October 27, 2023
As a charity organization, creating content that resonates with donors is one of the most important tasks. Donors are the lifeblood of any NGO, and without them, it becomes nearly impossible to carry out the organization's goals and objectives. Therefore, it is essential to create content that attracts, engages, and inspires donors to support your cause.
Becoming a content production machine takes many steps, but the reward is more donors that trust you and therefore give more. To make the first few steps easy, we created a list of 10 types of content you can create with minimal effort:
The content examples we picked are based on impact for the donor and simplicity of creation. Content can be easy and impactful for everyone, no matter the budget.
Mossy Earth is rewildering nature. This is a short video of a worker digging a hole to plant a tree. There is also some short context so the donor knows what the story is all about. Because this video was filmed with a phone, it feels more natural.
Another example is where Charity:Water posts a speech of one of their partners online. The video is recorded with the phone and shows live footage from the area they are working on.
This is a video of a Save The Children member talking about their plan for today. The video is short and filmed with the phone. This is powerful because donors feel like this person is talking to them, making them feel more invested in the project.
Here is another example: This is a short video of Save The Children workers who explain what they are doing and how exactly a donor can help this specific cause. It also shows how passionate the people working there are.
This story is authentic because it introduces the people on the team to the donor. Donors are a big part of the organization and want to know when new members join the team.
This story is good because it comes with a short story. It’s not marketing jargon, but just a short text about what happened.
Here is a short clip where the landowner of an affected land talks about the work the organization is doing. This is totally unscripted, and therefore much more authentic.
This is a short video of Save The Children working directly with the kids. They display how happy children can be with simple activities like drawing. This video is 15s long and takes about 1min to produce.
This is a post of the CEO of Charity:Water. They just hit a new water resort to make water more accessible in the region. The amount of likes and comments is almost double of what they usually have, because it shows real progress to the donor.
This post shows the result of a workshop. It gives donors the feeling that things happen with their donation.
This is a video of Charity:Water’s project sites. It’s a drone shot of the village that profits from their work.
This is a story of Caritas workers on their way to Aleppo. You can record this in 30 seconds. The effort is minimal, but the outcome is immense. Donors can see what you are doing and also what the next destination will be.
No footage of field workers? Show what the office is working on. Charity Water shows a short video of their office while they are working on some marketing material.
Now that we know what good content looks like, we can produce our own. Here are 5 things you need to take into consideration when you produce your own content (Number 4 is a game changer):
From field work to office tasks: Each one of you works on an important mission. So the first step is to start documenting what you do and experience. Good, authentic content doesn’t happen when you say “Let’s produce a short clip for Instagram”, but rather when you just document what you are already experiencing.
Videos are the only medium that lets donors really feel like they are present. No image or text can give this feeling. Just keep rolling while you are watching other people working or while you do non-critical work.
Video quality does not increase trust. Authentic content does, which is best filmed with the phone. You don’t need a professional video team to capture important moments.
Want to get more people share their stories from the field? Then repost pieces from their profiles. You get free, authentic content and also give people a sense of appreciation.
Showing people who are in pain or starving is not only an awful fundraising practice, but also doesn’t showcase what good work you do. Focus on your achievements when filming to increase the trust between you and your donor.
Final words about legal restrictions:
Do I need consent to take images of people and children?
It depends: In settings like project work or events, you don’t need consent, as you have legitimate interest as the data controller. According to GDPR, this does not apply when people are in a high privacy zone. This zone includes people who suffer from disease, show injuries or share religious or political opinions. Then you need explicit consent from the person.
Niklas loves simplicity and design. As a co-founder of Felloz he takes on design and marketing challenges and shares them with the community.
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