How to Drive Donor Engagement Using Video with Raffi DerSimonian

Support for this show is brought to you by our friends at Bloomerang. Bloomerang offers donor management and online fundraising software that helps small to medium nonprofits, like First Tee of Greater Akron, a nonprofit that empowers kids and teens through the game of golf. After just one year with Bloomerang they doubled their unique donors, improved donor stewardship, and raised more funds. To listen to the full interview with First Tee of Greater Akron visit bloomerang.com/nonprofit-nation .

You only have five seconds to captivate your audience. Video can help you stand out against the myriad of peers and competing messages. And best of all, 57% of people who watch nonprofit videos go on to make a donation (Source: Google). 

So - how can small nonprofits use video to compel audiences to take action? How can video help build and cement emotional connections and increase donor engagement?  

My guest today is Raffi DerSimonian. Raffi is a firm believer in the emotive power of visual storytelling, and has developed a range of strategies throughout his career to help organizations and institutions tell their unique story. He’s worked with some incredible organizations, including HBS, Clark University, Trinity College, Lafayette, Muhlenberg, Tufts, Seven Hills Foundation, Worcester State University, Maine College of Art & Design and others.

In this episode, we will explore the art of visual storytelling as it relates to creating emotional connections and driving measurable engagement.  Check out Raffi's free Nonprofit Video Resource Guide as you create and market your videos.

Connect with Raffi:

• Website: http://www.eridesign.com
• Website: https://www.eridesignstudio.com/insights/
• Nonprofit Video Resource Guide

About Julia Campbell, the host of the Nonprofit Nation podcast:

Named as a top thought leader by Forbes and BizTech Magazine, Julia Campbell (she/hers) is an author, coach, and speaker on a mission to make the digital world a better place.

She wrote her book, Storytelling in the Digital Age: A Guide for Nonprofits, as a roadmap for social change agents who want to build movements using engaging digital storytelling techniques. Her second book, How to Build and Mobilize a Social Media Community for Your Nonprofit, was published in 2020 as a call-to-arms for mission-driven organizations to use the power of social media to build movements.

Julia’s online courses, webinars, and keynote talks have helped hundreds of nonprofits make the shift to digital thinking and how to do effective marketing in the digital age. 

Take my free masterclass: 3 Must-Have Elements of Social Media Content that Converts

Transcript

Julia Campbell  0:00   

Hi everyone. Support for this show is brought to you by our friends at Bloomerang. Bloomerang offers donor management and online fundraising software that helps small to medium nonprofits. Like First Tee of Greater Akron, a nonprofit that empowers kids and teens through the game of golf. And after just one year with Bloomerang, they doubled their unique donors, improved donor stewardship and raised more funds. Now to listen to the full interview with First Tee of Greater Akron, visit bloomerang.com/nonprofit-nation. bloomerang.com/nonprofit-nation. Or click the link in the show notes. Thanks. And let's get to the show. Hello, and welcome to nonprofit Nation. I'm your host, Julia Campbell. And I'm going to sit down with nonprofit industry experts, fundraisers, marketers, and everyone in between to get real and discuss what it takes to build that movement that you've been dreaming of. I created the nonprofit nation podcast to share practical wisdom and strategies to help you confidently Find Your Voice. Definitively grow your audience and effectively build your movement. If you're a nonprofit newbie, or an experienced professional, who's looking to get more visibility, reach more people and create even more impact, then you're in the right place. Let's get started. 

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of nonprofit Nation. I'm so excited to be here with you today. I'm Julia Campbell, your host. And the topic today is something that of course I love. It's around Storytelling The Art of visual storytelling. But more specifically, how can video help build emotional connections and get more increased engagement with your donors, and my guest today is Rafi Raffi DerSimonian. And with 20 years experience in results oriented public relations, marketing, communications, Institutional Advancement and organizational development. Rafi brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to all things marketing related research, discovery and strategy. And he's also a believer in the emotive power of visual storytelling, and has developed a range of strategies throughout his career to help organizations and institutions tell their unique story. Some of the organizations that he's worked for include Clark University, Worcester State, Tufts, Seven Hills Foundation, and more. And he's actually a proud double alum of Clark University, and Rafi enjoys outdoor adventure. I mean, he lives in Portland, Maine, which is one of my favorite places, live music and Portland's thriving cultural art scene. He's also a new dad with a 15 month old daughter. That's so great. I don't know how to pronounce her name. 

