Did you catch MemoryFox’s February webinar with Tammy Zonker? Watch it now!

This recording took place on Thursday, February 22, 2024.

Full Transcript:

0:00everybody welcome welcome thank you all for coming today

0:06to our memory Fox webinar oh we got lots of people coming in right now so

0:15exciting oh yes lots of people coming in how exciting okay well um happy belated

0:22Valentine’s Day to everybody I feel like um we don’t celebrate that holiday long

0:28enough I think we should celebrate it more often and I love that especially in nonprofit work we can we can uh you know

0:36make our donors our Valentine’s or our sponsors our Valentine’s and our community members so I just love that I

0:43hope you guys all had a wonderful or all having a wonderful February so

0:49far we’ve got lots more people joining us but thank you so much Tammy for joining us today um this will be our

0:57first memory Fox webinar of 2024 so it’s really wonderful that you

1:04have um yeah thank you so much for coming and I’m going to go ahead and let you

1:11share your screen but we are just so thrilled to have you here you were

1:16talking about literally our favorite topic which is video messaging we couldn’t be more excited about any other

1:24topic we talk about it constantly and it’s so exciting that um more people especially people that great insights

1:30like you are also going to talk about video messaging I love it so much um I’m

1:36gonna just keep admitting people but um that’s all I have again thank you all for joining and Tammy I’ll let you take

1:43it away awesome thank you Carly and thanks everybody for being here I would

1:50love to see your faces uh if you’re comfortable in um sharing your video

1:57it’d be nice to see your faces and just drop in the in the chat where you are

2:03connecting from what’s your what’s your home City where are you let’s kind of get related

2:14today here we go now I can see my chat so we’ve got Brianna from Los Angeles

2:20and Marissa from San Diego so California is in the

2:25house how about others oh my my gosh we H have Gunner

2:31from Vienna Vienna one of on my bucket list uh Carly’s from Rochester New York

2:39beautiful Rochester as is Rosanna Natalie’s here more California hey

2:46Natalie oh Pittsburgh excellent thank you Trisha well I hope I hope I hope you’re

2:53all uh having a great February and maybe just maybe there’s a little sunshine in your world today it’s a little gray a

3:01little cloudy in Detroit today but you know what being with you our hearts are

3:06warm right and we’re going to be talking about video messaging and how to share stories through video and so I know that

3:14that will help make up for any cloudiness that we might have in our lives right now all right so I’m going

3:19to jump in and I’ve invited to Carly and Natalie

3:24to just chime in if they are so inclined and certainly we’re going to save some time for for Q&A whoops there we go all

3:33right so I want to start with a quote from Jamie Ford who is a prolific novelist and he says seeing isn’t

3:40believing feeling is believing and I am of that same mindset we can talk about

3:46the facts and the stats we can share email messages we can even send text

3:53messages but video I mean to bring those stories to life to share the impact to

4:00really let our supporters whether they be volunteers or donors or or Community

4:06Partners to let them know how they’re making a difference to communicate with them in a way that doesn’t just give

4:14them information but truly touches their hearts right gives them all the feels

4:21that is truly um when we move when we move Hearts we move Minds because I’m a

4:26believer that we are basically um emotional donors looking for logical

4:32reasons to justify our emotional decisions to give whether that’s time

4:39money expertise influence I do believe that feeling is believing and so we’re

4:44going to talk all about that today so uh what we’re going to cover this is

4:49Loosely our agenda we’re going to talk about why video and text messaging are smart strategies we’re going to talk

4:57about what donors want what they want to know and how video can help deliver what

5:03they want I’m going to share some fun examples from the work that I do um with

5:08different clients across the country and I hope that those will inspire you uh to

5:14and inform how you create your video messaging and you may have some even better ideas that you can share when

5:21we’re doing some Q&A uh I also then of course want to give you some uh resources and tools and

5:28advice on how to scale gratitude and to scale video messaging video

5:34storytelling and here’s the the given I just want to State the given and that is

5:40if you are going to you know automate email if you’re automating uh

5:47texting whether it’s texting videos or emailing videos if you’re going to be um

5:52emailing automating the that process you need to have opt-in permission from your

5:58supporters right where there are spam laws there are guidelines that are

6:03established and we need to follow those guidelines all right so uh that is a

6:09given and it with everything that I’m going to talk about all

6:15right so why is video and text messaging of video why are why are those smart

6:21strategies well according to Forbes 95% of a uh of a message is retained like

6:2895% % of people retain a message when it is conveyed to us on a video compared to

6:34just 10% if we’re reading something so video has a higher retention rate

6:41from the viewer also if we’re adding videos to our email it can increase

6:46click-through rates by 300% right and that’s what we want we

6:51want that engagement we don’t want just people ignoring our videos and our email messages or not clicking through not

6:59reading what we’re sharing with them and so we know that if we can include a video in that message they are 300 times

7:07more likely to to view that that video and to open that email that’s why

7:13actually having the word video in the subject line also has contribut you to

7:19having a higher open rate uh including video links in your email can decrease

7:26unsubscribes by 26% right it breaks my heart a little bit every time someone

7:33unsubscribes from my list right because again just like you I want to provide Optimum value uh and when they

