See What’s Out There

Last year, I wrote a long blog post about what nonprofits could learn from the Chabad Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish sect. It’s a nice read if you have the time.

I saw this morning a video about what one Lubavitch man has done to turn around a public school in New York. This is a story of passion and dedication and of not judging people by how they look. It is also a story of hope for an American melting pot — a salad really — where people who come from different backgrounds can find common ground in helping our children succeed.

I received the link to this video in an email, that was sent to many people, forwarded many times. It is a classic viral video story. The fact that it started on TV is irrelevant. You and the organizations you care about can tell stories. If those stories are compelling, they will also get sent in an email and attract attention to your work and your programs.

Here’s the story from the Today Show:

New Orleans, March 21, 2008 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Humane Society of the USA has just won best overall video in the 2nd Annual DoGooderTV Nonprofit Video Awards, sponsored by See3 Communications and NTEN - the Nonprofit Technology Network.

Their video, called Overlooked: The Lives of Animals Raised for Food won best video out of the 160 entries to this year’s contest. Other category winners included Greenpeace International, ASPCA and Center for Constitutional Rights which won for their video George Bush Hates Santa.

More than 5000 people voted in the contest.

All of the winning videos can be seen at DoGooderTV, home of nonprofit video.

The 160 entered videos were then judged by a panel of experts in video and nonprofits, including Jeff Pulver, founder of the Video on the Net conference, Danny Alpert, Executive Producer of See3 Communications and award-winning documentary filmmaker, and Suzanne Muchin, Principal, ROI Ventures, a Chicago-based organization helping social entrepreneurs create scalable enterprises.

Here is video of Michael Hoffman, CEO of See3 Communications, giving out the awards at the final lunch at the Nonprofit Technology Conference in New Orleans.

The Make Your Media Matter conference put on by the Center for Social Media at American University was a great success last week. We co-hosted the reception on Thursday night and there was a great turn-out and great energy at the conference.

One of the most interesting discussions this year was about gaming. Games have come to rival (or exceed) Hollywood in terms of dollars. Gaming is huge. From the console games played on those Playstation, Wii, and XBoxes, to what are called “causal games” like online Scrabble or what you have at the cool website Free Rice.

On the gaming panel was Eric Brown, the CEO of ImpactGames. ImpactGames is the publisher of PeaceMaker, a game where you can make peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The game started as a project of Eric Brown and co-founder Asi Burak as part of their program in Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. They are now working on some new games that are very interesting.

One of their games is called Play The News, and it basically has the player learn about a current news event, put themselves in the shoes of one of the parties in the news event, and then predict what will happen in real life. A kind of companion social network then tracks and rates how the people did in predicting the outcomes.

The thing about games is that it requires the player to make decisions. And by making decisions you can feel empathy for the people in whose shoes you are walking. You can also see the consequences of decisions that might seem obvious on first blush, but that have more complicated implications.

The whole world of “Games for Change” is growing rapidly. There is an annual conference that’s gotten huge and a lot of nonprofits are wondering how they can harness the power of gaming to promote their work and their issues.

Here’s some background on PeaceMaker:

See3 Executive Producer Daniel Alpert is a brilliant filmmaker. HBO, A&E, PBS… Danny has made moving and impactful broadcast documentaries for more than 15 years. In the past 5 years, Danny has become an expert in short-form video and internet delivery and through See3 makes those services available to nonprofits. But he keeps making those broadcast documentaries.

Danny’s latest project is The Calling. It’s a 4-part prime time PBS event scheduled for 2009. One of the coolest things will be the outreach and engagement pieces. Danny “plans to leverage the widespread appeal anticipated for this project with an innovative, multi-platform community engagement campaign designed to build audiences before the broadcast and extend the reach of the series into communities across the nation.” Much of that engagement will happen online.

From the press release:

The Independent Television Service (ITVS) announced today that it has made a significant investment in a four-part documentary series about religion in the U.S. to be broadcast in 2009 on PBS. ITVS’ support of the program is bolstered by a recent announcement of other major funding from the Program Challenge Fund from the CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) and PBS (Public Broadcasting Service).

