Share Your Nonprofit's Videos with the World

The scene opens with footage of a soaring majestic owl, cuts to a brown bear ambling through a field of red clover, and pans at last to a polar bear and her cubs swimming in the crisp Arctic waters. A narrator — his voice familiar somehow — communicates the value of preserving this idyllic wildlife refuge.

The footage is part of an advocacy video produced by the NRDC Action Fund, an affiliate of nonprofit environmental advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council. The organization created the video to inform the public about proposed laws that would allow for oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. To help spread the word and rally opposition, the organization produced a two-minute advocacy video narrated by actor Robert Redford and posted it to the Internet.

Online advocacy videos like the NRDC Action Fund's represent a compelling medium for nonprofits to bring attention to a cause — and a visual way for those who come across these videos to connect, or reconnect, with an issue. Moreover, because nonprofits can use a variety of free online video-sharing sites to host their videos, organizations that can't afford to pay steep television advertising rates now have unprecedented access to the powerful medium of video advocacy.

"An Astonishing Amount of Traffic"

When it came time to put its video online, the NRDC Action Fund uploaded it to mega-popular video-sharing site YouTube. Allowing YouTube to host the video not only saved the NRDC Action Fund's servers precious bandwidth, it also exposed its message to an entirely new audience, according to Ian Wilker, Managing Editor of NRDC Action Fund's Web site.

"At this point, about one percent of all Internet page views per day belong to YouTube, and that's an astonishing amount of traffic," said Wilker. "And in using YouTube, we're not preaching to traditional environmentalists; we are trying to get our message out into various nontraditional demographics."

Once the NRDC Action Fund posted its video to YouTube, it embedded the clip on its own Web site so that its constituents could easily view it. Jordan Kessler, NRDC Action Fund's Web Site and Online Activism Manager, noted that the ubiquity of Adobe Flash Player ensured that the video was accessible to most users and saved the organization the time it would have taken to post clips encoded in different formats on its own Web site.

In less than a month, the NRDC Action Fund's video registered more than 100,000 hits on YouTube. While Wilker attributes much of the campaign's success to the organization's own email promotions, he also believes that some of YouTube's features — such as the ability to join groups and allow other users to embed the clip in their MySpace profiles — have helped it spread across the Internet.

All in all, Wilker thinks that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge video campaign yielded positive results. "We consider this to have been a very successful effort in terms of getting new people to take online action — and thus become NRDC online activists — and spreading awareness," he said.

Advocacy Videos and Public-Service Announcements

Your decision to create a short public-service announcement (PSA) or a more in-depth advocacy video depends on your organization's particular goals and budget. Typically, video PSAs are short — less than a minute in length — and address an easily comprehensible issue, often including a memorable slogan or catchphrase. Advocacy videos, on the other hand, usually run between five and 15 minutes, deal with more complex matters, and contain persuasive footage such as first-person interviews. No matter which video format you choose to employ, it's important you target your message at a specific audience.

If your nonprofit plans to produce its own advocacy video, the Video For Change manual (PDF), published by human-rights advocacy nonprofit Witness, covers many aspects of planning, shooting, and editing — including scriptwriting and interviewing.

For tips on writing and producing a successful PSA, see the Community Toolbox article Preparing Public Service Announcements . Finally, to get ideas and inspiration, check out PSAs produced by other nonprofits at the National Association of Broadcasters' public service page.

What to Know Before You Upload

Format

Most online video-sharing sites accept clips encoded with common formats such as Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and QuickTime (MOV); some also support other formats such as Audio Video Interleave (AVI) and Windows Media Video (WMV). If your digital camcorder does not natively record in one of these formats, you'll need to convert the clips before you can upload them.

Video-Editing Software

Many video-editing packages offer a feature that converts files between formats. However, if your organization does not have easy access to an editing suite, you might try a less expensive dedicated conversion program such as WinAVI Video Converter. Before you convert the video, check to see if the video-sharing site you plan to upload it to has quality requirements; for instance, all clips added to Google Video must be encoded at bit rates higher than 260 kilobits per second.

Copyright

Note that while the majority of video-sharing sites allow anyone on the Internet to view content, your organization will have to create a free account in order to upload files. Also, be sure that your nonprofit's video doesn't contain any material that could potentially violate copyright laws, since most video-sharing sites will remove content if a copyright holder complains that their work was used without permission.

Popular Video-Sharing Sites: An Overview

Once your nonprofit has created an advocacy video or PSA in a Web-friendly format, it's time to put it online for the world to see. Besides the fact that uploading clips to video-sharing sites costs nothing, it also requires very little time and technical skill; in most cases, getting your videos online is just a simple matter of choosing a site, uploading the file, tagging it with keywords or descriptive text, and waiting a few moments for the file to upload.

To help you decide which video-sharing site is best for your organization's work, we've compiled some basic information about a few of the most popular, including file-size requirements and features that can help your clips reach a wider audience.

• Google Video
  According to a Google spokesperson, its video site -- which launched in early 2005 but is still in its beta release stage -- is currently one of the company's fastest-growing properties. Though many major television networks sell their video content through Google Video, the site also lets any organization or individual upload as many of their own clips as they want. Although Google doesn't place a size limitation on videos, you'll have to download the Google Uploader tool if your nonprofit plans to upload clips that are larger than 100 MB.
  
  Google Video gives you a great deal of control over what other users can and cannot do with the content you upload. For instance, you can allow users to add their own tags to your list of chosen keywords, or you can disable this feature. Google Video also allows you to specify whether others can download your video; embed it on their own Web sites or blogs; or add comments and ratings. You can place your video in up to three different categories and even restrict those in specific countries from seeing it, helpful if your organization is uploading clips that certain governments might frown upon.