Raffi DerSimonian  3:09   

Tsoline. 

Julia Campbell  3:10   

Tsoline. Oh my gosh, so adorable. Well, we'll have to post I don't know if you put them on Instagram. Or if you if you share them publicly, we will put that in the show notes. Everyone loves to see a brand new baby, especially old people like me, but I have a 13 year old and a seven year old. But that's wonderful. So welcome, Rafi. 

Raffi DerSimonian  3:30   

Thank you so much, Julia. It's so great to be here with you today. 

Julia Campbell  3:33   

Yes, I'm so excited. So for my listeners, you know, we want to hear more about you. Where did you start your nonprofit journey and what kind of things you work on today? 

Raffi DerSimonian  3:43   

Sure. Well, I started my career. During my junior year in college, I worked full time in London at the Royal Festival Hall, which is one of the world's largest cultural arts organizations. My first full time position at a graduate school. Like you mentioned, I went to Clark and Worcester was at the Providence Performing Arts Center in Rhode Island. I worked on the marketing team helping to generate editorial coverage for the theater. I also have experience working in E commerce I worked for an international travel company called Orient Express. So I got to learn about the world of online marketing. And then I went back into the nonprofit world as a consultant working on a range of economic development initiatives from my hometown of Waterville, Maine. Also producing artists learning everything that I was able to work on in Providence in London. I cut my teeth in higher education as director of the annual fund for a small liberal arts school in Worcester. Rest in peace Becker College they recently Oh, I know. So that's so upsetting to even say that out loud, but, and then from there, I took a position that took me back home to my home state of Maine at Maine College of Art and Design as a director of marketing, communications and annual fund. And for the last four years, I've been operating my own enterprise, working with institutions, mostly in higher education, but also healthcare, other nonprofit sectors. As of April, I merged my firm with Uri, a Western based company. And we're specializing in digital strategy. So a chance to tie together all of my experience for the betterment of the clients that we serve. 

Julia Campbell  5:33   

I cut my teeth also on higher ed, like I worked at Boston University for a while doing fundraising. And I've worked at Cambridge College, and UMass Boston. So I've worked with a lot of higher ed institutions. But that's great. So New England in the house, New England represent, I love it. So here we are today, we have you here as a video expert. Now, I would say my expertise is storytelling, but it's more strategic. And it's more multi channel. And I really want to drill down into video, and why it's important, and most importantly, how nonprofits can leverage it. So why is video the most powerful marketing type? 

Raffi DerSimonian  6:18   

Fundamentally, video is where it's at, for many reasons, but primarily because it inspires action. And part of my interest in video is around the fact that it can elicit a literally a physiological response from us, inspiring a whole range of emotions, compassion, empathy, Joy. But when it comes to helping advance organizational missions, I've found video to be a really effective way to connect with a wider range of audiences to articulate key messages. And over COVID, it became increasingly clear that, you know, as eyeball to eyeball meetings became less, you know, likely, just that video is a really powerful way to connect with audiences. I would also offer that there's some statistics to back up why video, I know you're aware, over 80% of internet traffic these days is video. It's also 12 times more likely to be shared than any other media type. And there's over a billion minutes of YouTube viewed every single day. So there's a lot of compelling reasons. I could talk about this all day. But like you said in the intro, I believe in the motive power of visual storytelling. Because our brains are literally geared towards visual recall, when it comes to raising awareness, it's a really great way to invest in building a profile and support around any cause. 

Julia Campbell  7:47   

So when we talk about video, I mean, there's a lot of different kinds. And I know for my listeners, when they hear video, I'm worried they're thinking, Oh, that five minute long interview video where you have to interview everyone at the university or everyone in the organization, have a sit down, it takes six months to film. I've definitely worked on those projects, and they are valuable. But what are the trends that you're seeing now? And can you maybe talk about like short form video, you know, where does like social media fit into this? 

