YouTube Video, $10,000 Dollars and Your Nonprofit

Google recently released a new feature designed specifically for the nonprofit space – YouTube video meets “Call to action”! Nonprofits can now overlay YouTube video with a call to action that drives traffic from their video to other web sites.

Have you seen the new YouTube Nonprofit Program? If not, I suggest you check it out!

Why should you care about video?

1. Video allows you to speak to your audience in a way that compels, inspires and motivates unlike traditional web content.
2. You can now harness the popularity of YouTube to drive traffic to your web site like never before. Let me give you two quick stats to help you see my point (Google Source on YouTube reach):
   • Comscore today revealed that the popular social network YouTube has reached 100 million viewers. In total, internet viewers have viewed 14.8 billion online videos in January 2009 alone.
   • In January 2009, 147 million U.S. internet users watched an average of 101 videos per person.
3. YouTube is FREE and the new feature is simple to set up. Follow the steps below.
   • Sign up here: http://www.youtube.com/nonprofits
   • When adding a new video go to “Edit Video” and fill out the fields in the section marked “Call to Action Overlay”
   • Save

Note: For more great ideas on using video check out YouTube and nonprofits by Monica

A powerful example: charity:water

According to the YouTube Blog, the new call to action feature helped charity:water raise over $10,000 in one day. That’s enough to build two wells in Central Africa and give over 150 people clean drinking water for twenty years! Watch the charity:water video here or view below.

Program Requirements

Organizations applying for the nonprofit program must meet the following criteria.

1. Organizations must be U.S.-based nonprofits with IRS 501(c)(3) tax status
2. May not be religious or political in nature
3. May not be focused primarily on lobbying for political or policy change
4. Commercial organizations, credit-counseling services, donation middleman services, fee-based organizations, and nonprofit portals are not eligible for the program

Program Benefits

• Premium branding capabilities and increased uploading capacity
• The option to drive fundraising through a Google Checkout “Donate” button
• Listing on the Nonprofit channels and the Nonprofit videos pages

Tips and Tricks

• Read YouTube’s Nonprofit Tipsheet for more information about how to use your YouTube channel.
• Find out how to run video campaigns on YouTube.
• Get advice about making and editing videos without a lot of staff or money.
• To learn how to use free Google tools to promote your work, raise money, and operate more efficiently, go to http://www.google.com/nonprofits

How are you already using online video to make an impact? Have you started using the new feature for nonprofits from YouTube? Please share your stories below.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Frank Barry

Frank Barry, formerly worked at Blackbaud helping nonprofits use the Internet for digital communication, social media, and fundraising. He’s worked with a diverse group of organizations including LIVESTRONG, United Methodist Church, American Heart Association, Big Brothers Big Sisters, ChildFund Int’l, InTouch Ministries, Heifer Int’l, University of Notre Dame and University of Richmond. Along with writing for industry publications like Mashable and Social Media Today, Frank facilitates discussions, presents solo sessions and organizes panels for industry conferences such as NTC, SXSW, BBCon and numerous others. When he’s out and about he enjoys talking to interesting people about how they are changing the world – check out his interviews. Say Hi on Twitter – @franswaa or Google+