A Tool to Plan a Compelling Nonprofit Video

Using video to tell your charity’s story is a smart way to highlight your organization’s work for donors and others. But many nonprofit leaders don’t realize all that is involved in creating video communications, says Amy DeLouise, a multimedia producer who has created videos for nonprofits and others.

Many organizations end up wasting precious time, money, and other resources and still do not end up with a good-quality product.

The best way to avoid such a fate, says Ms. DeLouise, is to spend some time thinking about what you hope to accomplish and to get all of your staff involved in planning well in advance.

Planning ahead will help your charity’s chances of ending up with a better visual product that works within the confines of your budget.

To help nonprofits think ahead, Ms. DeLouise has created what she calls a video creative brief that helps groups decide:

• what they want the video to accomplish

• which creative factors — such as location, mood, and tone — might come into play

• who should be involved, and

• how and when the video will be distributed.

The document also helps charities figure out how much it will cost and additional ways to use all or parts of the video.

The creative brief offers a series of questions to answer before the project begins along with a chart that includes a soup-to-nuts list of each step of video production to help your nonprofit finish your video on time and within budget.