A Guide to Nonprofit Video Storytelling

Using videos as part of your nonprofit’s storytelling is one of the most engaging ways to reach your audience.

Natalie Stamer, co-owner and managing partner at Streetlight Digital, explained that videos make your organization stand out among others vying for attention across the internet, from overflowing email inboxes to never-ending social media feeds.

“When you think about the noise across the [digital] landscape, you really have to think about what breaks through the clutter,” Stamer said. “Really, video storytelling is what is breaking through the clutter — it’s what people are watching; it’s why TikTok is such a giant platform right now and on the rise.”

Plus, videos enable you to share so much more with your audience than photos or text alone.

“If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a thousand pictures,” said Janet Tonner, president of media and digital at Moore. “We know that emotion is really what leads to action, and that’s what we’re asking of potential donors or advocates or volunteers — we’re asking them to take some action. In my mind, video is one of the best ways to showcase emotion.”

Videos are a great way to show how your donors’ actions impact the organization’s mission, which builds trust. Because of this, donors are more likely to engage with videos, thereby helping boost retention, Tonner said.

Getting Started With Video Storytelling

Part of what makes video storytelling so effective is its versatility.

“CTV has so many purposes,” Tonner said. “It can be used for advocacy, it can be used for lead gen, it can be used for acquisition, it can be used to upgrade donors to a sustainer or mid-level gift. It can be used in all stages of the donor journey.”

Videos also lend themselves easily to many channels — MMS messaging, email, social media and even QR codes on direct mail — which makes them an excellent component to include in your omnichannel marketing.

“Our clients use outbound telemarketing,” Tonner said, “and what we’ve found is when we serve a video before they’re even contacted, they’re more likely to take the call — and then when they do take the call, they’re more likely to convert.”

While video fits many needs, Stamer emphasized the importance of testing to see if videos work for your audience.

“You might be serving an audience that is happy with still images, but you won’t know that until you test [videos and images] side by side,” she said. “We always say we never ‘set it and forget it.’ We always think through what we can test side by side, especially with video.”

Additionally, Tonner said that video is an effective tool for targeting the next generation of donors because “that’s what they grew up with — they grew up conversing through video.”

Nonetheless, Stamer cautioned against relying too heavily on video.

“I’m a big proponent of not leaning into any one type of channel for storytelling,” she said. “I think there still are people who want to dive deep into a blog post that gives you the intimate details. There’s somebody else who might want to just see the picture and the caption and get a real quick read. And then there’s somebody else who is going to want to take 30 seconds, minute, minute and a half, to see that story in video.”

What’s Working for Nonprofit Videos

Now that you have the basics down, here are some pointers to help you take your video storytelling to the next level.

Connected TV

One of the video channels that has been successful for nonprofits lately has been connected TV (CTV).

“CTV is dramatically on the rise,” said Stamer. 

According to the latest research, CTV ad spend in the United States was expected to surpass $30 billion in 2024, up 17% from 2023. And it’s no surprise why: CTV reaches 99% of households, per the same data.

CTV is one of the more expensive channels for launching videos, but its benefits can’t be overlooked.

“CTV ads are not skippable, and the platforms don’t use cookies,” Tonner said. “What’s more, you get 30 seconds — that’s the majority of the inventory for CTV — so it gives you that 30 seconds of emotional storytelling with the targeting ability of digital.”

That means you can target individuals and segments of your donor base, such as lapsed donors.

Tonner also highlighted that, unlike a video on social media, your viewers are more likely to have the volume up for CTV, meaning you can get creative with sounds, background music and even voiceovers to deliver your message.

Keep Your Audience In Mind

When creating a video campaign, it can be easy to get tunnel vision about what you want to communicate to your audience. Stamer warned that this might not be the most effective strategy for creating engaging content.

“I think nonprofits tend to tell their audience what they want them to hear about themselves and what they’re doing and their mission,” she said. “But what the audience seems to generally want to hear — at least in our experience — is who’s being helped, what is the impact, what are the results of the donations, why should they give.”

In addition, you have to be mindful of your audience’s attention span. While 30 seconds is a standard video length, Stamer said it’s more important to ensure your video makes a good impression right off the bat.

“Our attention spans are just getting shorter and shorter, so it’s one of those things that I don’t know that the length of the video matters, but the attention grabbing at the beginning is what matters,” Stamer said. “If you can get their attention and hook them in those first five to eight seconds, then you can keep their attention for the full 30 seconds, minute, minute and a half.”

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) can help reduce the time and financial resources put into video creation. While some may worry about the ethics of AI, there are two guiding principles you can follow: 

1. Ensure the AI you’re using only pulls from content you have full permission to use.
2. Only do what you’re comfortable with.

“Let’s say, for example, we are filming somebody at a food bank who agreed to be part of our video,” Tonner said. “We tell the client and this individual, ‘Here’s the script. I’m going to film you saying these words for the core video, but here are all the additional lines we won’t need to film today that I may use for versioning using generative AI. This way we shorten your time investment and ours while still capturing what you want your story to be.’ We get full permission ahead of time, and then final sign-off from the person and the client before anything airs.”

This can also help in cases such as someone missing their line repeatedly. Tonner gave the example of a pediatric hospital patient who couldn’t get their line right and “just wanted to go home.” With the permission of the patient’s parents, they used generative AI to get the desired video while taking the burden off the patient and cutting down on recording time.

As a final note, Tonner emphasized you should always get approval on the final video.

Strengths-Based Messaging

Your organization may be hesitant to use video storytelling to generate support for your cause because you don’t want to show the recipients of your help as victims.

“You want to represent people with dignity, and not put them in a negative light,” Stamer said.

The good news is that there’s no need to avoid video. Instead, you can look to strengths-based messaging. Stamer used Boys & Girls Clubs, one of Streetlight Digital’s clients, as an example.

“We could show really miserable kids hanging out in the street, avoiding gangs, getting into drugs — whatever,” she said. “That would be a horrible way to represent these kids, but instead what we do is we present the positive side of what Boys & Girls Clubs do to support these kids and the opportunities they have because of the Boys & Girls Clubs. So it might be smiling kids who are having lunch juxtaposed with the fact that one in five kids are food insecure right now, and Boys & Girls Clubs is stepping in to fill that void.”