NPO Videos: Sharing the “Heart” of the Story

Another fun session through the Winnipeg Foundation last week, brought in nearly 80 nonprofit attendees interested in learning how to use video on the web. I felt honored to present to this welcoming and energetic group!

Really a “fundamentals” workshop, the intent was to spark their imagination and show them tools, tips and first steps. The hardest part was choosing examples. There is so much rich and compelling video content on the web. So I made a concerted effort to show not the fanciest, or the slickest, but rather videos with a simple premise, created and presented clearly, without too much complication.

Sometimes, if I am fortunate, as I am reviewing many NPO video pieces I come across one that touches me in a way that instantly transforms me away from my consultant mindset; and makes me pause. Take it in. Be enveloped. Remember.

Such was the case with this simple & straightforward video from the Alzheimer’s Society in the UK. Roger McGough, the English performance poet, reads ‘A Fine Romance’. It really hit me hard. My father suffered from Alzheimer’s. Therefore my mother, as caretaker, suffered too. I profoundly remember our long distance conversations about the changes: The diminished awareness and capacity of a once fine orator. The disappearance of familiarity. But I also remember my mother’s certainty that a piece of their love transcended the pain of loss.

This video really hit the mark…it was short, it was simple, and it was real. Sure, the reading was by a famed presenter. But it was also devoid of lots of special effects. It wasn’t 10 minutes long. And it wasn’t a video of an Executive Director extolling the virtues of the organization. It got to the heart of the organization’s reason for being. Before the ask. Before the statistics. It resonated with a core emotion in me. It made me think. It made me remember.

And that, is the sweet spot, for video on the web.

I’ll be writing more about the core of the workshop in the coming days, and posting the slide show, but in this blog, I simply wanted to savor the point at which I again, re-experienced the profound power that I am often trying to explain to others.