Today is World Food Day and we wanted to highlight some of the ways we’re seeing nonprofit organizations around the world are sharing stories of the over one billion people who are living in hunger.
Organizations like the ONE Campaign are employing famous faces like Bono, George Clooney and Jessica Alba to help raise awareness about the issue:
Others like LinkTV are using this important day to highlight the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa, which has affected over 11.5 million people thus far:
A collection of videos related to World Food Day are featured on the YouTube homepage today. Watch them to learn more about the global hunger crisis and to see how you can help.
Today, we announced the winners of the YouTube Nonprofit Video Awards, a celebration of the best videos from organizations in the YouTube Nonprofit Program over the past year. The four victorious videos are spotlighted on the YouTube homepage today.
Over 750 videos were submitted to this year’s awards, ranging from quirky narratives about how life on another planet relates to equal rights on Earth to honest testimonials from young dancers. In other words, these videos don’t have a lot in common, except for these central tenets which should guide anyone wanting to create compelling videos for nonprofit organizations. (If this is you, please check out our Video Volunteers program.)
1. Content is still king
First and foremost, you want to make sure that your video is appropriate for the organizational goals you want to hit. Before you start filming, sit down and figure out what you want to accomplish and whom you want to reach. A video targeting high-dollar donors may look very different from one that’s intended to train your volunteers.
Then, think about ways that you can put a creative spin on your video. Good, original content — whether it’s heartfelt and serious or light and humorous — goes a long way on YouTube. Here are a few approaches you may think about taking:
Tell serial stories. Engage viewers with a series of videos that tell a story around a specific theme, and keep them coming back for more. Once you've created a few episodes, put them into a playlist. This allows you to develop several video narratives targeted at particular demographics. A good example is Rainforest Action Network’s “Greenwash of the Week” series or “Oxfam’s Green Granny” series.
Respond to current events. Address relevant news stories by posting videos that explain your position. You can then embed them in emails to your supporters — a video message can be more effective than a text-laden email. Also, users are probably more likely to be searching for topics currently in the news and may be more likely to find your video organically through the YouTube search bar. You’ll want to be sure to tag your video with timely and relevant words.
Make your audience part of the video. Using YouTube annotations, you can create a “choose your own adventure”-style video, which puts the viewer in the driver’s seat and allows them to decide their video “fate.” Two great nonprofit examples of this style are “A Different Ending,” a campaign combating knife crime in the U.K., and “That’s Not Cool,” a campaign from the Ad Council about staying safe online.
2. You don’t need a Hollywood budget to succeed
Gone are the days when you need a large camera crew to make sure people watch your video; some of the most successful videos on YouTube have been created with an extremely minimal budget. Your organization can get started with video even if you only have a few hundred dollars; for example, the Flip Video Spotlight program offers nonprofits a two-for-one deal on their Flip Ultra cameras (which averages out to about $60 per camera).
Another alternative, if you’re low on staff and monetary resources, is to participate in the YouTube Video Volunteers. Each month, the program features a different issue (this month it’s climate change) and matches nonprofits who need help with video creation with passionate YouTube users who can produce content. The top three volunteer videos are put on the YouTube homepage at the end of the month. Here are the winning videos from last round, which focused on global development:
3. It’s OK to follow the leader
Here’s a piece of advice your boss will probably never give you: start watching a few popular YouTube videos every day, even if they have seemingly nothing to do with your organization. You may not see the connection between your issues and Fred, a sneezing panda or Dancing Matt, but these videos are resonating with a huge number of people on YouTube. See if you can replicate elements of these viral videos in your own organization’s content. Seriously, couldn’t Keyboard Cat be the next poster cat for animal welfare?
“The Pink Glove Dance,” arguably the most viral nonprofit video ever with over 8 million views, followed this method beautifully. The Portland St. Vincent Medical Center snatched a page right out of the J.K. Wedding playbook.
It’s a recipe you can follow, too. Just mix together a cute cast of snappy dancers (bonus points if they’re not classically trained), an irresistibly catchy but inspirational song that you have permission to use, add a sprinkling of cause messaging, and you’re good to go.
Nonprofits can also apply for the YouTube Nonprofit Program, which offers free premium perks to organizations in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia like branded channels, the ability to add call-to-action overlays to videos to drive traffic to external sites, and the ability to add a Google Checkout button to your channel. These tools can add another layer of interactivity to the content you’re creating.
