How to Create a Promotional Video

Creating a video is as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. Below, we show you a few different options for creating a short video about your organisation's work, from easiest to most involved.

Videos are more and more important for communications these days — they're a powerful tool for getting your message across and putting a face to the work that you do.

As part of the Charity Impact Awards 2020, we're asking entrants to make a video up to 2 minutes long showcasing their impact, but developing your organisation's video-making capacity will open up many doors beyond that. Videos enhance your social media, funding applications, website engagement, and more.

So read on to learn more about your options for making a video if you don't have the resources to pay a production company.

1. Record and upload directly

This is the simplest option of all, with just 3 short steps: 

1. Plan what you're going to say
2. Record it in one take
3. Upload it to YouTube straight from your phone

You can record using your phone or webcam's built-in features, or even record a Zoom meeting if you want to have multiple people speaking. Ideally, you should follow some basic guidelines when recording:

• Film in landscape mode (i.e. turn your phone sideways)
• Film in natural light, preferably outdoors
• Place your phone on a steady surface, or have the person filming you rest their arms on a steady surface
• Speak to the camera

Below is an example of a video made for the National Rural Network's LEADER Celebration. It's simple, effective, and so easy to do.

2. Use video-editing software

There's a range of video-editing programmes available, some that are free and some that offer free trials. They'll let you produce a slightly more polished video, often allowing you to include royalty-free music, title screens, photos, and captions.

You may not know that YouTube has a built-in video editor that's designed to help you quickly edit your videos without any special software. Watch a tutorial video on this here. 

Here's an example of a 60-second video we produced for our COVID-19 Community Outreach programme using Adobe Spark (one-month free trial).

And another that we produced for the Charity Impact Awards using Adobe Premiere Pro (one-week free trial), which is a more involved video-editing application that does require some expertise.

3. Link in with volunteers

Reach out to your contacts and your followers on social media. You may have someone in your network with the skills you need who'd be delighted to help out!

If you have some lead-in time, Volunteer Ireland can also help you to reach skilled volunteers for your project.

This post was prepared in support of the Charity Impact Awards 2020. The Charity Impact Awards celebrate the amazing work of nonprofit organisations and social enterprises in Ireland, with subcategories for small, medium, and large organisations, social enterprises, and trustees. To enter, you just need to complete an application form and create a 60-second video to accompany it. Visit charityimpactawards.ie for full details. Closing date 2 October 2020.