7:40unsubscribe they no longer get that communication because those are the rules and we follow the rules short form

7:46video so short videos rank number one for lead generation and engagement according to

7:52HubSpot text messages overall have about a 98% open rate 98%

8:00and in fact 88% of people say that they use their cell phones the number one way that they use their cell phone is for

8:06text messaging and even even me of a slightly older demographic I send more

8:13text messages on any given day that I make phone calls from my cell phone right so again this may be the same for

8:22you but um texting is um is the top reason why 88% of people use their

8:27mobile phones 8 per of people check a text messages uh within five minutes of

8:34receiving it right we hear that Ding within five minutes we’re reading it now even for matures so 70 and older they

8:43read those text messages on average within 11 minutes so we pay attention to text 51%

8:51of consumers reply to text messages within one to two minutes and 65 to 85%

8:58of us are VIs ual Learners and so not only do we retain more but we comprehend

9:04more when we are receiving communication through video so for all these reasons

9:10and so many other reasons video and text messaging that and that combination are

9:17a really smart strategy Now video and emailing also a smart strategy but

9:22notice the common denominator and that is

9:28video all right so what do you want your supporters to know feel or do in

9:36response to the video message or whether again whether that’s an email or a text

9:41message so when we’re crafting these donor Communications we want to have a

9:46clear outcome a clear call to action in mind when we’re crafting them what do

9:51you want the person receiving that communication to know feel or do as a

9:58result of seeing that so do you want them just to know what kind of difference they

10:04made uh do you want them to feel seen heard or valued right and that’s what we

10:12learn from philanthropic psychology we donors want to know not just donors people humans whether

10:20they’re giving money or time the people in your community they want to know that

10:26they matter that they are making a difference and preferably they want to know

10:32specific information they want to specifically know what kind of difference they are making with by

10:39themselves or with along with others so they want to feel seen heard and valued

10:44they want to know that they matter they want to feel a sense of community a sense of belonging and so we

10:52want to make certain that our messaging conveys that to them from time to time

10:57or even every time we maybe we want to give an update on the specific program or component of the

11:04mission that they care the most about and of course to do that we need to know what that is and there may be even a

11:11call to action we may want them to do something whether that’s give give again

11:19um volunteer Advocate spread the word right there could be multiple calls to action

11:25but we want to make certain that there’s clarity about what we want them to know

11:31feel or do as a result of this communication of this video so

11:39Clarity so in order to deepen relationships through video messaging

11:45there are just so many different ways that we can do that so of course personalized thank yous you know thank

11:51you tamy for your care and compassion for the children we serve uh your gift

11:57of your kind donation the time you spent volunteering at the back to school drive

12:04um your um contribution the time you spent on that scholarship award

12:10committee unbelievable changing lives so personalize thank yous maybe you want to

12:18use a video message to celebrate a special occasion my birthday an

12:23anniversary you know the birth of a new grandbaby in my family or maybe maybe

12:28maybe it’s a special occasion for the organization and because they are part

12:34of the community your community maybe you want to let them know our 85th

12:39Anniversary is in May you may want to let them know that

12:44we have just named a new board chair and we want you to meet them so some kind of

12:51special occasion or Milestone event in their life or in the life of your shared

12:57community maybe you want to send a video message that’s showcasing impact right

13:03oops a little ahead of myself maybe you have an exciting announcement to make or

13:08you want to give a behind the scenes Glimpse or kind of a um you know a sneak

13:14preview of something that’s coming up uh that will be available to the broader Community but because they are such an

13:22important part of the family you wanted to hear you wanted them to hear about it or to see a sneak peek of it

13:29first maybe you are hosting a virtual or a hybrid event and you know they either

13:37couldn’t be there and you want to give them just a little snippet like you’re here in spirit and I wanted you to see

13:44or maybe you’re doing a thanathon and rather than smiling and dialing and leaving lots of voicemails maybe you’re

13:50asking your volunteers your board members to stand in front of a tripod

13:55with their iPhone or Android taking a video thanking them and we’re texting

14:03those thank you short thank you videos out to our supporters maybe it is I wish you were here you know here we are um at

14:11I have this wonderful organization they are a hospice uh Care Center in the

14:18southeast part of the United States and for example they have a grief camp for children who have lost a loved one and

14:25coming up in the next couple weeks there’s the the big sendoff where the kids will all pile on to the

14:31bus to go to this overnight grief camp and so supporters are invited to come

14:37and they do face painting and they have some fun as the kids get on the bus and

14:42of course the kids are a little scared they’re a little excited but maybe one of your supporters who loves Camp can’t

14:49be there and so you know I’m taking a a video and I’m saying you know Kathy I

14:55know that you always love coming to the big um you know grief camp send off the camp Braveheart send off and you

15:01couldn’t be here this year but I wanted to give you just a glimpse look at those nervous little smiles and those sweet

15:07faces you know transformation and healing is just ahead for them this week

15:13and that’s because of you um maybe it’s again board members calling maybe you’re casting like a big

15:20hairy audacious vision and you want to give them a glimpse into it um again maybe you’ve got more volunteer