Raffi DerSimonian  8:21   

Absolutely. I think you're right, in the sense that highly produced video does play an important role. And it's not to discount or dismiss that, because for certain initiatives, for certain moments, it's important to produce some thoughtful video to hire professionals. But with that said, I think with the advent of our mobile devices, and how our cameras have evolved so much, there's so much that we can do ourselves that we don't need to rely on, quote unquote, Video Professionals. You mentioned, short form videos, and no question about it. That is the future of engaging audiences through video. It's easier than ever to apply some light post production via some tools. For those of you have been on Tik Tok or YouTube shorts. You know, you don't need to be a tech savvy video guru to make something look awesome. I would also offer that people respond to authenticity. And what the advent of the mobile phone does is it creates more opportunity for authentic moments. Because you don't have a camera crew, you don't have the lights. It's you your message and what it is that you want to share with the world. I personally I'll be very open with your audience that I am not a tech talker. But I understand the important role that it plays in any communication strategy has changed. Everything has changed. It really has Yeah, fastest growing social media platform. From what I understand. Audiences are changing with tick tock too. It's becoming more common with older folks like Like us, regardless of your mission, whether or not you're recruiting, driving enrollment for an institution or building visibility for an initiative, I think short term video is going to play an increasingly important role as things progress. 

Julia Campbell  10:16   

Exactly. And I know Mehta itself is moving Instagram toward video, love it or hate it, I personally think they should stick to what they do best. But I know Instagram reels, Instagram stories, and even YouTube, YouTube shorts, all of that is just exploding and engagement, and getting really increased visibility. I mean, I know that I'll post a post on Instagram. And you know, it might get like 40 or 50 likes, maybe a couple of comments. But a real and Instagram real could get 10,000 views very easily. And that's just the nature of like you were saying, it's just the nature of the beast. It's the discovery, and the fact that these platforms are kind of pushing out video as their preferred sort of content that they want people to publish. So that leads me to the question on everyone's mind the question that I get, and there really is no one answer. But how long should a video be? 

Raffi DerSimonian  11:14   

Great question. Well, it's my belief that brevity is key. And from a video production standpoint, it's commonly understood that it's more difficult to produce a shorter piece than it is a longer piece. Based on the myriad of messages that we're inundated with on a daily basis, brevity is essential. I believe that a minute 30 seconds to a minute, for an anthem video, or for some one singular message is plenty of time. With that said, I also think that some topics are deserving of longer form videos. And what I would say is that, when I see a five or seven minute video on the homepage of any one website, it gives me pause, because ultimately, the homepage is meant to be a doorway to engage. And I think there's some wisdom in keeping those types of videos brief. You know, we mentioned short term video platforms like YouTube and Tiktok. And I believe there's a 62nd cap on that. So that kind of reinforces this notion that we're talking about, of brevity being key and working with algorithms to reach the widest audience possible. 

Julia Campbell  12:29   

I totally see your point. Because what I've seen with my clients is that they have like this one video, but they don't know how to use it everywhere. Or they think, oh, five minutes, I can put it on Facebook? Well, no, but maybe it would work. Five minutes would work on YouTube. So it's important to know where you're putting the video and what you're trying to accomplish. And another question I have, do you work mostly on fundraising videos or marketing videos? All of the above? Are the above and how are they? How are they different? 

Raffi DerSimonian  13:01   

I would say that what holds videos together, the commonality between a fundraising video or recruitment marketing video, is first and foremost. Is it compelling? What's the why is it something that is of interest to different audiences? Also, they say that most great stories have a conflict. And I think clearly articulating what the conflict is, if it's a video for an art school, the conflict is imagining a world without creativity. If it's a food bank, the conflict is hunger. If it's an environmental organization, it's about the future of our planet, and the health of generations to come. So I think identifying the conflict is really important, regardless of the purpose of the video.  

