5 Easy Ways to Use GC Video in June

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in June 2020. It has since been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Video is a great way to connect with donors, increase engagement, and make giving feel personal, impactful, and joyful—and GiveCampus makes it easy. With GC Video, you can easily embed livestream feeds or upload pre-recorded video content to simple, branded landing pages. You can also pair your video outreach with clear call-to-action buttons that link directly to your GC Social Fundraising campaigns, GC Giving Forms,  GC Volunteer Management dashboard, and GC Events registration pages. The possibilities are endless!

While we know you’ll find creative ways to leverage this incredibly powerful medium year round, here are five clever ways to incorporate video into your fiscal-year-end fundraising right now.

1. Livestream a graduation message or commencement speaker (or a Turtle pond!)

GC Video makes it incredibly simple (think “copy-and-paste” simple) to embed a livestream feed on your branded page. June is a great time to send a video page featuring a commencement speaker to your seniors and community (you can also upload a video of the speech after the fact) so that everyone can participate in graduation. 

You can include a link to your giving form or a relevant social fundraising campaign on the page or social sharing links with no specific ask. We know some schools like having the option to host a livestream video on a page that doesn’t get cluttered with comments the same way YouTube and Facebook pages can get.

You can also leverage the livestream feature beyond graduation or commencement activities. Take a cue from Caltech who brought a fun—albeit unique—livestream component to a recent Giving Day. As part of a tier-two campaign, the Caltech advancement team included a link on their Alumni House Challenge to a livestream of one of the most beloved spots on campus—a turtle pond. While a livestream of a turtle pond—or any wildlife for that matter—was certainly a first for a GiveCampus campaign, this creative use of the platform proved to be engaging for donors following along.

“These types of campaigns are an extraordinary opportunity to delight your donors, to surprise them, and to engage them in really humanistic ways that some of our more serious FYE materials will not,” said Senior Director of Partner Success, Felicity Meu.

2. Send a personal thank you to volunteers

Volunteers are the MVPs of educational fundraising—why not thank this group with a special video recorded just for them? Show your volunteers how much you care and how much of an impact they’ve made throughout the school year with a video message on a page that’s branded just for them. You can link to your GC Volunteer Management dashboard, or just make it a standalone page without an ask.

3. Incorporate video into your event promotion strategy 

Cross-channel promotion is key to generating a successful turnout to your events—whether it be a class reunion or an annual gala. GiveCampus recently introduced GC Video capabilities into our events solution to help you utilize the power of video to get more constituents to your events. This integration enables you to inspire action directly through a video. Leverage event-specific calls to action that will take them directly to your main GC Events page or drop them into the registration flow. Whether you’re getting alumni pumped with a pre-class reunion video or teasing a clip of a special guest for an upcoming on-campus seminar, create a seamless flow for prospective attendees to learn more about your event.

4. Prep advocates ahead of your Giving Day

For schools that are running Giving Days or longer campaigns this month, make a GC Video page to encourage peer-to-peer advocacy. Explain how and why creating a Personal Video, sharing a link, or participating in a match or challenge makes such a big difference to a campaign—and then use our built-in buttons to link directly to those functions in GC Social Fundraising.

Earlham College recently used GC Video to promote and drive advocacy ahead of their spring Giving Day. Their video highlighted why and how prospective advocates could participate in the campaign and generated excitement around getting involved beyond just making a gift. They also placed a “Become an Advocate” CTA directly under the video that prompted viewers to take an action as an advocate or sign up to be an advocate if they weren’t already one. This frictionless flow helped get constituents involved right when they were most inspired. 

5. Announce a matching gift

Have an exciting new FYE match that you’d like to announce to donors? Feature a video from the donor or another representative of your school explaining why they’re offering this match and the impact they’re excited to make. Then, link directly to a special Giving Form made specifically for the match or to your Social Fundraising campaign page, where donors and fundraisers can track how many people are responding to the match.

Want to learn more about how GC Video can help you take your fundraising efforts to the next level? Schedule a call with one of our fundraising experts!