15:26opportunities or you’re showcasing collaboration with other nonprofit Partners whatever

15:31it is video is one of the fastest most compelling ways that we can communicate

15:38that if we are thoughtful if we’re intentional and if we can provide Clarity and a little bit of emotion

15:46right to really make it feel special so people feel they feel the work they feel

15:52the connection they feel honestly they feel your love Okay so of course to customize to

16:00you know to give them an update on their favorite program you kind of need to know what that is so here are some of my

16:08favorite Discovery questions now ideally this set of questions I typically use

16:15when I’m sitting down face to face with supporters but they can be adapted for

16:20surveys for polls for small focus groups right you can adapt them so let me just

16:27run through these questions just to give you another set of tools so the first one is how did you learn about the

16:34importance of giving who taught you how to be generous you know so it might be

16:41my grandmother it was my father or maybe you know I was that kid who needed help

16:46and I learned this on my own because of the kindness of people who poured into me and I want to pay it forward so

16:54understanding people’s um their origin story Rel related to their generosity

17:01what are your proudest moments with us maybe it’s the sendoff when the kids

17:07get on the bus and they go to Camp Braveheart for a week to heal from you know the grief and loss that they’re

17:13feeling what are your biggest regrets or maybe if you’ve had a disappointment with us over the years that’s really

17:19important to know too what part of our work interest you the most and why is it

17:25the foster care program is it the um the work that the Children’s Center does

17:33with children diagnosed with autism or other neurodiverse um diagnosis like what is

17:41it about our work that you love the most so then I can customize my video my

17:46engagement my impact reporting my video storytelling in ways that I know are

17:51going to resonate and be the most meaningful to you and honestly if I put this into my CRM as a searchable field I

18:00can segment and begin to scale some of these stories and these you know these

18:05video impact reports tell me about your most meaningful giving experience whether

18:11that was giving your time or expertise or influence or your financial support maybe ask what’s the most

18:18special way you’ve ever been thanked or acknowledged for giving when it comes to

18:23nonprofit organizations who does it best and why right so what are the characteristics maybe it’s a survey and

18:30there’s 10 characteristics and you ask them to pick the top three or to stack rank those characteristics

18:37transparency um you know um big thinking

18:42what is it about that organization that makes them the best what do you want to accomplish

18:49through your giving right so again whether it’s face to face or in other

18:55formats we can kind of get to the essence of these and it makes that video storytelling that video rep uh impact

19:03reporting that much more personal and that much more meaningful and will

19:09generate more of those feels because feeling is believing I mean can I get an

19:15amen in the chat on feeling is believing

19:21yes all right I’ve got Carly and Natalie 100%

19:27Natalie says love it all right going to keep moving all right so as I said these can

19:34be personal conversations small group Gatherings surveys polls maybe you’re just looking at your data analytics

19:41you’re noticing gosh when we send out these emails or when we send out this newsletter people click through like

19:48these individuals mostly click through on stories that feature uh family reunification through

19:57foster care or these particular people click through they always open when the

20:02subject matter is X because for most of you you’re doing multiple things under

20:07the umbrella of your mission so it’s super helpful to understand what

20:13attracts specific donors where do they click through where do they engage with you on the website in your e newsletter

20:20in your emails um even in your social media so again you can begin to zero in

20:26what is most impactful and interesting to them and that means we also need to invest in fundraising

20:33intelligence um right so being able to sort and look at our marketing look Google analytics um

20:40looking at our CRM um having looking at our marketing

20:46and of course investing in systems that where we can collect organize and share video like memory Fox right it’s so

20:54important to have an infrastructure and a strategy for for really mobilizing and

21:01scaling your video storytelling or your video communication so that it is

21:06strategic it’s not halfhazard so you can get the greatest return for the time

21:12that you’re investing the time that you’re investing and I’m talking about return on investment I’m also talking about return

21:19on relationship right and those are two completely different measurements one is

21:25about the money and the other is about people so how are you maximizing your

21:31return on relationship by honoring them looking at what how they engage with you

21:36and then serving up more of the information that they want that they are

21:41interested in that they have feelings for all right so here’s what donors say

21:47they want according to Penelope Burke and of course her extraordinary research through her company signis applied

21:53research now she rep retired a couple of years ago but they continue doing incredible work and their research boils

22:00down to you know what donors say they want donors say they want to know that

22:06their gift made a difference they want to be thanked promptly and accurately and of course we’re going to issue a a

22:13gift uh receipt if you will a gift recognition letter but there are ways to

22:18also scale a video thanks above and beyond you know that letter is

22:25essentially required by the U the the IRS here in the United States I’m not

22:30sure what Vienna requires but here we need to generate a gift acknowledgement letter stating the amount of that gift

22:37and any um fair market value if there was any Goods or or um Goods exchanged

22:45for that we need to you know net that calculation out but the point is if if

22:50the gift was more than $250 that letter is a requirement so it’s like that’s the

22:56entry cost that’s the ticket to even play in the philanthropy game how do you

23:02differentiate yourself from other donors or I’m sorry other organizations thanking donors video thanks could be

23:10one of the ways that you differentiate yourself so being thanked promptly accurately donors want to know that

