How To Fundraise With Emotional Storytelling Videos
By Stanley Meytin
How do you get donors to believe in your mission and organization? How do you stir up emotion that encourages people to open their wallets and donate to a good cause? Emotional storytelling videos.
Storytelling is the oldest form of communication—and for a real reason. It’s the best way to get a message across. A video story is how your donors will understand your organization’s goals—and where their donation fits into that equation.
How can you tell a story that will raise funds for your organization?
When to use Videos to Fundraise
Videos are one of the most effective ways to spread your mission and collect donations that keep you in business. You can use them throughout your fundraising campaigns, on different platforms and through different media, depending on your organization goals.
Some examples:
- Use a video during dinnertime at a gala to thank your donors, show them where their donations are going, and encourage them to donate even more.
- Promote a video on social media to spread awareness about a fundraising campaign.
- Have a video playing in the background at a booth during a conference or event.
- Use a video to start a keynote speech about your organization to grab the attention and hearts of the audience members.
- Show a video before your annual 5K or dance-a-thon to get volunteers and donors in the spirit.
Different types of videos will each have their own requirements, so you’ll want to start by brainstorming a video strategy. Still, all fundraising videos have one thing in common: storytelling.
How to Raise Funds with a Video
The best fundraising is often the result of some sort of emotional response. A donor makes the decision to donate because they feel a connection to your organization in some way.
The job of the video is to build that emotional connection.
So how do you do that?
Tell a story.
Stories—about real people, real situations, and real journeys—inspire or move us into action. They encourage people to donate, get involved, and spread your message.
We’ve listed the main questions you’ll want to answer to create a story that will effectively raise funds for your organization.
1. What is the central mission for your organization?
What is the mission of your organization? Why do you do what you do?
Organizations are always looking for unique fundraising ideas, but the most unique thing you can do is stay true to your own purpose, mission, and goals.
Start with the “why.” This purpose is what keeps you running everyday, and it’s the reason people will want to support your operations.
We recommend that every video start with a succinct description of your mission. Then, the stories you tell should represent and reflect that mission.
This charity:water video is all about sharing their mission. It tells you there’s a problem, it’s urgent, and then it describes what the problem is.
Not every video needs to be this mission or problem-centric. Still, like any business or product, it’s important to create a narrative around your mission.
Recommended Read: How to use your purpose to share the story behind your brand
2. What is the story of your founding?
People love, what we call, “the first story.” What was the first thing that happened that caused this organization to start? What was so frightening or moving or inspiring to the founder that they had to completely change their life to found this organization?
This video from Falling Whistles works so well because it tells the story of their founding, why they’re in existence, and what the viewer can do to take action right now. In fact, this video even starts with the words “This story begins with…”
The video ends by directing you to their website, because they’re confident enough in their story’s ability to sell you on their mission.
When you create an emotional narrative, the funds raise themselves.
Note: This is a great place for your founder to share directly to really get into the hearts of your audience.
3. How has the organization affected the population you serve?
You’ve already shared your mission, but now you want to show that mission in action. The donor needs to feel a connection to the cause, and they want to see themselves in the people or situations they’re helping.
For example, your mission is to help fund treatment for children with cancer and to support their families. Donors understand the gravity of the situation, but they don’t feel it until they hear the story of a young child with cancer who wants to be an astronaut when they grow up. Everyone remembers having dreams as a kid, and it’s a story they can relate to.
Your donors need to identify with experience of your clients in some way. That means it’s your job to humanize your population in unique, interesting ways.
“Before and after” videos work well in this situation. You want to show how people or places have been affected by the work you’re doing. For example, you could demonstrate a picture of the dead rainforest—and all the sapling trees growing in that same space ten years later thanks to the plantings of your volunteers.
It’s hard not to cry when you watch this video about Eva and her hardworking father. You hear their stories, and you see why not having access to fresh water is seriously impacting their lives on multiple levels.
Without this story, you’re hearing, “Without clean water, kids can’t get education.” But with the storytelling aspect, you understand exactly why it’s impacting the lives, emotions, and freedoms of the people in the village. It gets at the heart of the issue, which gets at the hearts of donors.
4. How has your organization affected your volunteers and community?
The reach of your organization’s impact doesn’t stop at your clients. The people who work with or volunteer for you each have their own reason or story as well, and each of your donors has their own reason for donating and getting involved.
So extend your storytelling to include the greater community as well. Share testimonials from volunteers or previous donors about why they got involved. If your donors are looking for their reasons for getting involved, words from previous donors can inspire them to find their own “why.”