Julia Campbell  13:51   

Oh, absolutely I Think so. And I love that you said a very clear call to action. Now. This is actually something I was working on with a client that they are more academic research based organization. And their pushback was, well, we don't serve clients. So how can we have people in the video and I said, well, people are doing the work, right? There are people running the organization. And there are people that are affected by the work and the research. Yes, you're not a food bank. Yes, you're not a homeless shelter. You're not, you know, an animal rights organization. But you do have a cause and a problem and you're solving this gap, you're filling this gap in the world and there are people affected by it. So for anyone out there that says, well, we don't have people we don't have clients, you know, we don't work with kids. There are people that work with and for your organization that you can feature. So how can we best structure the video because what we want to do is obviously grab attention and get a reaction. So what tips do you have on structuring our video? 

Raffi DerSimonian  14:56   

Sure. No, I think the first thing to do when you're ready to produce a video is to sit down and put some thought into what's the purpose of the video? What's the targeted action or outcome that this video is designed to do? I think a good starting point is to identify what I call evidence points. And these are examples of any organizational mission. In Action. An evidence point could be someone who's benefiting specifically from a mission, I would also offer an evidence point could be a donor that's been compelled to support a mission as well. While I think featuring and highlighting subjects that are directly impacted by a mission is more resonant for most audiences. There's also a lot of value in having a donor speak to why they support a certain organization, in terms of tapping into their sphere of influence in their network. And this goes back to your universe Giulia in terms of social media, and how you can proliferate these messages and reach the widest audience possible. I would also offer once you have identified a few evidence points, what you would consider the most compelling evidence points to ask yourself, how relatable are these evidence points, which ones of these evidence points are most likely to resonate with our largest constituency base or audience, like we're saying is a story about people, I believe people give to people they don't give to buildings, or initiatives or equipment, per se. It's about how these things impact people. I think finally, I would say, how does the story reinforce and support your primary messages your mission, what it is that differentiates you from all the other organizations out there that are fundraising on a similar calendar, I think, once you have a chance to go through these different lenses, you'll be in a much better position to produce a compelling video that's going to make the most impact possible. 

Julia Campbell  17:04   

And you have a nonprofit video resource guide, is that available on your website? 

Raffi DerSimonian  17:09   

Yes, and I am happy to share that with your audience. And it includes some great tips and tricks, also some cost effective production tools that you can use, I found that some really simple investments, like for example of stand for your camera can go a long way in professionalizing your video. Also, not all organizations have access to a full video team or even a video professional. So there are tools and resources out there for you to add a little light post production, adding, let's say an organizational logo, or a lower third, which is basically a caption and a title for any interview subjects or adding some light music. So this video resource guide will point you the right direction. It also has some formatting tips on how you can optimize your content for a range of social media platforms as well. But I'd love to share that with your audience Julia?  

Julia Campbell  18:13   

Absolutely. Yeah, sure. I'll put it in the show notes. What are some of your favorite tools? 

Raffi DerSimonian  18:17   

You know, I've had a lot of success just using the out of the box functions that you can use on your iPhone, I have the new iPhone 14 Pro Max, and it is incredible, the quality of footage that you can get. Um, also, I would say, looking at tools like Canva, for example, has some really powerful post production capabilities that anyone can use. I am so impressed with how intuitive Canva is, and the flexibility it has. Now we love Canva totally, I mean, you can do so much with it. You'll see this in the resource guide. But there's tools on how to secure audio royalty free music, there's tools on hosting sites, YouTube, Vimeo, Google Drive, closed captioning, big view type Beto, and there's other ones that have emerged since then to also where you can edit outside of iMovie or on your iPhone, Final Cut Pro Adobe Premiere, these are more for maybe advanced folks who have some experience with video. But there's so many resources out there and how to use it. And one does not need to be a seasoned trained video professional to put out content that's going to help move the needle forward for your organization. 

Julia Campbell  19:36   

Well, I have a good question for you because it's listed in the tools. Now. Where do you recommend hosting a video? YouTube, Vimeo Wistia Google Drive you list in your hosting so maybe what are you know, how do we make the decision about where to host our video? 