23:17their gifts are sincerely appreciated right so again video thanks is one way

23:23that you can absolutely do that and I have some examples to share with you they want be kept informed about their

23:29specific program interests they want to feel special unique and valued either as an individual or if it is a a family

23:38affair if there’s generational giving if they are giving through a Donor advised

23:43fund and they mobilize their family they gather their family to help make those

23:49giving decisions they want to be recognized for that their family is important and they want to teach they

23:56want to carefully teach you know the generosity within their family through the generations and so a nod to that is

24:04says I see you I understand you matter you are making a difference and here’s

24:11how you and your family are making a difference all right and certainly we all want referrals we want

24:18our most generous supporters our most loyal supporters to introduce us to

24:25people within their circle of influence we want to grow our base of supporters

24:30and they quite frankly they donors volunteers won’t do that if we don’t

24:36take care of them if they think they’re going to refer someone to get the same mediocre gratitude

24:43mediocre treatment that we give them like no thanks they’re far less likely

24:49to do that unless we kind of up the Annie on engagement on reporting on

24:56thinking and video is one way way that you can do that it’s one of the ways you can truly differentiate your

25:02organization from so many others who simply don’t make the time and the

25:09investment to set up a system and an infrastructure and a strategy to effectively use

25:14video all right so I talk about personalized gratitude uh I’m going to

25:19just show this little video it’s so sweet and then we’ll talk about how how

25:26you could use a video like that this well you’ll hear this is uh Sadie and I made a gift to um wildbirds

25:34Canada that she and she asked me to make this gift as a part of um one of her fundraising one of her fundraising

25:44campaigns there we

25:50go I found it I found it oh look it’s a wild sponsor thank you Tammy for

25:55sponsoring me and the money that you you donated goes to bird studies Canada thank

26:03you how sweet is Sadie right so she sent that to me because I sponsored her I

26:09mean I think it was like 20 or $25 but I love this it’s so endearing

26:17it’s so sweet and it really made me feel special and appreciated you could do a video like that for your sponsors for

26:24firsttime donors or maybe you’ve got specific giving CES or monthly giving um

26:30and you could send them a a note of appreciation for their ongoing loyal

26:35support maybe it’s for legacy givers uh volunteers who just came and did a

26:41special project for you or maybe those volunteers who are there every week in

26:47your mentoring program and they just don’t get thanked enough for their commitment for their loyalty for their

26:54really their love and compassion for your organization and the work that you do really any giving in kind and it

27:02could be segmented by area of Interest right so you could be thanking them for

27:07supporting and caring about the children and families in your Foster Care Program

27:12for having such a big heart and so much compassion for animals who have been

27:19deserted abandoned who are in the shelter healing and waiting for their

27:25forever home right so again you can personalize this to the donor and

27:30personalize it to your work and the area of your work that the donor cares the most about this will set you apart it

27:38will really have you stand out um with your donors now this woman um D strer is

27:47amazing she is the executive director and creative director for a um a

27:54organization in Detroit called mosaic Youth theater and they work with young

28:00artists uh middle school high school they work with these well even younger through camps but they work with these

28:06young artists but truly it’s also a leadership program right so I did a

28:12fundraising Effectiveness assessment for them and as a part of that assessment I made an online gift maybe it was $100

28:19maybe $125 and that same day I got this video message from

28:25DEA Tammy thank you so so very much for your donation I am full of gratitude you

28:33continue to bless us with your generosity and spirit and your decision to walk alongside us and help us in our

28:40mission to create leaders and lifelong Learners through transformative Arts programming I am very very grateful for

28:47you and all that you do and all the ways that you are showing up with us for us in community and I hope that you are

28:55enjoying your week and that you’re getting to spend some time with your grandson um I look forward to talking

29:01with you very soon have a great day Sammy there we go so not hard to do took

29:08less than a minute uh you could have a tripod set up in your office you simply put your your cell phone there and shoot

29:16that video quickly right so it really makes a difference I’m going to share

29:22another video so again we talked about special occasions now this is is Liz

29:27Anderson with life path hospice and she and I were on a coaching call and she’s

29:33like Tammy I just can’t keep up and I know you can relate she’s like I want to

29:38send all these handwritten notes I’ve got a list of birthdays and anniversaries and a list of cards that I

29:44want to get out and it’s you know it’s so time consuming to write the note to

29:50pull up their address to put a first class stamp on it I’m like Liz why don’t

29:55you just try shooting a video you have their their cell phones in your in your

30:00phone right yeah if I don’t have their cell number I have their their email address

30:07fantastic just shoot a quick video Zip Zip out the door and so she tried it and

30:14it has been a huge timesaver and more than that it’s also been received with

30:20such gratitude from her supporters so I want to play this very sweet video that

30:25she shares um this was a birthday greeting hi Jolene it’s Liz Anderson from Life Path hospice

30:33H today’s a very special day because it is your birthday I hope you’re up in cashier Sapphire Valley enjoying some

30:39cool Mountain Air but just wanted to wish you Happy Birthday and thank you for all the ways you bless our mission I

30:44hope it returns to you a thousandfold in the year to come I pulled a pop-up wish card just for you and I’m going to read

