At the heart of every nonprofit is a strong mission.
But to bring your mission into reality, you need people who are emotionally invested and engaged in your cause enough to actually show up and take action. In other words, you need engagement.
The Western Sustainability Exchange activated farmers in the journey towards regenerative farming with this succinct explainer video. It informs, and then points audiences towards useful resources from WSE. Check out the full project, including a Social Media Package, by clicking here.
But not all nonprofits are the same, and engagement can look a lot of different ways. Luckily, we’ve got the answer that works for engagement across verticals – and it’s been the same for nearly 15 years. (Cue the “Come on Superman, Say Your Stupid Line” TikTok trend…)
If engagement is what you need, video is versatile enough to do it – and well.
Some organizations rely heavily on volunteer engagement, while others focus more on involvement on a policy level. Whatever your engagement goals, nonprofit video production is a powerful tool to tell your story and drive investment and action.
Today, we’re drawing from more than a decade and a half of serving hundreds of organizations as a nonprofit video production company.
We’ll start with the beginning: a quick breakdown of why animation is effective for nonprofits. After the basics, we’ll get into a list of who can best benefit from nonprofit video production – including successful examples and video stats from our animation studio.
Why Should Nonprofits Use Video Production?
An explainer animation is a short animated video that aims to explain an idea or message in a simple, compelling way, through attention-grabbing visuals and clear language.
These videos tend to be just a few minutes long, with an emphasis on simplicity so the core message comes across clean and clear.
In the nonprofit space, videos are particularly valuable for the following three reasons:
We’ve written a lot on the efficacy of video, and even given specific tips and tricks to help nonprofit video excel. If you want to dive deeper you can explore our blogs on the topic, below.
For now, let’s explore a specific list – with examples from our studio! – of who can benefit from nonprofit video:
How Nonprofit Video Production Benefits Grassroots Orgs
Oftentimes, nonprofits have the double burden of explaining not only what they do, but why it’s important.
You’re fighting lack of information and misinformation about everything from legislation to human trafficking to the science of organic food.
And on top of all that, you’re often at the whim of the grant cycle and donors, so your budget can fluctuate year to year. You need to invest your marketing to create stability and make the best use of your resources.
Why Video Works: Awareness Building
Explainer videos are an excellent way to keep distracted and overwhelmed audiences engaged, by capturing the emotional core of your organization’s story.
When trying to catch audience attention and move viewers into action, video helps nonprofits to appeal to their heart as well as their brain.
The reason video benefits nonprofits so much lies in the neuroscience of attention: a little bit of brain candy we recieve when watching stories, with problems and solutions, play out on screen. To learn more about this, check out our explainer video on the Neuroscience of Animation or this journal article from ScienceDirect on the effects of whiteboard animation on retention.
Example from Our Studio: DKT International
DKT International was in the process of redesigning its website. The organization is a major global provider of reproductive healthcare programs, and with an audience across dozens of countries, they needed a powerful hero video to captain their approach page.
Our producers collaborated with their team to uncover a tone and visual style that would grab audiences attention while honoring their brand. Blending live footage with animation, we scripted an inspiring video that shot straight to the emotional core of their work. The live footage was captured from their sites around the world.
You can visit their website here to see the impact yourself. Since partnering with our team on the video, they’ve gone on to receive funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for strengthening high-quality, affordable contraceptive product supply chains and building the existing health system’s capacity through 2028 in Nigeria. They’ve also expanded access to reproductive health products in dozens of countries.
High-quality communication help set the platform for making these connections, doing this work, and ultimately, improving the lives and health of people across the globe.
How Nonprofit Video Production Benefits Fundraisers
Once you get folks emotionally invested in your cause, you want them to take the leap and become financially invested.
An animation can engage your audience by showing concrete examples of how a financial contribution can make a real difference for your organization and the communities you serve.
Better yet, animation is one of the more affordable ways to leverage video marketing. That means more money in the hands of your organization.
Why Video Works: High ROI
The expenses associated with hiring actors, securing physical sets, and renting equipment can quickly add up in live-action video content. In contrast, animated video is just as engaging and efficient while being quicker and cheaper to scale when you need charity video production.
Expand your campaign affordably with global translations, accessibility features, and video updates as your organization grows and changes.
Despite the high ROI of animated video, we understand that for many organizations, budgets can already be limited. Animation’s versatility means that it is possible to find a suitable style, length, and production timeline for any budget.
No, seriously – that’s kind of our thing. Click here to learn more about pricing, or to connect with us for an exact quote on your video project idea.
Example from Our Studio: Streetwise Georgia
StreetWise Georgia was looking for a unique centerpiece to feature at their largest fundraiser of the year: their annual gala.