“THE CALLING” presents a four-hour, in-depth exploration of faith in the U.S. through the dramatic journeys of dedicated Americans who have chosen to become religious leaders. As they approach a lifetime of service and spiritual leadership, these Muslims, Catholics, Evangelical Christians and Jews struggle to balance religious convictions, rigorous academics, professional responsibilities and personal relationships. Their intimate portraits will provide a rich, nuanced portrayal of religion in America never before seen on national television. “THE CALLING” is projected for broadcast on PBS in 2009.

And here’s the very short trailer.

Bubbles seems clean, but for how long. McNulty is back at Homicide. Budget woes in Baltimore just killed an investigation into 22 murders. And belt tightening at the Tribune companies has gutted the Baltimore Sun’s newsroom. The Wire is back.

It’s a bitter sweet thing because this is the last season, but I am going to savor every minute of it. If you don’t know this show, start renting from the beginning. It is the best show on television, ever. And its not only good TV, it’s important TV. This show opens a door on the third-world living right under our noses in American cities. Last season’s look at education changed the way I will look at the problems of urban school districts. This season’s look at the newspaper business will likely do the same.

The UN Foundation practices much of what See3 has been preaching for years. They understand that an organization, or a campaign, must tell a story to build an audience, and then activate that audience with a compelling call to action. They understand that video is a critical communications tool in creating that narrative, especially online, and they strategically incorporate video onto their web pages. Perhaps most importantly, they are committed to a culture of documentation: they record almost everything.

The Nothing But Nets campaign makes use of various styles of video with varying production values, and each well serves its purpose.
• They documented the efforts of their street teams, and made a fun and inspiring piece out of young people advocating their way onto the Today Show.
• One of their staff members recorded himself in the field helping save lives in Chad in one of the best on-location home videos I’ve seen.
• They use a professionally produced, light-hearted PSA to get the point across, which currently serves as their home page video.

The People Speak also demonstrates the UN Foundation’s dedication to online video, featuring video throughout the web site, running video contests, and inviting supporters to capture and submit their own stories.

Despite their sophisticated sense of the importance of video in nonprofit communications, the UN Foundation still struggles with their video strategy. Now that we have all this footage, what do we do with it? When, if ever, do we need a professional touch? How do we distribute video online to expand our constituency? Where and how should we focus our energies to get the most ROI from our video production resources?

Stay tuned for a future post on the distribution question. On the production side, See3 believes organizations must capture their own footage on an ongoing basis in order to create an archive of material from which to pull stories and show the impact of your work over time. That’s why See3 offers hands-on training on video documentation. And bravo to the UN Foundation and orgs like it who create terrific pieces that keep web site users engaged and inform supporters of your activities. But the most compelling content – the piece that your supporters will feel obligated to pass along, because it captures the essence of your work in a quick and powerful expression of creativity and experienced messaging – will often result from a strategic assessment of your material, understanding of the most visually engaging stories, and incorporation of high production values. These are the lasting pieces that should be used as the flagship media piece of your campaign, that most efficiently and effectively convey your crucial message, and that exemplify the importance and gravity of your work.

Don’t let the tail wag the dog. Video is not a strategy unto itself. Nonprofits need to make the best use of video by strategically incorporating various styles into your outreach, advocacy, and fundraising campaigns.

At the Communications Network conference in Miami I am right now listening to Victor d’Allant from the Skoll Foundation’s Social Edge community. He is showing video and talking about how, for them, it is all about stories. They invite people to tell them stories in something they call X-Interviews. “Just a white wall, cheap video camera, tripod and a blue tooth microphone for good sound.”

They are uploading their videos on other communities and places like iTunes. Don’t expect everyone to know who you are or that they know what you do. Go and find people online in other places.

Here’s the video he showed. He stopped it right at the good part — and said if you want to see the rest you have to go to Social Edge. “I need traffic,” he said. (Of course, with YouTube, I embedded this right here, without going to Social Edge. That’s the promise and power of portable media — you don’t have to be the convener of all the audiences for your stuff.)