Check out another charity:water video (and see which appeals to you more). Here, we see Kristin Bell visit a charity:water site. She tells you why she’s involved and what the impact is on her, her fans, and the Ethiopian community.
Recommended Read: Your team is your company’s competitive advantage
5. What does the donation fund?
If the video is specifically used for fundraising purposes, your donors want to know where their money is going. When they know why they’re giving money, they’re more likely to open their pocketbooks.
Oftentimes, you want this to reflect the mission of your organization. For example, their donations will help pay to buy new gym equipment for the kids of a low-income school. You have the mission of promoting physical activity in schools because it helps promote higher grades, higher test scores, and happier kids.
Their donation isn’t just buying new gym equipment. It’s helping to fund the physical, mental, and intellectual health of the students. Define the direct impact of the donation, backed by the butterfly effects as well.
What we like about this Love Your Brain video is that they tell you exactly what their fundraising efforts are for and where the money is going. But first, you hear the clients tell their story and reasons they love the organization, along with what the goal of the organization is overall.
6. How can donors take action?
Depending on where and how you’re presenting this video, you’ll have different calls to action for volunteers and donors. But whatever it is, you need a call to action. Whether it’s directing them to a website where they can learn more or donate, or if they can walk to the back of the event room to hand over a $5 bill—you need to give them specific steps they can take to get involved.
They won’t give if they don’t know how to give. Always end with a CTA.
This hilarious (and a little outlandish) Rainforest Alliance video presents the problem in a unique way, and it spends the majority of the video telling you all the things you should not do to help the rainforest. But they contrast their wild story by showing just how easy it is to “follow the frog” in your everyday life. They show just how easy it is to take action.
Unique Fundraising Ideas: The Takeaways
- Tell a story about your business.
- Humanize the people or situations you’re serving.
- Get donors to relate to and identify with the story.
- Make the video’s CTA easy to take action or donate.
It’s time to create your fundraising story. Don’t wait to reach a wider audience, raise funds, and change the world with your organization.
We’re excited to help your organization and impact grow to the next level with high-quality storytelling videos that truly make a difference. Our film company offers fundraising video production in Chicago, New York and six other cities throughout the U.S. to best meet you where you are. Reach out to True Film Production to start brainstorming your next fundraising video.
Reading Time: 6 minutes
By Stanley Meytin
How do you get donors to believe in your mission and organization? How do you stir up emotion that encourages people to open their wallets and donate to a good cause? Emotional storytelling videos.
Storytelling is the oldest form of communication—and for a real reason. It’s the best way to get a message across. A video story is how your donors will understand your organization’s goals—and where their donation fits into that equation.
How can you tell a story that will raise funds for your organization?
When to use Videos to Fundraise
Videos are one of the most effective ways to spread your mission and collect donations that keep you in business. You can use them throughout your fundraising campaigns, on different platforms and through different media, depending on your organization goals.
Some examples:
- Use a video during dinnertime at a gala to thank your donors, show them where their donations are going, and encourage them to donate even more.
- Promote a video on social media to spread awareness about a fundraising campaign.
- Have a video playing in the background at a booth during a conference or event.
- Use a video to start a keynote speech about your organization to grab the attention and hearts of the audience members.
- Show a video before your annual 5K or dance-a-thon to get volunteers and donors in the spirit.
Different types of videos will each have their own requirements, so you’ll want to start by brainstorming a video strategy. Still, all fundraising videos have one thing in common: storytelling.
How to Raise Funds with a Video
The best fundraising is often the result of some sort of emotional response. A donor makes the decision to donate because they feel a connection to your organization in some way.
The job of the video is to build that emotional connection.
So how do you do that?
Tell a story.
Stories—about real people, real situations, and real journeys—inspire or move us into action. They encourage people to donate, get involved, and spread your message.
We’ve listed the main questions you’ll want to answer to create a story that will effectively raise funds for your organization.
1. What is the central mission for your organization?
What is the mission of your organization? Why do you do what you do?
Organizations are always looking for unique fundraising ideas, but the most unique thing you can do is stay true to your own purpose, mission, and goals.
Start with the “why.” This purpose is what keeps you running everyday, and it’s the reason people will want to support your operations.
We recommend that every video start with a succinct description of your mission. Then, the stories you tell should represent and reflect that mission.
This charity:water video is all about sharing their mission. It tells you there’s a problem, it’s urgent, and then it describes what the problem is.
Not every video needs to be this mission or problem-centric. Still, like any business or product, it’s important to create a narrative around your mission.
