This video is number ELEVEN in a series of 16 or so on how film can support your charity fundraising. Today’s subject is deciding which stories to tell.

TRANSCRIPT

I think there are three videos that probably every charity should have. One being the case for support, one being the impact of support, and one being the charity story, how the charity came to be and what their history has been.

In addition to that you can make very strong arguments for video or film to support specific fundraising campaigns, awareness raising campaigns, there are many charities for whom the dissemination of information is part of their work, so you know they can — charities can deliver their work through film if they are, for example, in the business of raising awareness of — raising awareness of a particular illness and want to make people aware of the symptoms to look out for; charities can deliver their work through film, charities who deliver training.

Other sort of quick wins for me are always the opportunities around high net worth individuals or major — high value giving — because then you stand the chance of making an immediate positive ROI with one additional donation. So for example many charities who run a high value donor program will have an annual gala ball, tickets are several hundred pounds per seat, and at the — after dessert the CEO will make a rousing speech, roll film, request for donations. Even if nobody were to give an additional donation, which would be a pretty unlikely scenario, even if that film opened the door to one additional high value relationship then that video will create a positive ROI, and that’s before you looked at where else you could use it, in terms of, you know, it could sit in your high-value fundraising teams toolkit that they could use as the presentation with a new prospect, that they could send out that could be made bespoke to a corporate pitch, and so on.

And the other key one which is really important is is legacy giving. More and more charities they’re looking to create a really solid legacy fundraising strategy and for me film would have to be an essential part of that because that’s where you get to communicate the highest aspirations of your charity, you get to show your charity in its very best light, from its inception to its future because that’s what a legacy gift encapsulates. People leave a gift to a charity because it says something about who they are and how they wish to be remembered. So that’s the time to really break out the stirring voiceover, the uplifting music, the orchestral strings and get the hairs on people’s necks up. That’s emotion, that’s when people’s propensity to give is that its highest, and when you’ve drawn them in with that emotion then all you need to do is to present a few of the facts the figures that will help seal the deal and that can really be the cornerstone of a productive legacy conversation.