Jeremy Piven is best known as the sharp-tongued Ari Gold on HBO’s Entourage, but today he’s taking a break from berating Vince and the boys to give the YouTube community a glimpse of his softer side by signing on as a Video Volunteers curator.
This month, YouTube, Piven and the ONE Campaign are asking you to make videos supporting a nonprofit working on an issue related to global development, such as extreme poverty, access to clean water and sanitation, and preventing disease. With International Women’s Day on March 8 and World Water Day on March 22, it’s an ideal time to tackle some of the problems crippling citizens in developing nations. Piven agrees:
Once you’ve created a video for a nonprofit of your choice dealing with global development, submit it to the gadget at www.youtube.com/videovolunteers. Remember: the video has to be about an organization, not just an issue. Piven and the ONE Campaign will pick their top three videos to go on the YouTube homepage at the end of the month. Happy filming!
Our Video Volunteers homepage lineup today features videos about nonprofits tackling important health issues: artist Jesse McCartney thanks you for standing up to cancer; themike99 tells a personal story about the tie between mercury poisoning and kidney failure; BangPopLA champions Whole Child LA and their work to help kids with chronic pain; and themattieboosh offers this animated take on the importance of funding leukemia research:
We had a record-breaking number of nonprofits participate in this round of Video Volunteers. Fifty health-oriented organizations signed up to have a member of the YouTube community make a video for them, and while we are only able to showcase a handful on the homepage today, we hope that many more nonprofits will have videos made for them. We'll leave these opportunities from health orgs up for a few more days on the Video Volunteers channel, so if you didn't make a video, but are passionate about helping one of these organizations, please reach out as soon as you can.
Next week, we'll launch our "Global Development" round of Video Volunteers. It's an issue that encompasses a number of different subjects, like poverty, sanitation and the need for infrastructure, and there are a number of nonprofits doing work in this area, like Plan International, One Million Lights, and the Playing for Change Foundation. We hope you'll make one of them a video. Cross-posted on the YouTube blog
Over the past week, citizens and organizations from around the world have rallied around Haiti, offering tremendous aid for the relief effort currently underway. But even though tens of millions of dollars have been raised online via sites like YouTube, Haiti's road to recovery will be long, and more financial support is desperately needed.
That's why tonight, in partnership with a variety of media companies, we're live-streaming "Hope for Haiti Now," a benefit concert for earthquake relief. Hosted by George Clooney, Wyclef Jean and Anderson Cooper, the event will feature performances by Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Rihanna, Shakira, U2, Coldplay, Taylor Swift and many more.
In the three days since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti, we've continued to see hundreds of thousands of people using YouTube to share information and donate money to help those suffering in one of the worst tragedies in recent memory. Since Tuesday, the American Red Cross has been featured on our homepage, collecting donations through videos like this one, which encourages people to give via a Google Checkout link next to the video. The International Red Cross just posted an update to YouTube (embedded below), detailing the situation on the ground. Their message? Goods are on the way, but more money is needed. Oxfam, Concern Worldwide and UNICEF have uploaded similar pleas.
Others have come to YouTube with personal appeals. First Lady Michelle Obama, Jimmy Buffett and Lenny Kravitz are just a few of the figures who are rallying support on YouTube. And people on the ground continue to put a very personal face on the tragedy, filming their experiences with shaky hand-held cameras.
Journalists are also uploading videos that bear witness to the devastation. Reporters like Dave Price at CBS and Rich Matthews of the AP are uploading individual vlogs from the streets of Port-au-Prince, and clips like this one from the AP give a bird's eye view of the damage (warning: this is difficult to watch):
On the ground, videos like this one give us just a glimpse into what life is like right now for Haitian citizens -- through the eyes of a person struggling to make sense of the destruction:
We're keeping CitizenTube updated with the latest clips and are contributing videos to Google's Earthquake Relief landing page as well. Though it could never match the resolve of Haitian citizens struggling to survive in the streets of Port-au-Prince and elsewhere, the outpouring of support on YouTube and elsewhere is encouraging in this time of great crisis.
As reports of unimaginable devastation continue to come out of Haiti in the wake of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck yesterday, footage of the disaster has been streaming onto YouTube, along with calls for help from nonprofit and aid organizations working on the ground. Haiti's president Rene Preval told the Miami Herald that the death toll is likely in the thousands, and images of collapsed buildings, a dilapidated presidential palace, and enormous piles of rubble in the streets bear witness to a truly catastrophic earthquake -- the worst in 200 years in the region.