Recommended Read: How to use your purpose to share the story behind your brand
2. What is the story of your founding?
People love, what we call, “the first story.” What was the first thing that happened that caused this organization to start? What was so frightening or moving or inspiring to the founder that they had to completely change their life to found this organization?
This video from Falling Whistles works so well because it tells the story of their founding, why they’re in existence, and what the viewer can do to take action right now. In fact, this video even starts with the words “This story begins with…”
The video ends by directing you to their website, because they’re confident enough in their story’s ability to sell you on their mission.
When you create an emotional narrative, the funds raise themselves.
Note: This is a great place for your founder to share directly to really get into the hearts of your audience.
3. How has the organization affected the population you serve?
You’ve already shared your mission, but now you want to show that mission in action. The donor needs to feel a connection to the cause, and they want to see themselves in the people or situations they’re helping.
For example, your mission is to help fund treatment for children with cancer and to support their families. Donors understand the gravity of the situation, but they don’t feel it until they hear the story of a young child with cancer who wants to be an astronaut when they grow up. Everyone remembers having dreams as a kid, and it’s a story they can relate to.
Your donors need to identify with experience of your clients in some way. That means it’s your job to humanize your population in unique, interesting ways.
“Before and after” videos work well in this situation. You want to show how people or places have been affected by the work you’re doing. For example, you could demonstrate a picture of the dead rainforest—and all the sapling trees growing in that same space ten years later thanks to the plantings of your volunteers.
It’s hard not to cry when you watch this video about Eva and her hardworking father. You hear their stories, and you see why not having access to fresh water is seriously impacting their lives on multiple levels.
Without this story, you’re hearing, “Without clean water, kids can’t get education.” But with the storytelling aspect, you understand exactly why it’s impacting the lives, emotions, and freedoms of the people in the village. It gets at the heart of the issue, which gets at the hearts of donors.
4. How has your organization affected your volunteers and community?
The reach of your organization’s impact doesn’t stop at your clients. The people who work with or volunteer for you each have their own reason or story as well, and each of your donors has their own reason for donating and getting involved.
So extend your storytelling to include the greater community as well. Share testimonials from volunteers or previous donors about why they got involved. If your donors are looking for their reasons for getting involved, words from previous donors can inspire them to find their own “why.”
Check out another charity:water video (and see which appeals to you more). Here, we see Kristin Bell visit a charity:water site. She tells you why she’s involved and what the impact is on her, her fans, and the Ethiopian community.
Recommended Read: Your team is your company’s competitive advantage
5. What does the donation fund?
If the video is specifically used for fundraising purposes, your donors want to know where their money is going. When they know why they’re giving money, they’re more likely to open their pocketbooks.
Oftentimes, you want this to reflect the mission of your organization. For example, their donations will help pay to buy new gym equipment for the kids of a low-income school. You have the mission of promoting physical activity in schools because it helps promote higher grades, higher test scores, and happier kids.
Their donation isn’t just buying new gym equipment. It’s helping to fund the physical, mental, and intellectual health of the students. Define the direct impact of the donation, backed by the butterfly effects as well.
What we like about this Love Your Brain video is that they tell you exactly what their fundraising efforts are for and where the money is going. But first, you hear the clients tell their story and reasons they love the organization, along with what the goal of the organization is overall.
6. How can donors take action?
Depending on where and how you’re presenting this video, you’ll have different calls to action for volunteers and donors. But whatever it is, you need a call to action. Whether it’s directing them to a website where they can learn more or donate, or if they can walk to the back of the event room to hand over a $5 bill—you need to give them specific steps they can take to get involved.
They won’t give if they don’t know how to give. Always end with a CTA.
This hilarious (and a little outlandish) Rainforest Alliance video presents the problem in a unique way, and it spends the majority of the video telling you all the things you should not do to help the rainforest. But they contrast their wild story by showing just how easy it is to “follow the frog” in your everyday life. They show just how easy it is to take action.
Unique Fundraising Ideas: The Takeaways
- Tell a story about your business.
- Humanize the people or situations you’re serving.
- Get donors to relate to and identify with the story.
- Make the video’s CTA easy to take action or donate.
It’s time to create your fundraising story. Don’t wait to reach a wider audience, raise funds, and change the world with your organization.
We’re excited to help your organization and impact grow to the next level with high-quality storytelling videos that truly make a difference. Our film company offers fundraising video production in Chicago, New York and six other cities throughout the U.S. to best meet you where you are. Reach out to True Film Production to start brainstorming your next fundraising video.
What story would you like to share?
Whether you want to launch an idea, spark a movement or simply get people talking about what you do, you have one shot
at delivering your message in a way that matters. Let’s make sure you do it right.
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