EPISODE 12: Your nonprofit’s video storytelling game plan for 2026

(Episode transcribed electronically)

Matt Pearl:
We are back! This is Dot Org, Episode 12, and Episode 1 of 2026. I'm your host Matt Pearl. I was a broadcast journalist, a TV news reporter for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media, where I craft videos for nonprofits that get used and remembered. In addition to that, I also host this podcast where we help you build your nonprofit's storytelling strategy.

Typically, I'm introducing my guest right now. Typically that guest is a nonprofit leader with a thoughtful, successful approach to nonprofit storytelling. But every now and then, I break from the script to deliver a solo episode. And when this happens, it's typically because there is something that I've identified, a storytelling framework, a particularly compelling understanding of this work that we do that I haven't seen talked about elsewhere and that I want to make sure that listeners and viewers like you receive.

Today's topic is, I think, particularly important for the year ahead. As I record this, is early January, and if you work with or lead a nonprofit, you're probably either figuring out or embarking on your strategic game plan for the year. If that plan includes video, and it absolutely should because of all the ways that video tells your story the best, I want to provide a framework for how to determine your video investment in 2026. This is your nonprofits video game plan for the year ahead. We're going to talk larger strategy, dive into the two paths for video storytelling, and for each, no matter which way you go, you will leave with three questions slash prompts to get yourself and your organization started with investing in video in the year ahead.

Now, when I say investment, I want to be perfectly clear here. I'm not talking just about money. Video, of course, can require money, especially if you're hiring someone like me, to build that signature story that you can share anywhere. But many forms of video don't require money and instead require time. Time from you, time from your staff, time from those you serve, just time. Investing in video also means investing in a larger storytelling strategy. And that can sound daunting, especially when for most leaders in nonprofits, video is not your first instinct. It's not your first love. It's certainly not why you got into this work.

So my goal today is about setting goals. I'm going to define the two paths for nonprofit video and then offer best practices for embarking on either or both. And I hope when this is over, you feel like you have some sort of a roadmap for your organization because you are ultimately the one who knows it best, right? I can teach strategy, I can teach techniques. You're the one who will ultimately apply them. So let's start with the two paths. And as I thought about how to best structure this podcast, I landed on introducing the paths first, then backing up into larger strategic questions, then returning to the paths and going step-by-step about how to approach either one. So we'll go ahead with that plan.

The paths are pretty straightforward when it comes to video. There is the content that you build entirely in-house. And then there's the content that you pay others to produce for you. So it's DIY or hiring someone. And again, it doesn't have to be either or, right? You can use both and you probably should use both, but depending on what you're trying to accomplish, there's one that's probably going to work a little better for you. So let's start there. What is your organization trying to accomplish? And let's expand beyond video, right? What do you want to accomplish that storytelling can help you accomplish?

I'll share the reasons that come up most when clients reach out to me. Number one, fundraising, right? It's what keeps our lights on. It's what enables us to provide the essential services that we do. It's what lets us expand and provide more of those services. We all know the value of money. We all know the value of fundraising. And that is typically the overarching goal for those looking to use storytelling to help their nonprofit. But there are other ones too. Client awareness is a big one. And by client, I mean the people that we serve, right? So if you run a food pantry, if you run a housing shelter, whatever the service you provide, you wanna make sure that people who might need it know about it, right? You want people to know that you're there and you want them to think of you if they need you and to know that you are the right place for them to go. Storytelling shapes that trust.

And there's broader awareness too, right? You might want the community you serve to know more about your work. Maybe you love more volunteers. Maybe you would love name recognition among stakeholders and voices that really matter in your space. This is where we get into social media, email newsletters, all of the things. They're all built around storytelling. And of course, you can and should get more granular with this, right? Maybe part of your fundraising plan is focusing on grant proposals. Maybe it's e-blasts or direct pitches to major gift donors, right? So all of these things are important and a great exercise is to brainstorm all the different ways where you plan to tell your story in 2026, Instagram reels, TikToks, podcast appearances, direct donor appeals, your annual gala. Once you do this and once you prioritize which of these are essential to your mission, then you begin to decide how to approach them.