30:51it to you it says open your arms as wide as you can to receive all the Miracles

30:57with your name on them ah I love that well you are certainly a miracle to us thank you for being our friend and for

31:03being a member of hospice women of enthropy have a great day happy

31:09birthday again how sweet how endearing how special right so this could be

31:16something that you do for birthdays or maybe anniversaries or again a new baby

31:22or grandbaby in the family maybe it’s your supporters give a

31:28and you know I remember being Chief philanthropy officer at the Children’s Center in Detroit and sending give aary

31:35cards and then eventually video messages like you may not remember but it was

31:42five years ago today that you became a member of our power of possibilities

31:49community and while you may not remember we sure do and when I think about how

31:54you’ve changed lives of Children and Family over the last five years it literally like it moves me gives me

32:01goosebumps and I’m just so grateful for you thank you for your love and compassion for our families and our

32:07children right so it’s that simple like Carly said in the chat don’t overthink it just speak from the heart what I like

32:15to do is close my eyes and visualize them whom am I sending this message to

32:21what do I want them to know feel or do as a result of this video message right

32:27so I may think like I pictured you know Dan and Patricia and I say you have the

32:33biggest hearts ever right so I’m acknowledging them not their gift right

32:39because that’s frankly transactional we start with relational you have the

32:44biggest hearts ever and it was five years ago today that you made the commitment you joined the power of

32:51possibilities community and I am so grateful right so give adversaries mil

32:57Milestones whether it’s a milestone for the donor or for the volunteer or the community partner or

33:04maybe it’s a milestone for your organization and you’re sharing the good news right so what do you want them to think feel or do as a result of this

33:11Milestone message now you could say you could create that individually with

33:16people like Liz did um and like deay did or it could be one to many you know U

33:23I’m just popping in your phone I’m popping in your inbox today to let you

33:29know XYZ right so I’m not speaking a name and I could scale it I could send

33:35that to everyone and yet it still feels personal I’m not saying I’m popping in

33:40all of your inboxes I’m saying I’m popping in your inbox I was thinking about you today right and I was all

33:49right any kind of celebrations Awards maybe you’ve been recognized as a best

33:55not managed nonprofit in your your community uh a great place to work or

34:00maybe your supporter or one of your corporate Partners has been named a great place to work right so you want to

34:07acknowledge those Awards or key achievements hi Jolene hello Jolene all

34:14right so this one was a birthday message sent to me and my birthday is on

34:20December 24th so for those who celebrate Christmas you know that’s Christmas Eve

34:25and DEA and her beautiful children on Christmas Eve sent me this birthday

34:36[Music] greeting birday Happ birth birthday Happ

34:42birday bir birthday to you birday

34:47birthday birthday birthday happy birthday happy birthday

34:53to you happy birthday Tammy all right so I can’t carry a tune but I

35:02love this message I love the warmth of it it was timely it’s endearing her

35:09youngest shaking that little finger right I mean I’ve shown this I don’t know to how many people because it

35:15really moved me it really touched me and you sending a greeting of some sort whether it’s singing or

35:22not will really make a difference for your people so consider that are using video messaging to do that these are

35:30simple things but you know and I think that they you know they’re Common Sense

35:37they’re common logic like it’s logic to reach out to supporters on their birthdays but Common Sense common logic

35:46isn’t always common practice because our time is so limited and just like Liz

35:51like I don’t I can’t seem to make the time to get the card out creating a quick short

35:58video has a higher open rate than an email message it’s faster to create and it

36:06sets you apart it’s different this is not yet mainstream so it’s again another

36:12way to differentiate yourself all right I’d love to see in the chat if any of you are doing greetings for special

36:19occasions uh and certainly if you’re using video to do them let just drop it

36:25in the chat yes Natalie their Harmony was amazing well she is the creative director with

36:32um mosaic Youth Theater so she’s uh definitely a wonderful singer

36:39as are her children yes okay with bonjourno bonjourno did I say that

36:45bonjoro bonjoro good thank you gunar excellent so let’s be Gunner let’s send

36:53video messaging and video uh messages for special occasions and awards and

37:00announcements to really engage our

37:06donors all right you could also use it from from the field as appropriate right

37:13to give program updates or to Showcase impact or to give a glimpse behind the

37:18scenes so if you’re an animal welfare organization and you can take some short

37:27video on a rescue where there are you know there’s a a dog fighting ring

37:33that’s been broken up or where there is some some animals or a farm or a puppy

37:39mill you know where there are deplorable conditions and abuse and neglect of animals if you can do a short video even

37:47from a distance like we don’t want to traumatize our supporters by showing too much up close and personal but we do

37:54want them to know we are here rescuing you know 40 a farm with

38:0142 animals that have not had access to clean water to food who have been

38:08Sheltering in deplorable conditions and we couldn’t do this work if you weren’t

38:15supporting us and so we just thank you thanks for the love and compassion you have for not just your animals but all

38:22animals thank you right or um here’s another example I’m going to show you

38:28from DEET organization it’s a little sneak peek uh of a dress rehearsal it’s

38:34just another rehearsal but it’s a sneak [Music]

38:41[Applause] [Music]