We're keeping a running playlist of the video footage coming out of Haiti on Citizentube; there's a broad collection of citizen reports and news wire clips. We're also promoting videos from nonprofits who can help. The American Red Cross is asking for donations via a call-to-action overlay in this video, and Oxfam is using annotations in this one to direct you to their donation site:
As personal stories of the victims of the earthquake continue to pour in, our thoughts go out to all Haitians in this time of great need. We'll continue to update Citizentube with footage from the ground as events progress.
With awards shows like the Golden Globes, Grammys and Oscars just around the corner, it will soon be the season to celebrate some of the world's most high-profile artistic achievements. But on YouTube, many of you celebrate the arts every day -- for example, you might favorite a video that features a grade-school chorus, watch a film in the Screening Room, or upload a video of your recent dance performance.
At the same time, organizations that support the arts -- from museums to orchestras, ballet companies to musical education programs -- are sorely in need of funding and promotion. That's where you can help. YouTube Video Volunteers and guest curator Dr. Phil want you to create a video that shines the spotlight on an organization that advances the arts in your community or on the national stage. The top three video creators will see their name in lights on the YouTube homepage at the end of the month. Watch this video to learn more and hear how Dr. Phil is supporting the arts himself:
We hope you'll use your artistic talents to help your favorite organization. You could write a song in favor of your city's modern art museum or make a short film about a nonprofit that supports music in schools. Use your creativity to make sure that the arts continue to flourish.
From the Iran protests to the uprising of monks in Burma, YouTube has become a place where citizens can expose human rights violations and promote free expression. This month, we were excited to see many of you help the organizations that regularly combat injustice and abuse around the world, by creating a video for one of them through Video Volunteers.
Spurred by Morgan Freeman's heartfelt call-out video and International Human Rights Day, which occurred earlier this month, you submitted videos on behalf of nonprofits working on issues like conflict minerals, the situation in Darfur and sex trafficking:
Today, the top three selections will appear on the YouTube homepage to raise awareness of several pressing human rights issues. We're also featuring Morgan Freeman's "volunteer" video for Amnesty International, which uses claymation to discuss the power of words in fighting injustice:
We'll be back with another round of Video Volunteers in January and our spotlight issue will be the arts, so if you're an arts organization who would like a volunteer to create a video for you, please fill out this form and your opportunity will be posted to the Video Volunteers channel.
It's a lofty title, but the Pink Glove Dance video may just have claimed the spot as the most viral nonprofit video in YouTube history.
At 4.4 million views and dozens of press mentions, this inspiring and catchy video that features the Providence St. Vincent Medical Center staff dancing to raise awareness of breast cancer, is setting an example of what really works on YouTube (they obviously took copious notes during the JKWedding video!). If you haven't seen it yet, take a look here:
If you tell me you're not smiling now, you're probably lying. What makes this video even more heartwarming is that you can see that the entire staff had an amazing time making the video and promoting the cause. It's an A+ effort that other nonprofits should take note of.
YouTube can be a powerful tool championing the rights of individuals and promoting free expression. This month, during International Human Rights Day, we're partnering with Morgan Freeman and Amnesty International to encourage you to become advocates for equality and justice, through Video Volunteers.
Here's how you can help. Create a video about the nonprofit of your choice working on a human rights issue that you care about -- it could be genocide, human trafficking, refugee protection, gender equality or something else -- and submit it to the Video Volunteers channelby December 21. Amnesty International and Freeman, who plays legendary crusader Nelson Mandela in the upcoming movie Invictus, will select three videos to appear on the YouTube homepage at the end of the month. Hear more from Morgan about the importance of taking up this cause:
This is your chance to help citizens around the world who often can't help themselves and to bring the vital work of human rights organizations to light. Join Morgan Freeman to protect the rights of these individuals at www.youtube.com/videovolunteers.
