There are a lot of reasons to give back to your community, whether that community is geographic and local, professional, or interest-based.
Luckily, there are also a lot of ways to give back, especially now. Donating to charity or supporting a worthy project is as easy as the click of a button or sending a text. Last year alone, over $258 billion was given to charities by individual donors.
Companies and corporations are also realizing that giving back is something that consumers want them to do. If you work in marketing or in the leadership of a company, chances are you have thought about which causes you should be supporting and how best to do it. In this post, we’re outlining six simple ways you can build your video strategy and your charitable profile at the same time, with some great ideas for giving back with video.
1. Raise Awareness
The simplest and most straightforward way to help some causes is to help them raise awareness. Connect with leaders in your local community or in your cause of choice. Ask if you can highlight their mission with a video.
The benefit of this for them is obvious. The benefit for you is that you can enhance your company’s profile while promoting a worthy cause.
This tends to work especially well when that cause is complementary to your brand (for example, if you target a cause that is in line with your company’s core mission or product, like the shoe company TOM’s does by donating shoes – and more – for every pair they sell).
2. Volunteer Your Time
If you have a spare half-day, you can also support the cause by simply helping them to produce a video. The onus will be on the organization to come up with content and a concept—your role would be to film, help edit, and deliver the final product. As an added bonus, you can claim the time and resources on your taxes as charity, and you will likely be able to put your brand logo on the video itself.
3. Host an Internal or External Contest
What if you’re more interested in discovering a new cause than in supporting the ones you already know about? Then think about hosting a contest where audience members or employees in your company can send in short videos on their passion projects or personal causes, and you can award the best ones with a donation and publicity through your company’s platforms. Added bonus: you’ll end up with a lot of user-created footage that you can edit and share in other formats.
4. Make Them Laugh.
Nobody can deny that video is a great medium for inciting emotion. We’re used to charitable projects tugging at our heartstrings, but what about going for a different, happier tone? Consider how you can strike a more positive note by bringing humor into your video, in the form of, for example, a local celebrity, a funny hashtag, or a funny animated video concept. Not all causes have to be depressing—make yours a laugh!
5. Inspire Action
Raising awareness is great, but what about actually doing something? Consider making a video for a cause—maybe a general cause rather than a specific organization or project—and offer viewers several ways to take action, for example by donating, by volunteering, by going to an event, turning off their lights for an hour, etc. Giving people specific courses of action to take, and highlighting resources they can use to do so, is a great way to show you care.
6. Make a Commitment
It always warms the heart when a company makes a commitment to a cause, and shows accountability when following through. For instance, SproutVideo recently committed to donating a portion of the proceeds from new accounts opened our platform to the National Forest Foundation. If you’re curious, read more about how we are giving back.
Is your company planning to raise money for a charity event, help convert wasteland in a park, or help children from underprivileged areas go to college? Maybe you should! Look for local people who are trying to get projects off the ground, and make a public video commitment to helping them achieve it. You can even make a video of the whole process, and release it in a series!
Have a video-for-charity idea you want to share, or a favorite campaign? Share away!