Here is where we get back to our paths. And the big reason that it's so important to think strategy first is no matter how you approach storytelling, and especially no matter how you approach video, you're going to be asking things of people. You're going to ask your staff for their time and their stories. You're going to ask those you serve to take part in the videos you make. If you're hiring a video storyteller like me, you're not only asking that person for their skills and to craft a product that fits your goals, but you're probably going to be asking your board and your colleagues and leadership for the green light to spend some money. You don't want to do it in a wishy-washy way. You want to be methodical and you want to convey to whoever you're asking that you've thought it through and that you're not wasting their time. So our paths rely on that kind of forethought.

And by the way, stay tuned because no matter what your path, I have a way beyond this podcast episode for you to grow and begin to implement that path. So keep listening. Let's keep going. Now, as I mentioned, there are two distinct paths when it comes to video. There is the one where you produce it all in-house and the one where you hire an outside storyteller.

Let's start with the DIY path because regardless of whether you think you have the budget to hire someone, and by the way, you might be surprised about whether you have the budget to hire someone, any nonprofit, can cultivate a storytelling identity strictly with the resources they have in-house. Right? I firmly believe that. I work with nonprofits all the time. You'll hear about my experiences with one in particular, and I believe that this is true. When does DIY make the most sense? Well, first, it's when it's about quantity and consistency. Okay? So rarely, unless you're a particularly large organization, will a nonprofit have the budget for a video storyteller who can just craft a bunch of social media posts every week or every month, right? That requires the money to hire somebody either in-house or a freelancer who can work regularly and regularly. And that's a huge investment, likely a five-figure investment and well into the five figures annually. And if we think about goals where quantity is key, right? Like social media presence, for example, to build that broader awareness, you don't really need the most polished products, often polished actually can be a detriment in these contexts. Here is where a phone and a decent microphone, and in many cases the phone's microphone is plenty, that can be all you need.

I'll give you an example from my own experience. So I'm on the board of a great nonprofit, Lekotek of Georgia, and we facilitate the inclusion of children with disabilities into their families, into their schools, into their communities. We do this by providing accessible play sessions, community events, and adaptive toys as well as technology, right? So it's a beautiful organization. I so appreciate being a part of it.

And we have built a storytelling culture with our staff members by encouraging them to capture the breakthrough moments with the kids that occur during sessions and during events, the moments that only they normally get to see. And this is a natural process, right? They pull out their phones the way that we all do when we see a memory unfolding in front of us.

They do this consistently and we post them consistently. And because of that, our social media pages beautifully reflect the services we provide. So quantity doesn't mean lack of quality, at least not in the emotions that you want others to feel. It might mean less polish, but in exchange, you get a greater representation of your work. And unlike outside vendors who are not going to be at every single thing that you do, when you lean on the strengths of your team, they feel this work as much as anyone, right? That's the other big strength of the DIY approach. Not only is it free, at least in terms of money, but it breathes through the passions of your people, your people who live your mission day in and day out. Ultimately, if you feel that your storytelling strategy relies on more personal, informal forms of content, DIY is not only perfectly acceptable, it probably makes the most sense.

If you're going down that path, and again, any nonprofit can go down this path, here are the three questions to ask yourself as you get started, especially if you're really unfamiliar with video, if you haven't done this very much or at all for your organization, right? Question number one, what are the low investment video opportunities, the low risk opportunities that exist regularly within your organization? So much like the Lekotek case, what are the moments happening every day that you can capture without much trouble or much disruption. Who are the voices that can share their stories and be relatively easily accessible? Right? So this is all about taking inventory. And if you haven't done it already, it's a really, really great exercise. Start taking inventory of what your content could look like. Right? That's number one.

Number two, question number two, what are your limitations? And this is such an important question to ask because our limitations help us to be realistic about our goals and not become demoralized when trying to achieve those goals. So here's the deal with video, right? Video is unequivocally an essential tool in telling a nonprofit story. Sometimes, especially for nonprofits just starting out, maximum success on one video is less important than simply getting into the habit of consistently providing time for video.