Popular YouTube partner charlieissocoollike has assembled a merry band of YouTubers to do some good this holiday season. They've released a new, completely crowd-sourced, song called "I've Got Nothing," which Charlie says was "created with nothing but the good will of the people on the internet." Their goal is to get to the top of the UK pop charts, simply by distributing the video on YouTube, and donate all of the proceeds from the song to the charity, Children in Need
One interesting factoid: The lyrics of the song are made up of YouTube comments, compiled into a song by another YouTuber (don't worry Moms, they're totally kid-friendly). Have a listen:
If you like the song you can download it on ITunes, where apparently it's already up to #25 in the United Kingdom, and know that the proceeds are going to kids in need.
On World Food Day, we asked you to donate to feed the billion hungry people in the world and your response was incredible: over 140,000 children got meals because of you. Thank you.
Now, we're looking at the facts close to home: one in eight Americans don't have enough food to eat, a fact that becomes even harder to digest at this time of year, as we prepare for Thanksgiving, a celebration of food and family.
Through Video Volunteers, we're hoping you can make a video for any nonprofit tackling the issue of hunger in America. You could create a video profiling the work your local food bank is doing or even volunteer to serve a meal at a shelter and record your experience. Hear more from David Arquette, our guest curator for this month's edition of Video Volunteers:
The top three videos submitted on the YouTube Video Volunteers channel will be featured on the YouTube homepage around Thanksgiving, alongside a video from our partner in this effort, Feeding America. Videos must be submitted by November 21 for consideration.
Tonight at the Hollywood Film Festival's Human Rights Symposium, Matt Smith will accept his award for submitting the winning video to YouTube's Video for Change program, "Come Clean 4 Congo," in partnership with the Enough Project. Back in May, we asked you to make videos demonstrating the connection between the "conflict minerals" used in cell phones and the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Matt's winning video, voted #1 by the YouTube community, used spoken word to take a far-away, complex issue and make it understandable and compelling:
To say things aren't going well in the Congo would be an understatement. It is the deadliest conflict since World War II, and militias continue to use rape as a weapon of terror. The UN reports that in the first half of 2009, more than 5,000 women have been raped in the South Kivu province of the Congo. Al Jazeera News reports on the conflict from a clinic in the Congo, where many of the victims are being treated:
The Enough Project saw the connection between the minerals that are mined in the Congo and used in our cell phones, and wanted to use that connection to bring this issue home to people living in the U.S. Thanks too to all the YouTube users who made videos to raise awareness of this issue. If you'd like to learn more about what you can do to help, go to the Enough Project's website.
And if you're in the LA area and want to register to attend the Human Rights Symposium, sign up here.
Last Friday, on World Food Day, we asked you, the online billion, to turn your YouTube views into action to feed the billion hungry people in the world.
You blew us away with your response, collectively donating enough money to the United Nations World Food Program through this video to give school lunch to close to 140,000 children. And your donations are still coming in.
Some of you donated $1, others donated $50. Some even created video responses encouraging others to give. The WFP is so thrilled with your efforts that their Executive Director Josette Sheeran recorded this special thank you message to the YouTube community:
Added Pierre Guillaume Wieleznyski, WFP's Head of Online Communications, "It is heartening to see the YouTube community step up and help. We often forget about the billion people who to bed hungry. If every web user does a little, we can achieve a lot." YouTube user angelinthesky26 echoed this sentiment, commenting "we can all make a difference in our own simple way."
So, thank you YouTube, for making a difference. We're incredibly inspired by you.
In anticipation of the fifth annual Clinton Global Initiative, a meeting that brings heads of state, Fortune 500 CEOs, non-profit leaders and Nobel Laureates together to discuss the world's most pressing problems, President Clinton wants you to submit your questions for these distinguished guests by posting a video response to this video:
Your video could be asked during one of the panels, which this year include leaders like President Obama, Kofi Annan, Diane Sawyer, Queen Rania, and Nicholas Kristof.
In May, we asked you to participate in our first-ever Video for Change program, the Enough Project's Come Clean 4 Congo contest, by making short videos that illustrate the tie between the minerals in cell phones and the ongoing war in the Congo.
You responded by submitting many excellent videos that increased public awareness of this important, but under-exposed, issue. In the end, our panel of judges (actor Ryan Gosling, director Wim Wenders, and Lost actress Sonia Walger) narrowed the entries down to three semi-finalists. Now, as Walger notes, it's up to you to choose the final winner:
The winner will receive a trip to Los Angeles where his/her video will be shown at the Hollywood Film Festival's first Human Rights Symposium. Please take a look at the semi-finalist entries below and vote for your favorite at www.youtube.com/enoughproject.