38:55peek

39:01[Music] [Applause]

39:06[Music]

39:13[Applause] [Music] [Applause]

39:22[Music] oh

39:28[Applause]

39:38[Music] all right so you get the essence of this right anything that we can do to show

39:47our supporters that they are special you know that they their support their

39:52generosity the love and compassion they have for the those that we

39:57serve is alive and well that they’re in their daily work they’re taking care of

40:03their families they’re doing their jobs and through their support whether that

40:08is volunteerism or financial support or leadership that work that they’re they

40:16are here with us in the mission it is happening every day thanks to them and

40:22others in the community all right um some of you if you’ve um seen me present before I I

40:29love monthly giving I’m a a giver a monthly Giver to about a dozen

40:35organizations and one of them is World Central Kitchen and here is just an

40:41impact video that they produce so you’ll notice this is a little more highly produced than DEA on her cell phone but

40:48they’re both equally effective so again to Carly’s Point don’t overthink it

40:54don’t think I need to budget money for a film crew you could and it might make

41:01sense from time to time but this phone

41:08is your film crew right don’t think it has to be overproduced so I’m going to

41:14share this video from World Central Kitchen and again conveying the impact of the work that they do and that

41:21supporters like me and many others all around the world help make

41:27[Music] happen let’s try to concentrate in what

41:33we’re good at which we’ve been keeping fairly simple because we do food and we do water and that’s what we do in

41:40emergencies but then we even in emergencies which emergencies do we respond we kind of said okay natural

41:49events yeah hurricanes tornadoes

41:55volcano but now I cannot believe we are in the middle of a refugee crisis C by a

42:00war that should not be happening and man this breaks your heart Praise You

42:09Lord the war in Ukraine began on February 24th and on February 25th my

42:15colleague Sam arrived with 2,000 hot meals for people entering from

42:25Ukraine bananas are the perfect food why because

42:33you peel them they clean the fruit that comes with its own

42:46container thank you very

42:55much there are seven border crossings between Poland and Ukraine and we are serving

43:01hot meals at every one of them probably the best one we’ve done

43:08here we’re also in Hungary Romania mova as well as Ukraine itself and will

43:16continue to grow as refugees continue to flee the country of [Music]

43:23Ukraine again just a very powerful impact video that they sent to

43:30supporters um they also sent a text message uh announcing their world

43:37Central Kitchen cookbook right which was an invitation to join a live stream and

43:42I think that’s worth messaging to mentioning too all right so of course we

43:49this whole session is about feeling is believing and so it wouldn’t be complete without a quote from Dr Maya Angela

43:56and many of you you’ve heard this quotee but it’s just Bears repeating I’ve learned that people will forget what you

44:02said people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made

44:07them feel and I believe that video messaging video

44:13storytelling is the way to most effectively have people feel something

44:20and I always say nothing happens until somebody feels something all right

44:29I have a couple a tool you can download here just some tips and ways you can

44:35Express gratitude using video and text messaging if you want to scan that QR code and while you do that I’m gonna

44:44invite uh Carly and Natalie to come back

44:49and we can answer some questions we can take some comments you may have some

44:54things you want to share let’s just open it up I love that okay so you said that the

45:01thing we were going to learn in this session is how to give all the feels and I’m just going to say you gave me all the feels throughout this whole

45:08presentation I was laughing at one point I was smiling basically the whole time uh I almost shed a tear during that

45:15Ukraine video um you gave me goosebumps during the song I mean I have personally

45:21felt all the feels just in this presentation so uh feeling is believe

45:26I’m I’m a Believer here but yeah I love this presentation I think there was so

45:31many things that reminded me of the work that I’ve uh done in the past and obviously the work we continue to do

45:37with video storytelling um if anybody does have a question we would love to answer it if you want to drop that in

45:42the chat um but yeah how um what do you

45:47think Natalie do you have anything that you’d like to share about the [Music]

45:54presentation hey can I get my myself off mute there Tammy I just think you do such a great job of painting those really simple ways that people can

46:01engage their community that like don’t require a lot of high thinking or strategy it’s just like what are those

46:08touch points that are going to be relevant to your community and so not only can you accomplish those through

46:13those simple birthday shares anniversaries special occasions those are really easy to do like you said

46:19sometimes it just takes a minute to sit down and record a video like that and that’s going to make somebody feel really loved on a day that’s meaningful

46:25to them but some of my favorite ones were like um that song and dance crew

46:30behind the scenes showing something happening in action like that requires

46:35zero lift other than just setting up a camera or having somebody who is on the sidelines have their camera their phone

46:41was what I mean by a camera nothing fancy just the device that’s already in your hand they’re probably standing there watching this rehearsal and all

46:47they have to do you know rehearsal or a project being built or whatever it is for your mission and your organization

46:53just actually filming that real time and then sending that to your supporters to say here’s what like a behind the scenes

46:59peak of what’s Happening that is a super easy lift and like that made me feel connected to an org organization that

47:05I’m not even familiar with that I don’t even follow so that’s a real great way to um bring people in and make them feel

47:11like they understand what’s happening what you’re doing in your day-to-day and that’s really how you built that genuine

