Today I notice this report from comScore saying that 183 million American internet users watched online video content in November for an average of 20.5 hours per viewer.  Within that, 7.2 billion video ads were viewed. Wow!

Then simultaneously, I received an email alerting me to VOA Chesapeake’s online video campaign for this year. It turns out that last year’s 15 day campaign raised $75,000 in one month. This year’s effort has been expanded to five weeks and will include a heavy dose of social media (here’s the Facebook link).

Here’s a description:

“Each week consists of two videos aired through social media and the organization’s website on “Make A Difference Monday” and “Watch it Wednesday,” where (Courtney) Shirley, a former NBC reporter and anchor, takes viewers behind-the-scenes  at the organization providing information and ways individuals can get involved. This year the campaign also features new videos sharing stories of those being helped. “Tell Us Tuesday” encourages social media engagement through current events and questions aimed at engaging the non-profit’s online audience. “Thank You Thursday” spotlights a story of thanks on the Courtney’s Quest blog, created and written by Shirley or other featured bloggers such as the non-profit’s CEO/President and clients. “Fund Friday” targets financial and in-kind donations by fundraising through social media.”

Once again I applaud this effort. It shows that a smaller nonprofit can be just as inventive as the big guys.

And there’s something else to note about the campaign as described. I think it’s going to provide plenty of opportunity for human connections to be made between VOA Chesapeake’s client-beneficiaries, their staffers, and their donors … even though it’s a digital campaign. That’s the contribution of video.

And that, in turn, reminded me of this blurb, from of all places Supermarket News, about the the craving consumers have for human interaction, citing this Harvard Business Review article, The Future of Retail? Look To Its Past. Says author Peter Merholz:

“In our increasingly connected world, people crave authentic human interaction, and the future of retail is going to look a lot more like it did in the more distant past (or still does in markets and bazaars), and a lot less like the bureaucratically-driven mass consumerism we grew to expect in the twentieth century.”

There’s no escaping “mass” fundraising, but campaigns like that of VOA Chesapeake show us how to bring a human dimension into our efforts … and online video has a huge role to play in that.

Courtney Shirley, you deserve a raise!

Tom Belford

Working with Explore.org, this org has set up live webstreaming that shows polar bear activities at the edge of Hudson Bay in Canada. The bears are increasingly stressed physically because the freeze over they need to migrate to seal hunting grounds is occurring later and later, and the ice is then melting earlier.

An effect of global warming.

This is a great example of using online technology to take prospective donors right to the scene. The adage ‘a picture’s worth a thousand words’ is certainly true in my book.

[Although in this case, be warned, the best viewing window is 8:30am-5:30pm CT (sunrise to sunset) in Canada.]

Heaps of nonprofits are using online video to show donors firsthand how their contributions are being put to work. But I’m curious as to what other examples of live ‘you are there’ webcasting might be floating around out there.

Tom

While this guide specifically looks at online political advertising, any nonprofit looking to target and engage a constituency online will find it very useful.

As the guide says: “What makes video advertising unique is its ability to incorporate calls to action and enable supporters to easily respond. So, not only can campaigns target a persuasive message to voters, they can fulfill secondary goals like generating email signups, helping voters find polling places—and, yes—raising cash.”

In other words, the techniques and tools presented in this guide are applicable to just about any online call to action.

While the guide provides case studies and strategic/tactical advice from various consultants, perhaps most useful to nonprofits will be the basic ‘nuts and bolts’ information — costs, online advertising types, format standards, video ad networks and what they offer, and various ad technologies that can add interactive functionality to online video ads.

Kate Kaye, you deserve a raise.

Tom

The campaign actually sought to enlist volunteers to help with Diakonie’s various social service programs. [I hope I'm reasonably accurate ... my German isn't what it used to be!]

Here’s the video that presented the campaign to the IFC audience. Check out the ‘promo girls’!

And here’s the Help the Oma website.

Applause!

Now before I’m criticized for applauding creativity for its own sake (i.e., absent any grounding in the brand or in actual outcomes), let me point out that:

1. This campaign easily surpassed its goal, and delivered exceptional media exposure for the group as a bonus.

2. It’s better to approach your work with the zeal and commitment that says — I want this campaign to be a knock-out! — than to coast mindlessly through ‘same old, same old’.

When was your last knock-out campaign? Overdue?

Tom

P.S. Thanks to Jann Schultz at Operation Smile for the heads-up.

So I’m happily going to refer you to this recent post by Beth Kanter, in which Paull Young, Charity:Water’s digital director talks about the organization’s online fundraising strategy.