Activism today isn't limited to picket lines and marches on the Mall — people have taken their movements to the web, and YouTube has become an important platform for exposure. Every day, people use YouTube to fight for causes, whether they're hunger-striking celebrities like Mia Farrow, or 9-year-olds trying to save the neighborhood kickball lot from destruction. On Citizentube, our YouTube blog that chronicles the way people use video to change the world, we've seen digital activists use YouTube in three basic ways: to shine a light on issues that need more exposure, to drive action around causes they care about, and to create connections between people and organizations that share their desire to make a difference.
Some of the most compelling videos we see are those that spotlight important issues that aren't being covered in the mainstream media. Witness, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to document human rights abuses around the world through video, offers an excellent example — this video from their YouTube channel chronicles the clashes between the Burmese military and rural ethnic minorities. Invisiblepeople.tv, a relative newcomer to YouTube, is taking a similar approach by tackling a more domestic issue: homelessness. This summer, the group is traveling across America to document the real, unedited stories of people living on the streets, in tent communes and in cars — and posting all of the footage to their YouTube channel. And of course we've seen protesters in Iran, China and elsewhere use YouTube to amplify their causes far beyond national borders.
Other individuals and nonprofits are using YouTube as a direct advocacy tool, experimenting with ways to drive action from their videos to a particular cause. And we're building new products to make it even easier for them to do this effectively. For example, in March, we launched a tool called "Call to Action," which allows nonprofit organizations to drive traffic from an in-video overlay to an off-site page where they can collect donations, signatures or email addresses. Shortly after launch, to commemorate World Water Day, we featured a video from charity:water on the YouTube homepage that used a call-to-action overlay to encourage YouTube users to donate money to build wells and provide clean, safe drinking water for those who don't have it. Through YouTube, charity:water was able to raise over $10,000 in one day — enough to build two brand-new wells in the Central African Republic and give over 150 people clean drinking water for 20 years.
Yet some of the most innovative uses of YouTube for digital activism are those that leverage the communities that exist on YouTube around particular causes. YouTube is inherently a social experience and many of our users are hungry to partner and collaborate with others who share their passions. Last December, popular YouTube users the Vlogbrothers launched the "Project for Awesome," a campaign which asked fellow budding change-makers to make videos about their favorite charities. Over 1,200 people joined the effort to promote their cause of choice. And just a few weeks ago, in partnership with President Obama's launch of serve.gov, we created "Video Volunteers", a new platform on YouTube which connects nonprofits that lack video resources with proven video-makers who want to use their skills to do good. There are already hundreds of posts from nonprofits seeking help on the Video Volunteers YouTube channel, so if you're interested in creating a video for an organization, head over to the channel now and find a cause you care about.
Activism is constantly evolving on YouTube, so we'll keep posting fresh accounts of how citizens and nonprofits are changing the world, one video at a time, on Citizentube.
Recently, we've seen a spike in the number of nonprofit organizations using YouTube's social features, like annotations, to drive interest and interaction with their causes. A few months ago, the Ad Council launched an extremely creative campaign called "Two-Sided Stories," which leveraged YouTube annotations to guide citizens through choose-your-own-adventure scenarios about the importance of online privacy. See an example here:
And just this week, noting the knife crime problems in the United Kingdom, droptheweapons.org released this interesting annotations-based "adventure" about the ramifications of carrying or using a knife:
Judging by the number of views these videos have received, these organizations are on the right track. A more interactive approach might be the best way to go when trying to raise the volume on important issues, especially when you're targeting a teenage demographic. Want to use annotations in your next video? Learn how here.
Today is World Red Cross Day and the commemoration marks over 60 years of the Red Cross preparing communities for emergencies and providing disaster relief to those in need. Over the past few years, the organization has been using YouTube to help achieve these objectives.
In addition, today the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies will launch an ambitious new campaign, called "Our World. Your Move," which aims to raise awareness of today's most pressing humanitarian challenges and highlight the power of individuals to make a difference. Interested in taking part? This animated short can serve as your introduction:
CitizenTube is YouTube's News and Politics Blog. Here you'll find important breaking news videos from citizens; developing trends in the use of YouTube by news organizations, activists, politicians, and governments; and lots of other YouTube goodness. Hit us up on Twitter, @citizentube, if you see something worth posting here.