47:18connection yeah I love that yeah and I think that you know those more organic

47:23videos really do feel genuine and authentic and not produced

47:29like hey I’m I just heard this beautiful noise upstairs and I walked upstairs and

47:35our our young artists were rehearsing and I thought I would just grab a little snippet of it for you thanks for helping

47:42grow our young artists yeah I think that’s such a good point to um also what you were saying

47:49Natalie but I think sometimes we forget that we are capturing that content

47:54anyway and maybe somebody was going to film that video anyway just for their own personal because they wanted to see

48:00it or they wanted to watch it again later and when you find yourself like you’re a volunteer somewhere or you’re

48:06somebody who donates like Tammy I’m sure you’ve thought about this too like be sure that you send that video back to

48:12the organization too and let them know you know I captured this and you’re welcome to use it if you uh would like

48:17but um I think sometimes we forget our community might actually already have that content and it might just be as

48:24simple as them sharing it back with you um but I did see in the chat we do have a question from John he uh he has a

48:31question about what about sending a quick video from your executive director to your board of uh

48:37trustees John I think that’s a great idea you know sometimes we take our

48:42board members maybe a little bit for granted and so just a a a video of

48:50appreciation you know maybe individually thanking them for something specific or

48:55you know as a group for their their Collective leadership um I think that’s

49:01a great idea I love that and I I even wonder so you said um from an executive director

49:07but I think maybe even sometimes our board they want to be more connected with the community and the people that

49:14you’re serving and maybe if we even got a message from them to send to the board um even if it was just a thank you like

49:20you mentioned that would be kind of fun they might not always get the chance to see the mission in action so that’s

49:25that’s a lovely idea I love that yeah really good and of course I mean I’m

49:31going to State it but I know you know that we are ethical storytellers and so

49:37consent is Paramount so with these young artists you know they’re performing in

49:43the community they they and their parents have given consent for us to video and for us to put their their art

49:52out into the community um you know with the work that I did at the Children’s Center in Detroit which was a children’s

49:59mental and Behavioral Health Organization you know we could have never have done videotaping without um a

50:07lot of more thoughtfulness right because we’ve got children in foster care who absolutely

50:13cannot be photographed or or videotaped we have children who have experience tra

50:21trauma and so we would never want to violate them wouldn’t want to reinforce

50:26stereo like all the ethical things um but that doesn’t mean that I couldn’t go

50:32in uh after a monthly birthday party where there were 80 children and their

50:38families celebrating every birthday um of a child being served through the

50:44Children’s Center every child in treatment in the month of February and I couldn’t do like a video of the space

50:52like well I’m part of the cleanup crew and as you can see from the balloons confetti and empty cupcake wrappers

50:59there was a lot of fun had here today by children who for some of them this may

51:04be their only birthday celebration and so because of your compassion and your love you were here with us in spirit

51:12happy birthday happy birthday even that such a great that’s

51:17such a great example and again it’s like not overthinking it right it’s just thinking a little bit outside the box

51:24but I I also think um you can start getting used to brainstorming fun ideas like that that

51:30will be really impactful when you really commit to building a culture of Storytelling at your organization and

51:36getting everybody on board and you start thinking outside of the box of those things that you don’t you don’t need

51:42consent to show the balloons flated on the floor you don’t need to do that but um you’re getting the same message

51:48across and you’re really showing your mission yeah I actually just thought of another question that I wonder if maybe

51:55somebody in the audience might be thinking but um I think sometimes we talk about well you know you and I we’re

52:02comfortable on video is what we’re doing right now but um I think sometimes people might think well I could never do

52:07that or I can’t be the one on video how how am I POS I don’t have anything to

52:12say so I don’t know do you have like maybe one or or a couple tips of what’s

52:18like the first thing somebody could do to get comfortable or to give it a try so that was me that was totally me like

52:26I would get on I mean I can speak in front at a conference in front of lots of people and feel completely comfortable something about a camera it

52:35was so Zoom helped us most of us get over that but even before that it was

52:40just doing it you know I would show up kind of stiff like I didn’t even sound like myself because I was trying to

52:47remember what I wanted to here’s the thing just get as my one of my good friends used to say get out of your head

52:53it’s a bad neighborhood so when I shifted the focus from am I

52:58saying the right thing do I look okay when I shifted that Focus away from me

53:04into what do I want Dan and Patricia to know feel or do what do I want them to feel as a result of this message and

53:12when I focused on them it just became a conversation and it took a couple

53:18practices but when I shifted from me to them it became immensely easier

53:26I definitely agree with that I think that yeah like you were saying sometimes we can get wrapped up thinking well how

53:32do I look or what does you know what’s my background look like or you or what’s my lighting look like and those things

53:38you know there those things are important to some extent but when you’re thinking about the importance of the actual message um nothing’s more

53:46important than making sure that the message that you wanted really did get out on that video yeah yeah it’s all

53:54about them feeling appreciated knowing that they’re making a difference feeling a part of

54:00the community that sense of belonging that’s what’s most important

54:06yeah that actually reminds me that um Natalie and I sometimes we joke about um

54:11when you’re talking about like the mission in action for example we joke um because one of our customers is the