More people were attending than ever before, and not only that: They’d recently gone through a branding change and needed to clarify their mission and approach. They made the smart choice to accomplish this goal with fundraising video production.
With compelling custom graphics, expert voiceover, and script built just for their unique needs, their video inspired a room full of curious viewers. They raised over $250,000 that night, their most successful gala to date.
This means more support for their food pantry, job skill training, financial education, client services, and special events honoring everything from prom to the holidays to back to school.And, the usefulness of their video didn’t stop there. It’s been used in volunteer orientation, meetings with clients and partners, social media campaigns, and more.
How Nonprofit Video Production Benefits Volunteering
Volunteers are the lifeblood of many nonprofits. Recruiting, training and retaining volunteers is central to the success of a nonprofit, and can be a huge challenge.
Creating a recruitment video can help you spread the word quickly and in a really fun, engaging way.
Not to mention, once you have recruited them, whiteboard animations are an excellent way to train volunteers.
Why Video Works: Proven Effective for Training
When volunteering videos are created effectively, they are tools that organizations can use to truly connect and build deeper understandings within the ecosystem of the nonprofit.
And most importantly, they’re effective. As discussed in a previous section, the neuroscience of animation and mirror neurons lend a major boost to the retention factor of animated video.
Our award-winning non profit video production is especially successful for volunteer training and volunteer recruitment because they integrate components like brand colors, fonts, and logos, as well as designing custom characters that make community members feel represented. This has been proven time and time again to be a crucial component of effective, inclusive marketing.
Example from Our Studio: DC Central Kitchen
Since moving into its new headquarters at the Klein Center for Jobs & Justice in the spring of 2023, DC Central Kitchen has welcomed more than 17,000 volunteers from all around the world into the Kitchen.
These volunteers assist culinary staff in cutting and prepping the fresh ingredients that
make up the 16,500 meals produced daily for their community.
Every volunteer shift begins with the animated safety video created by Next Day Animations. The animation is jam-packed with information about how to hold a knife properly and where to wash your hands. But beyond important information, the video is creative and fun to watch – even if you’re one of the staff members who get to watch it up to three times a day, seven days a week!
The evergreen, reliable animation teaches volunteers how to be safe and efficient while setting a tone that keeps them coming back.
How Nonprofit Video Production Benefits Advocacy and Awareness Builders
You have an extremely important message to share. No matter your area of work, the more people you can educate about your issue, the stronger your organization is.
Animations are extremely easy to share via email and social media. If you can create a compelling piece that encourages people to share, your message will spread like wildfire. It takes about 5 seconds to share a video on Facebook, but the impact can last forever if the message is memorable enough.
Why Video Works: Versatility
No topic is too complicated, messy, or even taboo with animation, because your angles for approach are unlimited.
Through the use of fictional characters and settings that are designed to represent your community, nonprofit videos create a sanctuary for exploring sensitive or controversial themes without triggering specific traumatic experiences or defensive reactions.
Animation is perfect for use in advocacy, fitting squarely in as a feature at panel discussions, informational events, and more.
Example from Our Studio: The Voter Participation Center
In the lead-up to the 2022 mid-term elections, we partnered with the Voter Participation Center to produce a series of 2D explainer videos to support voter turnout in Wisconsin. VPC is dedicated to aiding and inspiring citizens to vote using a data-driven and high-impact approach, and they hoped to improve turnout through outreach aimed at reducing barriers to voting and increasing motivation to vote.
Our “Vote Impact” was a huge success. The video increased the likelihood of voting early and performed the best on vote likelihood regardless of age. If that’s not enough, the overall video completion rate was 71% across preroll and YouTube.
And the process was part of the success, too. With our inspired and goal-focused team at the helm, we created custom visuals to draw in VPC’s audience. The video introduced behavioral science concepts to increase motivation based on the barriers VPC identified.
”“Video is an important tool. We run a very multifaceted program in the GOTV environment, but as our team expands, video has become more and more important. Seeing these promising results from the impact video - using these types of mechanisms - it is becoming an integral part of our program. You can say and do a lot more visually in fifteen seconds than you ever can in a static ad. And, when more people participate, our systems work better and they work better for more people.”
Taylor ManningDeputy Director, Voter Participation Center
How To Get Started with Video Production for Non Profit Organizations
Whether your organization is understaffed, or just trying to do a lot, adding another large initiative like an explainer animation may not seem like the solution.
Luckily, there are experts out there (like yours truly!) who can walk you through the process and create a beautiful end product for you. Of course, you’ll need to available for a few calls and to provide feedback, but you can leave the heavy lifting to a trusted animation partner.
Every day, more and more nonprofit organizations are discovering the magic of explainer animations, and using them to accomplish their goals. Are you ready to join them?
