Social Impact Films

Did you see it? They squirmed in their seats, rolled their eyes, frowned, and whispered—presumably—words of derision. "May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love, and to walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people," Bishop Mariann Budde said gently. She spoke softly yet with conviction, as if carefully ensuring she understood each statement before delivering it. Bishop Budde was confronting fear with love. She didn’t need to yell. She didn’t rely on gimmicks. She didn’t code her language or alter herself to be heard. Instead, she spoke with courage and truth, cutting through the hypocrisies of the preceding political campaign and the injustices yet to come. Those who fundamentally opposed her beliefs rejected her words. And no, in that moment, the hate, the fear-mongering, and the broken institutions were not mended. But for those of us who hold love as an ethic, her words offered clarity—a reminder of what we must do to resist. Speak. Act. Lead with love. Watch the clip here: https://lnkd.in/gfA6bVN6

I was 16 years old. I was riding in the car with my dad while we ran an errand. I don’t remember what sparked the conversation. But I was grumbling about the guy at the red light asking for change. I imagine that I felt compelled to say what I did because here I sat next to a man that worked endless hours at two jobs and still found time to take my siblings and me to choir practice on Wednesday evenings, church on Sunday morning, and work on the occasional home project. We still lived paycheck to paycheck. Certainly, he felt some irritation. Right? My dad, a man of few words, simply told me to be careful about judging a person for their station in life. He had seen friends and acquaintances fall from seemingly stable situations down into dire straits. He reiterated, anybody could end up on the street due to a couple of bad breaks. His empathy hit me like an ocean liner. I realized my ignorance beside his wisdom. I also realized in that moment that I wanted to be like my dad. I don’t mean in the way a boy aspires to be cool, stoic, or strong like his dad. But rather, I wanted to capture his essence; I wanted to continue seeing a person’s humanity regardless of the challenges I faced. It took me years of this moment living in my psyche for me to also understand that this empathy my dad expressed was also gratitude. It was also generosity. And it was love. I’m not sure in what order those things manifest. But certainly, my dad felt enough gratitude for what he did have in order to be capable of empathy. And he must have had enough empathy for others in order to be capable of gratitude. Maybe they’re one and the same. As I celebrate Thanksgiving today and encounter the word “gratitude”, I see it as a reminder to live life with empathy and love. Because, despite the early intervention of my dad, I still struggle while striving to live this every day. I would imagine that my dad had really tough days in which he struggled to show empathy. I don’t know. He’s only human and I’ve never asked. But life’s challenge is to find a way to continue seeking empathy, gratitude, and love. Here’s to committing to another year on that journey. Happy Thanksgiving!

We possess two options. Two options for choosing how we engage with systems. This abnormal election cycle (and the preceding abnormal election cycles) has me thinking about how the dialogue continues to spiral downward. Quite a bit of political debate surround false proxies. These false proxies can include inflation, legal versus illegal immigration, crime statistics, etc. What is rarely discussed, and what I think is the root conversation, is how we would like to see the different systems operate; we rarely discuss what the values of our systems should be. I contend that our choices are simple. Is it love? Or is it fear? When a system operates with fear, it fights for the status quo. The people that operate it say, “this is good enough - change has too many unknowns, and therefore, is my enemy”. And the outcomes are inefficient, ineffective, and eventually destructive as new information and circumstances transform society, but not the system. But when a system operates with love, it seeks to be a generous force. It seeks to be honest, set boundaries, and care for itself. The people that operate it say, “let’s transform for those we serve based on new information”. And the outcomes are effective, abundant, and productive - staying relevant to a changing society. So, today, we collectively make a decision about the people that run our government and the systems within it. Let’s remember that the choice is love, or fear. That is true today. It’s true tomorrow within our organization. And it’s true the following day within our families. So on and so forth.?

Tough social issues require expertise, creativity, and of course, lots of love. And the best nonprofits that choose to work on these tough social issues offer exactly that to the people they serve. As a nonprofit, you have an outsized role to play in telling these stories. In fact, you are perfectly positioned to be the storytellers and educators for the greatest challenges of our times. You are uniquely positioned because you possess the expertise required to contextualize these social issues. Whether you do direct service, research, or capacity-building, you assess and communicate the problem and solution on a daily basis. You have creatively found solutions - usually under difficult circumstances and an ever-changing funding outlook. And you choose to do this with love. You accept the people you serve and decide to be generous, empathetic, and respectful. No one else does this. Your perspective is paramount; it’s the story that must be told today.

You won’t always be able to hire a pro. But you can still capture great video content and some compelling moments with the smartphone in your pocket. This is a benefit to the professional you’ll ultimately hire, as well. Most of the time, I work with organizations that don’t have any video assets to assist in highlighting their tremendous impact. So, if you’re a MarComms professional looking to begin filming your organization’s events and programs, I’m here to encourage you. Here are some thoughts on what you should keep in mind as you start capturing videos for your organization. 1.) It may feel awkward at first. You hit the red button on your phone…and everyone seems to notice you. Keep filming. Something happens after about five minutes. People start to feel comfortable with the camera. Just don’t invade someone’s personal space without asking them first. And whenever possible, give fair notice that you will be filming. 2.) There is a tried and true way to cover an event. Capture wide, medium, and closeup shots of everything. Let’s imagine you’re covering a workshop with three tables full of guests performing activities at each table. A wide shot will show all three tables and give the viewer a sense of the space and the number of people at the workshop. A medium shot may only include one table, or perhaps part of the table. The idea here is to provide the viewer with a full view of the activity, but not anything else. Closeups can be shots of hands, materials, and/or faces. These shots draw the viewer to very specific actions, items, and even emotions. 3.) Move your body! Especially if you’re a beginner, it may take a while for you to gain a sense of which spots will yield good shots. Unless you’re covering a speech or panel in its entirety, it’s a good idea to keep changing your field of view. 4.) If you’re going to edit a video together to recap the event. Capture a couple of interviews. At the very least, ask them to recap the event for you. You can certainly expand from there - like why they attended the event and what did they gain from it. I hope these tips help you get started. I look forward to seeing all the great work. And if you ever need additional tips, feel free to reach out to me :)