54:16Arbor Day Foundation and they get a lot of great content from their volunteers boots on the ground work and we just

54:24kind of like to joke that there’s um if you were going to get a film crew perhaps to film something like that that

54:29you you might have to plant and replant and unplant and replant the tree to get the right shot but that’s not obviously

54:36a good use of your time and it’s not a good use of donor money so um when you actually can just think uh more about

54:44the culture of Storytelling and thinking about capturing it in the moment um you really only have to plant the tree Once

54:50which is what you’re intending to do anyway yeah exactly I have a um land

54:55trust that I work with and once a month their staff team goes for a hike together just as a team building a love

55:03that and so they will shoot some video but they’ll also do some Stills and the Stills are incredible they’re just with

55:10you know the iPhone but it’s like the little Fern prawn it’s like the little

55:19snail underneath the leaf it’s like just little bits or little signs of spring

55:25emerging you know because we are 60 degrees one day and 12 the next there’s

55:31like these little signs of spring emerging so on their I think they did a video from their winter solstice walk

55:39and it was beautiful homegrown and it just made me

55:44so grateful that they are preserving those spaces and made me like I cannot

55:50wait to pack up my grandsons and go on a hike in this spring I’m not I’m not

55:57brave enough to take them on a winter hike they’re two and five but the spring hike I can do that that’s the perfect time because

56:04that’s when the puddles are there and the mud and that’s the fun time to walk

56:10yes so Natalie did also say she was wondering if you had any great ideas um

56:15that you’ve seen similar to the sneak peek the of the performance video that you played yeah well any kind of Arts

56:22you know if you can get a sneak peek of a of whether it’s dance or or you know Orchestra but for visual arts maybe you

56:30are having a handful of supporters or a video combination maybe you’re going to

56:36do a video of the um traveling exhibit being installed I mean that’s

56:43fascinating if you’ve never seen that super interesting

56:49um maybe if you are let’s just think of another mission type you know like even

56:54at the Children’s Center we would have in the as summer wound down we would have back to school drives and then kids

57:00would come and pick up their age appropriate backpack stuffed with the school supplies that they needed and so

57:07the behind the scenes because again we can’t videotape our children at the Children’s Center um it would be the

57:14volunteers stuffing the backpacks and it would be the you know the closeup of the Paw Patrol backpack and the um blippy or

57:24you know whatever um so those kinds of things maybe it was where you’re doing a

57:30holiday shop for families to come and and shop for gifts for their children

57:37for their family members and it’s it’s the shop getting set up not the families

57:42not the parents or grandparents or Guardians walking through and picking items for their youth but it’s the setup

57:49it’s the before the client engagement and our and

57:54or after the client engagement I love that

58:00yeah yeah and now you got me on a roll we also had an art Therapy Program after

58:06school and while I couldn’t take pictures or video during the program I

58:11would go afterwards and you know kids often will leave their art behind like they’ll make three or four pictures and

58:17they’ll take the one they want and I would take pictures of that and share it

58:23via you know like video even again this spattered paint I was gonna say the mess there

58:30would be a that would I mean it’d be very pretty yeah I mean it’s amazing there

58:35was one piece of art it was a piece of construction paper and they had taken strips of other colorful construction

58:42paper and wound them into little Spirals and glued them on the flat paper and

58:50when the therapist said what is like what does this mean to you he said that’s what it feels like in my head

58:56head and it was just this mass of spiral pieces of construction paper

59:02glued and so we took a you know I took a picture of that a little bit of a text

59:07story about what this Y young man said and then of course one of them like the

59:13actual one I framed up for a donor um but we could scale it through

59:18video because it truly was oneof aind piece wow yeah that’s really powerful and I

59:25think I know we’re wrapping up but I think that that also is um that kind of

59:31is a nod to this New Concept that I’ve recently been learning more about but even like you’re saying like telling the

59:37story of the object instead of the actual person and um especially when you were talking about like the the backpack

59:44being packed it’s like well you know that backpack’s about to go on a journey he’s about to be the backpack that has

59:51to carry everything and has to be the support system and you know get the kids

59:56you know to school from school and uh carry things and and make sure that everything stays safe I yeah I think um

1:00:04if you if you think if you set aside some time to really do some brainstorming I think your whole team would have a million creative ideas yeah

1:00:12and Carly who can’t relate who can’t remember the thrill of fresh school supplies oh is the

1:00:20best yeah well I thank you I mean you all are amazing thanks for showing up

1:00:26thanks for leaning into visual to video storytelling I cannot wait to see what

1:00:33you cook up thank you all so much thank you Tammy for joining us today I

1:00:38personally have learned so much today I know everybody else has I’m positive here on the call um I’ll be following up

1:00:44with the recording for everybody and um you’ll be uh hearing I’ll send some

1:00:49other resources as well about getting started with video storytelling and again just thank you all for being being here it’s uh really been a pleasure

1:00:56thank you so much Tammy and you can catch Tammy at the community boost the unthinkable as well as memory Fox we’re

1:01:02actually gonna be on the same stage so that’s gonna be really exciting you can just you can just watch our stage and see us there it’s awesome thank you

1:01:11everybody thanks everyone