• Ourmedia  
  Launched in March 2005 as a free repository for audio files, images, and videos, Ourmedia currently has about 110,000 members and a library of more than 50,000 user-submitted video clips. The site doesn't place a size restriction on files, though you'll have to use a special tool to upload videos larger than 20 MB. Note that in exchange for the unlimited storage space, your nonprofit will also have to create an account at the Internet Archive, an Ourmedia partner organization that actually hosts the site's library of clips.
  
  Ourmedia offers your nonprofit several different options for licensing your original work. For instance, you can choose a traditional copyright scheme in which all rights are reserved, or you can publish it under a Creative Commons license, giving others the right to remix or share it. You can also determine whether Ourmedia visitors are allowed to download your clips or if they can only view them in the site's built-in player.
  
  Ourmedia lets you add tags to help others locate your organization's videos, although users will not be able to append their own keywords to your clips. Also, since Ourmedia lacks a structured set of categories, you will probably want to choose your tags wisely, as that is the only way people will be able to find your clips. Other features include the ability to create and join groups, post in discussion forums, and access resources and tutorials at the site's Learning Center.
• Yahoo Video
  Like Google, the Internet's other search-engine heavyweight has also launched a service that allows you to share videos, although Yahoo places a 100-MB size limit on each clip. You can tag your video with keywords and place it in multiple categories such as News or Video Blogs. Other users can also tag your clips, as well as rate or review them, though you cannot disable these features. Yahoo Video won't let visitors download your nonprofit's videos, but the service will allow them to add your clips to their list of favorites or embed them into their own blogs or Web sites by copying and pasting in HTML code.
• YouTube
  By far the most-popular and fastest-growing video-sharing site on the Web, YouTube serves more than 100 million videos per day, with about 65,000 new clips added every 24 hours. Videos cannot exceed 10 minutes in length, although you can apply for a special Director account if you want to add longer clips to the site. Any user can stream your organization's videos via YouTube, but the service doesn't natively support downloading.
  
  Before uploading your organization's advocacy video or PSA, you select a category such as News or Science and Technology, then tag it with keywords so that viewers can easily find it. Though users cannot add their own tags to your clips, you can allow any YouTube visitor to cut and paste HTML code that will embed your video in their own Web site or blog.
  
  YouTube lets you create playlists of your favorite videos and even build your own custom channel, useful if your organization wants to highlight clips related to its cause or those from similar nonprofits. You might also be able to track down potential supporters by starting or joining a YouTube Group, and if your video receives a lot of positive user ratings, you may find it featured on the site's home page.

Other Video-Sharing Sites

• DoGooderTV
  DoGooderTV, a newer online video service still in the early stages of development, caters specifically to the nonprofit community by hosting clips produced by registered 501(c)3 organizations. To upload videos to the service, your nonprofit will have to fill out a registration form, then speak with a DoGooderTV representative. 
  
  DoGooderTV allows you to upload videos of up to 100 MB, although you’ll have to pay to submit more than one clip. Currently, the site accepts files encoded in QuickTime or Flash formats, but if your organization lacks the resources to convert the files from another digital format or from videotape, DoGooder TV will do it for you —albeit for a fee.  (At present, it will run your organization $200 to convert five minutes of video. More pricing information here.)
  
  Currently, DoGooderTV viewers can only watch streaming video, though in the future, the site will allow users to download media as well. DoGooderTV also plans add features that would allow members to create personalized home pages promoting their favorite causes; add Donate Now buttons to each of their pages; add clips to their MySpace profiles; and receive RSS alerts whenever their favorite organizations added new videos.
  

If you want to get as many eyes as possible on your nonprofit's advocacy video or PSA, you might also want to consider uploading it to a few of the other dedicated video-sharing sites on the Internet, such as Grouper or BlipTV. To see how some of the Web's most popular video-sharing sites compare to one another, check out Light Reading's article Top Ten Video Sharing Websites.

In addition, many social-networking platforms have added features that allow their members to share videos with the public. For instance, if your organization has a Friendster account, you can embed your advocacy video in your profile, then spread the word by allowing other users to add it to their own profiles. Popular social-networking site MySpace will also let you upload videos smaller than 100 MB to your profile, then tag them so that other users can easily locate them.

Microfinance Organization Uses Video Sites to Increase Exposure

Grameen Foundation, an international nonprofit that uses microfinance to help the world's poor improve their economic situation, originally released a promotional video about its work called Breaking Through on DVD. However, since producing and distributing physical DVDs is relatively expensive, the organization also decided to post the video on its own Web site as a more cost-effective solution.

Once the 16-minute video was posted on Grameen's own site, the organization realized it would be simple to share it on online-video sites as well. According to Ken Liffiton, Grameen's Internet Marketing Officer, posting the clip at video-sharing sites gives the organization yet another avenue for reaching those who may not be familiar with microfinance.

"Any time we reach new people online, we gain an opportunity to engage new supporters," Liffiton said, noting that Grameen chose Google Video and YouTube because of their large user bases.

To help expose "Breaking Through" to as large of an audience as possible, Grameen permits Google Video users to download the clip. According to Liffiton, the ability to download the video not only allows viewers to watch it offline at their convenience, but also increases the chances that they'll share it with others. "Any time somebody passes our content on to a friend," Liffiton said, "that endorsement has power we could never match through advertising."

Liffiton believes that allowing YouTube and Google Video users to embed the "Breaking Through" clip in their blogs is another valuable way to increases its online presence. As an example, he points to the FinanceProfessor.com blog, which featured the video in a July 2006 post, along with an explanation and discussion of microfinance.

"I think that any time nonprofits have the ability to spread the word in the online world beyond their own Web sites," Liffiton said, "they should take advantage of that opportunity to gain increased visibility."