I saw Bruce last night at the United Center here in Chicago. It was mostly great, as I knew it would be. What struck me was how emotional some of the songs were for me and for other people in the audience. Bruce’s stories of fighting authority, finding your way, hitting the road… for many of us who grew up with these songs when coming of age they had a powerful impact. Listening to him sing them, and the crowd sing along, brought up strong feelings of loss and possibilities — lost opportunities, about a future that seemed so far away and so open into a present that can often feel constrained by mortgages and responsibilities. And I felt old — certainly looking at all the geezers in a crowd.

He is powerful because he is authentic. And this is rule #1 of storytelling that you can take with you to your nonprofit work. Be real and it will have power you can’t manufacture.

Another thing to note: Several times last night he mentioned the Chicago Food Depository. I assume he is doing that in each city, calling out a local charity and giving them some love as well as allowing them to collect donations at the concert.

Here’s Bruce doing Thunder Road 32 years ago. Same Bruce doing Thunder Road last night. A little more gray hair, but same band, same energy.

I have been telling my loyal readers for almost two years now how video is really important for nonprofit organizations. People want to SEE your story. They want to HEAR from the people you serve and experience the work that you do. You can’t do that in a brochure or on a static website. With the growth of YouTube, DoGooderTV and other video sharing sites, people are used to seeing video content. If you are waiting for the right time, the right budget or the right moment to start developing and using more video, you are waiting too long.

In addition to what individuals are doing online, news sites like the New York Times, CNN, and Washington Post, have invested heavily in bringing video to the web. They know that people want to see and hear and experience. Online video is the juggernaut that can’t be stopped.

The trend in online video has corresponded to a trend in advertising. Advertising dollars are shifting from broad-based media (think TV ads) to more targeted and measurable advertising online. The 8000 lb. gorilla is Adwords, Google’s platform to match text ads to search terms and websites with relevant content. This one product makes up almost all of Google’s billions of revenue and has, by itself, thrown the entire advertising industry into turmoil.

Google just announced that they are are going to begin adding video ads into search results. What does this mean? It means if someone is looking for information about helping the homeless and a great organization has a terrific 30-second spot about how they are helping — they are going to get the mindshare that will lead to more supporters, more advocates and more donors. This is a big move by Google and it means organizations must be thinking how to create compelling media and RE-USE and RE-PURPOSE the video materials they already have into short, compelling videos for use online.

That is what we are pioneering at See3 and I am more excited than ever that we are able to take our clients’ stories and create fundraising and communications’ strategies online that will bring an increasing return on the dollars invested.

Bill Clinton is busy these days trying to get back into the White House. But when I saw him speak early this summer at an evening in support of the American Jewish World Service, it was not politics on his mind. Bill Clinton — whatever you think of him — is doing great things for Africa, against HIV/AIDS, on obesity and nutrition, and helping poor communities generally.

He is doing this work in the context of the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative. The Foundation is what it sounds like. The Clinton Global Initiative is a way to get business, NGO and government leaders together and get them to make some promises. For example, Richard Branson’s Virgin Group committed $3 billion to renewable energy projects over the next 10 years.

Clinton knows very well the impact of stories. He knows that to really move people to action, you have to take big scary issues, like HIV/AIDS or health care or malaria, and make it personal. He has always done this well and this is a big part of why he was so persuasive in public office and is so persuasive now with business and government officials around the world.

So I wasn’t surprised to see that Clinton is coming out with a new book. It is called Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World.

Here’s an excerpt:

I’ve included one picture that says it all. It captures the beautiful face and bright eyes of a Cambodian orphan born with HIV. Basil was ten months old when this photo was taken. His mother died when he was only one month old, and her doctor arranged for him to be taken in by New Hope for Cambodian Children, an organization that cares for HIV-positive orphans and other vulnerable children. When Basil arrived at the home, he was six weeks of age and had both HIV and tuberculosis. His doctor, a Clinton Foundation fellow, treated him for both conditions, giving Basil lifesaving pediatric AIDS medication through my foundation’s partnership with UNITAID, which funds our efforts to treat children across the globe. Basil responded well to the treatment, gained weight, and, as you can see, is now healthy. He has a chance. That’s often all one person can give another. But it can make all the difference.