Paull gives us a mini case study on the organization’s annual September Birthday Campaign. Learn from it.

I’ve often commented on Charity:Water’s superb use of online video.

But today I’d like to draw your attention to their excellent use of infographics. A terrific way to communicate online. I’m hard pressed to think of a nonprofit that does this as well.

If you know of any, I’d love to share some examples from our readers.

Tom

Today we have even more social net data from Nielsen.

Like Pew, Nielsen notes some especially strong growth amongst older demographics, in this case pointing out that internet users over age 55 are driving the growth of social networking through mobile devices. 40% of all social media users access these nets via their mobile phone (37%) or IPad (3%) .

Nielsen reports that social nets and blogs now account for 23% of the time Americans spend online. The core demographic — female, age 18-49, educated.

While the research didn’t ask specifically about charitable giving, the report does note that 70% of active online adult social networkers shop online, 12 percent more likely than the average adult Internet user.

I would hypothesize a similar ‘consumer’ pattern with respect to online giving. Evidence: Social netters are 26% more likely to give their opinion on politics and current events. And without giving stat details, Nielsen says that offline, active adult social networkers are more likely than the average adult Internet user to be found at political rallies … tweeting, no doubt!

Finally, 53% follow a brand on a social net … it could be yours!

Tom

P.S. The report indicates usage of all the major social net sites, and includes some limited international data as well.

But then I saw this video, reporting on what they have accomplished to date and hope to achieve next.

The 2011 September Campaign. Our 5-year-anniversary video from charity: water on Vimeo.

The video itself is great. It tells an inspiring story about what average donors — raising money in every way from lemonade stands to birthday gifts to dance marathons — can help accomplish, and shows the concrete results in dramatic fashion. Lives improved in so many ways from the simple step of providing clean local water.

Excellent program and superb fundraising.

But then I reflected a bit on the message.

Part of it featured a Ethiopian — described as a national hero — who has been painstakingly bringing freshwater to his fellow Ethiopians, one well at a time, constrained only by the fact that his team has only three drilling rigs … and most of the country to go.

Charity: Water wants to get him one more rig … so they’re asking donors for the $1.2 million required to purchase and fully support one mobile drilling rig.

All of a sudden, it occurred to me that this request of lemonade stand donors bordered on the obscene.

The very request for $1.2 million of charity money simply underscores the total failure of the international development community — from the World Bank on down, and including national governments, both rich and recipient. These entities have squandered literally billions on failed development projects for decades.

Then a tiny, by comparison, charity comes along and shows everyone how important — and relatively simple — it is to improve millions of lives by meeting a fundamental human need … clean, easily accessible drinking water.

Here they are, begging for your lemonade stand proceeds to buy one rig, when some incompetent, probably corrupt, bureaucracy could write a check for a hundred of these rigs in a nanosecond.

Don’t you find that upsetting, even obscene?

I don’t ask that to denigrate the program of Charity: Water. I’m glad they’re showing the world how to get the job done. And maybe by doing that, they’ll embarrass some dripping-in-money development institution to make a first-ever meaningful contribution to alleviating the water problem.

I guess someone needs to fill the vacuum and get done the practical work of drilling water wells.

But the other need is for well-financed policy advocacy designed to force development institutions to either get the job done, or shut down and stop pretending. Unfortunately, as cause fundraisers know, it’s a lot tougher to raise the funds for advocacy than it is to raise money for ‘on-the-ground’ projects.

Is there some group out there as smart about raising advocacy money as Charity: Water is about raising funds for drilling rigs? Nominations, please!

Tom

Also some cause examples — from Hunger Action Month to volunteerism to gay marriage foes.

ClickZ’ Politics & Advocacy is a good news feed if you want to follow political use — often at the cutting edge — of the digital realm.

Tom

Add that to the latest online video usage numbers from Comscore … the average US internet user viewed 18.5 hours of online video in July. And, as usual, we ask … were any of those videos yours?

Tom

The organization has created a high quality video platform that food banks around the country can easily customize and add to their own websites. The videos themselves are aimed at building awareness about local hunger and feature celebs like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

The Feeding America widgets allow people to click to ‘Get Involved’ by entering their Zip codes to find a local food bank and events calendar, as well as submit contact information to receive email updates and share via Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Blogger, and other platforms. Local food banks can input their events for Hunger Action Month.

A good model to look at for coordinated national fundraising and communications projects and events if you are a nonprofit with lots of local affiliates who will play a role.

Tom
P.S. Here’s a sample.