What does that mean in practical terms? Well, first of all, don't seek that viral social media moment. Don't seek that post that gets a hundred thousand likes, a million likes. 99 % of the time it is not going to happen. And that's not going to be the video that necessarily turns your whole world around. But don't seek that video, certainly not in-house, right? Make sure you know what your team, including you, can reasonably take on and give everyone involved permission to fail, right? Because for a lot of us, posting a video on Facebook or Instagram or wherever, posting a video like that that gets one or two likes, that can feel like failure. It can be demoralizing and it shouldn't, right? It's part of the process. And if you're with a nonprofit, it's part of building a larger video library and a larger organizational identity. So again, giving your people the grace and permission to fail and accepting their limitations, allowing them to do what they can as well as they can and not asking for too much more.

Finally, what can you do right now to get started? This is question number three. And I mean you, the person listening to this, setting the example for your nonprofit. And what you can do often is make a short video without any expectation to post it. I was a guest on a podcast by the great company, Double Your Donation. This was last month that I was a guest on the podcast and I spoke about this very concept.

They asked, what's the first thing you can do to get started right now? And I said, if I'm a nonprofit executive director and I'm hesitant or I'm nervous about getting into video or putting myself out there on social media, here's what I'm doing. I'm recording a 30 second cell phone selfie talking about something, right? The content isn't even that important. Just record something that you think you could post online. Do it a couple of times, a couple of variations, experiment with it, press the stop button, and then critique it, but don't post it. Don't put that kind of pressure on yourself right away, right? This is just about getting in the habit. It's about getting started. And once you get started, once you get a little more familiar with video in general and evaluate your strengths and how you could use video, then you start moving towards a strategy.

So that first thing you can do, oftentimes, just turn the phone around and make a video. Get in the habit of it, break the seal, and then find your way towards your strategy. So that is the approach for DIY.

Now let's dive into the second path of nonprofit video storytelling, and this is the path where you hire someone - a video storyteller like me - to create video content for you and to craft that content for you. This of course costs money, and not a small investment, right? Usually well into the four figures. And for the DIY situations that I described earlier, it's not always money well spent, right? Now I mentioned being on the board of Lekotek. They've got me at their disposal to make videos when I can, right? It wouldn't make sense for Lekotek to hire someone like me or even just to have me come in every day and try to capture social media content, right? We've explained why sometimes that works better by using your own people, just relying on the people that you already have. But where it does make sense and where clients come to me is usually in three different scenarios.

One is when you need that signature video that can be used and shared almost anywhere. So if you're going to invest money, you want to see a return on that investment. And when done right, this kind of impact video gets you a huge return on investment. I'm talking about a two to three minute video that doesn't just explain who you are and why you matter, but truly speaks to a wider audience.

This is the video you put on the front of your website. It's the video you share with potential donors to show that their money will be well spent. It's the video you share with your current donors to show that their money is being well spent. You can use this video for several years in so many situations. In fact, I did a video like this for Lekotek about a year ago, and every time I chat with our executive director, she tells me she uses that video daily. Sometimes more than once a day.

That right there is return on investment, a video that you find ways to share because it truly represents you and your spirit as an organization. So that's the first situation where hiring someone on the outside makes sense.

The second situation, a major event, your annual gala, right? This is probably the most obvious opportunity because a, nonprofits budget for these sort of things. So you probably have a budget on hand that you can, that you can utilize toward this, but also

Think about the moment, right? When you have an attentive audience of people ready to support you. That is exactly when you want a video with a defined narrative message, high production value, and the real authentic moments that occur within your organization that connect with viewers. In both this case and the above case, the production value really becomes a benefit, right? It is an implicit way of legitimizing your work. It says, A, you have enough money to hire a videographer, which for some people hold some weight. More importantly though, and this is the biggest thing, it shows to anyone watching that you hold everything that you do, even your video content, to a standard of excellence, right? And at events where you're likely asking for big dollar donations, you want to lean into that ask with a video that shows you're serious

So the events are a big, big opportunity to go for that signature video and it's probably the most frequent reason someone reaches out to me directly for their nonprofit. They want that video for their event and that video winds up bringing in a lot of money for that nonprofit, in part because they have that emotional appeal right before they start fundraising.

