1. Vision and strategize.

All successful campaigns begin with lots of planning in advance. And all successful campaigns are created with detailed planning for pre-production, production, and post-production. If you are working with a production company, some of this can be thought through together, but the more your organization’s vision and purpose is clear, the better. Before even touching a camera, consider the following:

• What is the goal of the video (raise awareness, reach a specific fundraising goal)?
• Who is the audience you are trying to reach?
• What is the timeline for video and campaign?
• What resources do you have to create and launch this video and campaign (budget, staff, volunteers)?

2. Clarify your audience.

It is essential to know who your audience is, in order to choose the most effective video tactics to reach them. Getting as specific as possible about who your audience is will not only help you to choose the most ideal visuals, soundtrack, and messaging for your video, it will also help you later on when you are choosing the best avenues for getting your video out to your audience.

3. Create a timeline.

Knowing what your timeline is for the video will help you to plan the best production strategy to keep you on time for your launch date. Some videos take longer than others. If you are choosing a video with a number of locations and many participants or one that includes lots of animation and special graphics, your video may take longer to reach completion. Consider time for:

• Developing a storyboard (planning the shots)
• Production (shooting the video)
• Post-production (editing the video)
• Getting feedback

4. Decide on your message.

Be as clear as possible with what your message is. This will be the guiding force for the creation of your video. At every step of the production process, you will want to check in and make sure you are still in line with this message.

5. Story and style.

What is the story that brought your organization to this moment? Finding a compelling story is very effective, as long as you do so in a way that best speaks to your target audience. This is where choosing the emotion and style of your video will come in. Will your target audience resonate with a more informal and funny video, or a more polished and serious one? Often it is useful to take them on a journey from one emotion to another such as feeling concerned to being inspired.

6. Short is best.

The most effective campaign videos for fundraising are between 1 and 3 minutes. And while that may seem like a short amount of time to say all that you want to say, it should be all you need if you are strategic about it (think about TV commercials). Most people choose whether or not to watch a video within the first 20 seconds, so make sure the beginning of your video starts strong, and you get to the heart of your message quickly.

7. Emphasize your call to action.

This. Is. Everything. Don’t be afraid to say it! Don’t make the mistake of giving your audience a great video without knowing what to do next. Invite your audience to donate, go to your website, volunteer, share the video, or whatever is most effective to your goals. Just say it, and have it in all the text within and outside of the video through an embed code and links to share on social media.

8. Seek feedback.

After you have a rough cut of your video, send it to other members of your organization, as well as some people from your target audience. You might want to also create a form for them to fill out in order to compile and review the feedback. Creating a Google Form is one easy way of streamlining the feedback you receive.