.
When your audience is clearly defined, you can write messaging that provides the solutions to the problems your audience is facing.
This video we created with Blue Star Families is a great example of a nonprofit explainer video that centers its target audience.
Notice how the custom characters, inspired by real military families, interact on screen to exemplify challenges that audiences watching the video can directly relate to. This technique draws on collaboration between the studio and the client, using real community research and personal knowledge provided by Blue Star Families.
Armed with a real education about the community at the center of Blue Star’s mission, our production team can create a video that authentically speaks to that community.
When we see ourselves reflected in stories, it makes it easier for us to see ourselves reflected in the solutions that follow.
Tip for Success: Make the Viewer Part of the Story
We all are connected to the stories we tell, and that connection can add credibility and authenticity to a story, or it can add preconceptions and misconceptions.
Our second tip for explainer video success for nonprofits is to always invite the viewer to be a part of the context of the story, rather than the victim or the savior.
It may seem simple, but what does that look like in practice?
In this video, inventor and CEO Be describes the innovative Alinker product and philosophy. Through dedicated collaboration with Be, thoughtful character design and community-informed scripting builds audience capacity to see themselves reflected in the video.
Always focus on the issue first, not just your organization: people gravitate towards issues. They feel emotional about them. And when they see how your organization is addressing them specifically, they’re more likely to feel passionate about what you’re doing, too.
Ask yourself what audiences already know, and what they need to know next: The fastest way to lose viewers is by boring them, or by over explaining something they inherently know. Once you’re very clear on who your target audience is, take the time to put yourself in viewers shoes and identify the correct “starting place” for the knowledge you are sharing with your nonprofit explainer video. If you find that you’re not sure, this might be an indicator that multiple videos with different starting places would be effective.
Involve people from the community or group that the story is about: don’t forget to connect with real stakeholders when developing your explainer video to ensure success with a wider audience. You might invite community members to help with script writing, or even to review video drafts as the process moves through several phases of design. We’ve even seen nonprofits utilize their board members as expert voices in their videos, as suggested in this article by Boardable.
Tip for Success: Match Style and Storytelling
You may have noticed by now that no two explainer videos are created equally. In fact, one of the best selling points about animated video for nonprofit messaging is the ability to create visuals that are as unique as your organization.
So, how do you know where to start visually? Here are a few of our tips for finding an animation style that suits your story:
While you watch our style reel, notice how the different videos make you feel. While each is great for specific things (for example, 2D is good at explaining systems, while whiteboard is great at highlighting and reaching individuals) there are no hard and fast rules for what works when.
2D animations can be highly representational, showing identities that we recognize, or they can show people as blobs with purple skin. When choosing your style, it’s important to consider how your audience will relate to characters and whether they’ll be able to see themselves within the video.
Whiteboard usually involves distinct characters. We use full color with skin tones, and incorporate a variety of body types.
When choosing who to “cast” in an animation, our goal is often to subvert stereotypes while also portraying what’s true about an organization’s audience and message.
Outside of animation, you can apply this as your thinking about the design of everything from brochures to decorations for the office holiday party. What do the visuals evoke? Does that match with your intentions?
Ready to Reach Your Goals with Nonprofit Storytelling?
You have a lot to focus on, and we’re here to help. With a decade and a half of dedicated experience supporting nonprofits just like you, we’re excited to help you tell your story.
Get in touch today to discover all that our studio has to offer.
