Everyone wants a viral video but few achieve it. We would like to share 4 Tips to creating a viral video for a Non-Profit organizations based on a FundRazr campaign by Lift The Children. Their campaign has gone viral this week with almost 150k views on YouTube and raised over $10,000 in a few days.
Lift the Children supports orphanages in Africa. They are a refuge for the most destitute children, the poorest among the poor. The children they serve and no family to turn to and nowhere else to go.
During the organization’s last visit to Africa, they made a video of the orphans re-enacting the 1987 NBA Eastern Conference Finals game and uploaded the video to YouTube . The video received 135K views in 5 days and included press coverage from Yahoo Sports, The Score, NBC sports , and ESPN. The video was even shared during half-time at the New York Knicks game last Sunday. So how did they do it?
Here are 4 Keys to creating a video for a Non-Profit organization:
1. Compare your cause to something well known.
Lift The Children referenced an infamous NBA final game. This creates that special connection between the cause and the viewers that inspires them to donate.
2. Share your video widely with relevant media.
Lift The Children shared their video with sports bloggers and sports networks. It is very important to maximizing the video’s visibility across a variety of media sources.
3. Create an element of surprise.
Lift The Children found a unique angle to build awareness for their cause. Use the video to show the excitement that results from donating to the cause.
4. Keep it lighthearted use joy and not sorrow.
People expect to be shown the poverty, distress, and sadness that led to the establishment of the non-proft in the first place. But rather than bring them to tears, try to show the joy that the organization is bringing to the world.
It takes some effort to shoot, edit and share but the results are very worthwhile. Video is an essential tool in fundraising so sharpen your skills. Tools like iMovie and Animoto make it easy.
Donate to Lift the Children Today!