Your organization’s enemy is fear. Stigmas, misinformation, apathy, the status quo—all forms of fear that undermine your impact. You set out every day to advance your cause, change ineffective systems and policy. But as a powerful adversary, fear manifests as resistance to your new ideas, reluctance to break away from familiar patterns, and skepticism towards innovation. This fear stifles creativity, impedes progress, and hampers the realization of your organization's mission. But a generous and empathetic communications strategy will combat fear. First, speak to your audience with empathy. Address their fears. Make them feel seen. Establish trust. Secondly, be generous with your communications. Educate and inform. But go to great lengths to make the topic easy to understand. Whenever possible, show instead of tell. In this way, your audience will feel like a valued character in your organization’s story. You will guide them through their transformation. Give them space to become the hero. Perform this act of love in your one-on-one interactions, your workshops, your videos, your social media, etc. and win the battle over fear.

It’s time to hire a video producer. But you have limited, or no, experience vetting a video producer. The question isn’t whether someone can physically shoot the video. At this point, just about anyone can do that. The issue at hand is whether a video producer can capture your brand, your mission, your essence. So, here are seven tips that will help you find a great video production partner. 1. Don’t take lingo for an answer. A professional doesn’t need to make it sound more complicated than it is. If your producer doesn’t make themselves easily understandable, that may be a sign they’re mostly thinking about themselves. 2. A thoughtful process goes a long way. Whether you have made videos in the past, or not, it’s a good question to ask: how will this producer usher us from phase to phase? If they don’t have a set process, you can expect to feel like you’re winging it. 3. There should be clear expectations for each party. Incompatible expectations will create a very rocky road for everyone. But asking about expectations can also be one of the most productive conversations you can have. This is the foundation for a great agreement. 4. If your producer is also filming and editing everything by themselves, beware! There are actually more variables that could go wrong than if there is a professional crew to assist the producer. It is, in fact, more expensive to hire a team. But well worth the extra cost. 5. A good producer must care about who you are and what you do. Otherwise, what’s the point? They’ll just produce more noise for your audience. Remember: videos are the best branding tools you have - second only to in-person interaction. 6. Closely related to the last one, but more directly associated with the actual production of your videos: your producer’s biggest goal should be to create something that speaks to who you are and how the way you serve people makes them feel. If they’re more concerned about cool shots, or their own marketing goals, you’re better off without them. 7. Does you producer have experience working with nonprofit organizations? In the end, you’re a business like any other. But there are unique aspects to how nonprofits must communicate - because you serve one group (your clients) and you market to another (donors). There are unique considerations to make when producing content for you. I hope this helps. Let me know in the comments if there are other criteria that have assisted you in finding a great video production partner in the past.?

Specificity is crucial to the success of a video. You want to be so specific that your video is a knife’s edge cutting through the noise. Be specific about the message, the story, the characters. Be specific about the tone, the images, the audience. Because videos are not blunt marketing and PR tools. They are precision branding tools. Marty Neumeier, author of The Brand Gap, Zag, and The Brand Flip, says that “a brand is a customer’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company”. And as empathy machines, as Roger Ebert defined films, videos invoke that gut feeling better than anything - other than a lived experience. But you have to be specific. Because you lose the story by imposing the boring tasks of overly contextualizing your organization, or hearing from too many subject matter experts, or making the video a list of services. Be specific and allow your audience to feel what you feel about your organization.

AI is revolutionizing filmmaking. Just like how it’s going to revolutionize how you do your work, too. Therefore, it’s a worthwhile endeavor for everyone to learn how to use AI tools. But… Already, in recent years, due to better technology and a younger, more robust talent pool, the desire of many organizations (and just about everyone else) is for filmmaking to be faster, cheaper, and even less collaborative. Those same desires will double in volume as new AI tools come to market. But the “magic” of cinema that we all fell in love with doesn’t come from faster, cheaper, and less collaborative. It comes from hard work, thoughtfulness, and working as a team. So, I feel compelled to draw a line in the sand on how we use AI starting now. It will be imperative to maintain a responsible approach to filmmaking - especially those of us creating doc-style films. We are working with humans to tell their stories. Honesty matters. For me, working with the social and public sectors, means that that honesty matters twofold. Because think about the history of media in these sectors: exploitation of poverty and other social issues to raise money. This already requires a framework that demands rigor in how we tell stories in an effort not to exploit people’s personal stories. So, within the next 2, 3, 4 years, we’re going to see amazing AI tools launch from every corner of the industry. And they will make filmmaking easier, faster, and maybe even smarter. But when you start thinking about how easy it will be to create stories that aren’t true/real/honest, I believe we will enter an age of misinformation that will make the last several years look comparatively innocent. For filmmakers, the social sector, government, journalists, it must matter how we use AI. More importantly, it must matter how we don’t use AI. Honesty must drive our work. No deepfakes, no fake interviews, no fake human connections. We must stand for truth.

Social Justice is an alias for love. I came to this conclusion after interviewing the great folks at Carole Robertson Center for Learning last week. Social Justice is at the core of their story. And what it means for their clients, staff, and partners is that love inhabits all aspects of the organization. So, if Social Justice is an alias for love. Are other genres of Social Justice also actually love? Is DEI an alias for love? Is Advocacy an alias for love? Is Capacity Building an alias for love? The list goes on.