Raffi DerSimonian  19:52   

I think it makes sense to have all of your video on YouTube no matter what only because it's The such a behemoth in terms of traffic. And one thing that we typically recommend for clients is that when it comes to hosting video on your website, Vimeo is more professional. There's something about the user experience and the the user interface of Vimeo, that just it more seamlessly integrates, you have more control over what viewer see, you can customize the interface. You know, one pet peeve of mine is when you're on a website for an institution or organization, and you watch a YouTube video, and then you know, after the video, the other 

Julia Campbell  20:38   

or the next videos, and you never know, you never know what's going to show up there. 

Raffi DerSimonian  20:43   

You're so right, it's very true. But I see that as a diversion from folks learning about your mission. And there's actually some really simple code that you can embed on the video to avoid that. And I should update this user, this video guide to include that because it's something I recently learned about. And I think it's a valuable tip. One important thing to mention, and you probably have some good insights around this to Julia, but it's my understanding that social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, they prefer the native video file uploading, so it dances better the algorithms. So that's an important tip that I think many of your audience will be happy to learn about. 

Julia Campbell  21:32   

Yes, and it's important because if you post a YouTube link to Facebook, we have to remember that there are huge competitors. And not all social media sites are owned by the same, you know, crazy billionaire. They're all owned by different crazy billionaires. But they do not play nicely with each other. So and the other thing is, if you post a YouTube link on Facebook, it disappears. So quickly down the feed. If you upload your video file, you actually have a tab on your Facebook page, it says videos. So I as a user can go back and look at all of your videos. And it's not a post necessarily, it's saved as a video. Same with LinkedIn. Same with Twitter, you have media file, and you know, Instagram, you obviously can't post a link there anyway. But I think that's such an important point. Because I see so many nonprofits, posting from YouTube posting from Vimeo to Facebook. And it does, like you said not does not dance well with the algorithms and it disappears in two days or something. 

Raffi DerSimonian  22:36   

Yeah, I think the drawback to that is from a measurement standpoint, measuring impressions, you have several courses that you need to add up. But it's a small price to pay when you think about the ultimate purpose, which is to reach as many people as possible. 

Julia Campbell  22:51   

Let's talk about that. How do we measure the success of our video? 

Raffi DerSimonian  22:55   

That is a great question. There's so many different metrics that you can use. The most immediate ones that come to mind are number of views, of course, and then measuring that against number of gifts, number of donors total dollars raised one quick anecdotal case study, when I served as Director of Marketing Communications at Maine College of Art and Design, we produce an annual fun video that helped to drive engagement by 71%. And partially, the reason is because it hadn't been done in the past. And so I think there's some something there. Also, I would say, in terms of measuring success, awareness. While this is a little bit difficult to measure, as a marketer, we prescribe to this notion of proper dosage over time, and I'm sure you've heard this, it takes, you know, 13 times for a message to sink in. And, you know, even scrolling on your phone, you know, before bed, even if you have the audio off, those messages are imprinting on some level. So the 50th time you see something that's compelling, the chances of you clicking on are much greater. From a digital strategy standpoint, there's evidence that shows that websites that have great video on upper level pages have higher conversion rates. And an important metric is duration spent on the site itself, which kind of makes sense. There's some of them are softer measurements, but I think some of the harder measurements that come to mind are number of views, impressions, clicks, duration on a page, and then ultimately translating to registrations, gifts, inquiries, applications, etc. 

Julia Campbell  24:48   

Exactly. I also think that with the shorter form videos, it's really hard for you to draw a line between I saw a tick tock video and I made a donation Jen and nonprofits so often want to draw that line between every piece of content they create. But I think it's missing the point of, like you said, awareness. And if people are seeing the video, they're seeing the video in an email and clicking on it, or they're seeing the video on your website, or they're seeing it on any of their social media platforms. And then you come at them with an ask after that it has to be looked at as like a marketing ecosystem. And not as a oh, I posted a video once, and I didn't reach my fundraising goal. So it was a failure, because you don't know what's gonna happen later down the line? 

Raffi DerSimonian  25:39   

Absolutely. And like you pointed out, if you are uploading these videos directly to social media, there's record of that easily confortable record of all those great video assets. But you know, there's definitely science that shows that 81% of donors said that their perception of an organization is their most important, influencing variable and making a gift. 