Finally, the third situation, and this one is really geared toward larger nonprofits, but the third situation where it makes sense to hire an outsider is when you want to change the conversation among the stakeholders who work in your space. So last year, I worked with a major nonprofit in Atlanta, where I live, and I worked with them on a 15 minute documentary short. This was easily the most ambitious project of my year. And it was also the biggest one for the nonprofit in terms of moving the needle, right? They have already held screenings with major stakeholders. They've submitted the project to film festivals. They've built an entire rollout plan around the documentary for 2026.

I can't share the specifics yet about who it is and what it's about, but the reason I'm mentioning it here and the reason that you do this if you're a large nonprofit is so that you can position your organization as a thought leader, a documentary. And again, this can be just a 15 minute project, though not much shorter than that. It shows your approach to the issue you cover and it brings a depth that you simply cannot achieve any other way. I've been doing these kinds of documentary projects for years, first as a journalist, now in the nonprofit space. They are the projects that people remember long after they air.

I just got an email last month from a professor at a college asking if they could play a documentary for their class. This is a documentary that I did three years ago. I'm not even sure how they found it, but they found it. And that is the power of these kinds of projects for nonprofits, especially that is a unique power, one that when you have the budget really enables you to move some needles and turn some heads.

If you're thinking of hiring a video storyteller, those are the three situations that you probably want to look towards. And here are the three questions you should ask. First, do I have a need that fits one of those situations? These are typically the best use cases for high production video, whether you pay for it or not. But usually you're going to have to pay for it to get that kind of documentary level camera quality, that storytelling craft. So if you are gonna invest that kind of money, do you have a situation that warrants it, right?

The second question for you, can I explain to an outside storyteller my goals and my audience when it comes to the project? Any videographer that's worth hiring is going to want to establish both of these concepts before figuring out the ins and outs of a story. They're gonna wanna know the goals of what you're trying to achieve, right? And they're gonna wanna know who you're trying to reach specifically, who is your audience and what do want them to do after they watch your video? So hopefully you've thought about your storytelling strategy and by extension, probably your fundraising strategy and your marketing strategy. You should know is this video intended to raise funds? Is it intended to raise awareness? Who's likely to watch it? The storyteller will help craft that video, but they should do it under your larger direction.

Question number three for the outside vendor: How does this video project become part of your larger storytelling strategy? And here's where the two paths of nonprofit video aren't necessarily an either or, right? Ideally, if you're hiring a video storyteller, you're doing it to compliment the work of your team. You you're not trying for that one video to be your only source of video content. That puts a lot of pressure on one video to do way more than it should. The whole point of a signature video is that it can stand on its own, right? And that's the idea. But a video like that is so much more effective when you've already built that storytelling culture, when you've already found your audience, developed those relationships, and gotten the ground primed for a signature video to have the most or the highest impact.

And I just did a video for a client, and this is perfect example of this, right? I did a video for a client that wanted me to show the various services it provides, and it provides a lot of services. There was no way that I was going to be able to get to each and film each within the timeframe we had for the video. But this same nonprofit has photographers every so often taking still photos at these events, getting these services, and they're beautiful still photos. They're using mirrorless cameras. The quality is pristine. And because they did that, I was able to incorporate those photos into the final video and they just fit like a charm. So that's where the DIY and the outside videographer, that's where they work hand in hand. One supports the other and it's a beautiful thing. So that's the idea and those are the three questions to ask if you want to make a monetary investment and an outside video storytelling investment in this year to come.

Now, if video is in your plans this year, of course, I welcome you to reach out to me. Head to pearlimpactmedia.com right now to book your free consultation. I am based out of Atlanta, but I work with clients nationwide. I would love to work with you. So check me out again at pearlimpactmedia.com. Okay, hopefully you are walking away from this episode with a framework your video strategy for 2026. If not, please reach out to me and ask me questions. I'd love to hear from you. But right now, that is a wrap on episode 12 of .org, how nonprofits tell their stories. If you found this worthwhile and you want others to hear it too, a kind rating wherever you get your podcasts goes a long way. And again, check out my work at pearlimpactmedia.com. All right, everyone, this is .org. I am Matt Pearl. Thank you for listening. We'll see you soon.