Julia Campbell  26:06   

Now was Google study. I think I read that. 

Raffi DerSimonian  26:08   

Yeah, this I pulled from Pew Research. 

Julia Campbell  26:11   

Oh, yes. You research you're speaking my language I love. 

Raffi DerSimonian  26:16   

They're a source that I trust. And you know, what, if I didn't, 

Julia Campbell  26:20   

I always refer to them, like, my audience is probably, they're amazing. 

Raffi DerSimonian  26:24   

But just one quick stat that I think I found compelling is that 57% of donors made a gift after watching an online video. So you know, it goes back to what we're talking about, in terms of the physiological responses that video can elicit. And after you see something after you're compelled by a mission and the impact that it has, you're obviously in a much more likely state of mind to make a contribution if you're in a position to do so. 

Julia Campbell  26:54   

So congratulations on winning the platinum video award. It's VIDDY. Your company won Best Short video for something you produced at Worcester State University. What I think is so funny about that is where I'm going to put the link in the show notes. But for people that are not from Massachusetts, Worcester is spelled w o r c, e s, t, er, it looks like Worchester. I didn't spell it wrong, but we pronounce it was da if you're from Massachusetts. So tell me about this project. Tell me about this video. 

Raffi DerSimonian  27:26   

Julia, this is one of the probably most rewarding projects that I've had the pleasure of working on. We partnered with Worcester State University to revision their external communications presence, we did a new website, we rewrote content for all their primary landing pages. And we produced a significant bank of video content. It was so much fun interviewing 40 students over the course of a week on campus. And part of what we did, as an icebreaker was played off of the Wu, which is for anyone in the greater Central Mass area, you'll know that there's the blue Sox. And there's the Western is kind of affectionately known as the Wu. And we made the recommendation to rebrand their student portal from my WSU to my whoo state. So this video was an icebreaker, one of the first things we said during interviews was, give us your best, whoo. And the responses are hilarious, and it's only a minute and 14 seconds. But we were so thrilled to receive this recognition. Part of one thing I mentioned about the Worcester State project was that we were thinking holistically about their video strategy. It wasn't just about delivering a series of videos that spoke to certain topics, like campus life, and Research and Faculty relationships. What we did was we took these interviews, and we mined some of the most compelling responses that we got from interview questions, and in addition to editing longer form 90 to 100/22 videos, we also just harvested small clips that we use as part of their ongoing social media strategy, and also a strategy to engage folks on upper level pages throughout the site. So I think that's important to mention, because there's a lot of mileage and a lot of repurposing that one can do with video content once they have it in their possession. 

Julia Campbell  29:31   

That's so fantastic. So I will post that in the show notes. I will post the nonprofit video resource guide. But where else can people find out about you and learn more about your work? 

Raffi DerSimonian  29:44   

Yeah. So invite your audience to connect on LinkedIn. Also. Irie. designed.com forward slash insights. We're publishing on a regular basis topics of interest and relevance to a whole range of folks. But I would say We'd love to hear from you on LinkedIn. 

Julia Campbell  30:01   

Yes. Okay. I will post all of that in the show notes. And this was wonderful. I know people are gonna have a lot of questions. They're gonna want to watch that video. But Rafi was wonderful to meet you and get to know you a little bit. And I promise I will come visit the next time. I'm in Portland. 

Raffi DerSimonian  30:17   

That sounds like a plan. Julia. Thanks so much. truly a pleasure connecting with you this morning. 

Julia Campbell  30:28   

Well, hey there. I wanted to say thank you for tuning into my show, and for listening all the way to the end. If you really enjoyed today's conversation, make sure to subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast app, and you'll get new episodes downloaded as soon as they come out. I would love if you left me a rating or review because this tells other people that my podcast is worth listening to. And then me and my guests can reach even more earbuds and create even more impact. So that's pretty much it. I'll be back soon with a brand new episode. But until then, you can find me on Instagram at Julia Campbell seven seven. Keep changing the world. Nonprofit unicorn