In the age of Covid-19, the charitable world needs to focus even more on issue raising versus simply fundraising.

Fundraising for sure is the lifeblood of any charity.

And it never, ever stops.

It’s the all consuming, 24/7, beast of every charity.

It’s often why charities are forced to hire CEOs who are skilled in fundraising, but have meager marketing or social media skills.

“But while critical, fundraising should be the last application.

Prior to that, how are you bringing people into your fold? How are you getting people bought into your mission?”

By issue raising, I mean helping your donors and followers become aware of the issues you are fighting. Getting them to become emotionally involved and committed to your goals. Getting them to be champions to your cause. And frankly, in this age of Covid 19, when people’s worlds are turning upside down, getting your donors to still care about your cause.

“It’s also clear in the age of Covid 19, people will be even more careful with their money and skeptical of how it’s being used. ”

People want to see where their dollars are going, to hear the tale of how their donations were utilized and changed lives. They want to see that film where bringing water to a village changes lives, to hear that young child in Nepal describe what it means for her village to get its first school. That’s what moves people, makes them advocates, and champions of your cause.

And it will take every bit of that emotion and demonstrations of your commitment to your cause, to get your donors to commit to you.

“Quite simply, issue raising is what ultimately drives your fundraising. ”

Issue raising is the true 24/7 job every charity should focus on, while driving towards your annual fundraiser.

If you can’t get them to emotionally connect to your cause, why should they care about or even attend your annual fundraiser?

“Issue raising will help you create themes in your social media platform. Issue raising will drive more emotional content. Issue raising is what will emotionally connect people to your mission. Issue raising is what will make people show up to your fundraiser. ”

You can’t circle your fundraiser on the calendar and spend all of your charity’s time and effort on the fundraiser. That is simply a long term strategy to failure.

It has to be the other way around. Charities need to create social media posts and content: powerful stories and films of what they have accomplished on the ground that will help develop a relationship with donors, keep them coming back and become emotionally vested.

“Donors need to be emotionally invested in your cause if you have any hope of them becoming financially invested. ”

So where does issue raising begin? It begins with your brand mission statement. Why have you added yourself to the endless list of charities? Why do you exist? What is your purpose? This will guide all issue raising and even your social media calendar.

What questions should you ask of your issue raising? While you may be moved by your mission, can you make others care like you do? Can you make them understand what you are doing on the ground? Can you make them feel how you are changing lives?

So how do we do this?

The main theme of your social media needs to hammer home clear examples of your work on the ground that have positive results. You also need to make sure these posts are not only clear cut examples of your mission success, but they also need to be emotional.

As a former member of Facebook’s Creative Council, I have learned several things about the emergence of content and the role film is rapidly filling in the content world.

“First a post with film has on average 50 percent more engagement than the same post with a photograph. ”

How do I know? I saw a post (a photograph of a woman and copy) about a woman in Tanzania that used to be a poacher but was now a successful seamstress. That post received 183 likes. Not bad. I reached out and told the client that perhaps it would make a more emotional film. So they hired me to do so. Six months later the two minute film of that same woman that was posted received 1163 likes and multiple shares. That’s a 600 percent increase in likes.

A filmic post of this woman garnered a 600 percent increase in likes versus a photographic post.

Second, studies show that people would rather watch a short film than read a post.

Three, behavioralists have discovered 95% of viewers people retain a message when viewing a video versus 10% when reading it in text. Astounding actually.

Shooting an ex-poacher now turned beekeeper for Grumeti Fund in Tanzania.

“Four, 46% of consumers act after watching a video on social media. ”

Finally, Facebook’s and Instagram’s algorithm favors film over photographic content.

The point of all of this data is that film connects people, tells your story in a more compelling fashion, and drives people to act.

Now while you can’t run a film every night, it should be part of social media calendar.

You don’t want 12 months of social media posts culminating in a fundraiser with a five minute video. You want multiple pieces of filmic content each quarter driving connection, engagement, shares (let your advocates become your media partners) and conversation throughout the year, so they can’t wait to sit at the fundraiser and see your year end summary, in film.

“Lastly, issue raising has, I believe, a positive effect on organizations. Those same films you are posting on social media, can be used for corporate outings, quarterly fundraisers and more importantly within the organization and to your board.

”

The effect of showing a film in house re-confirms for people that their mission is real, powerful, and worthwhile. It boosts energy, confidence and drive.

If that’s the case, who wouldn’t want to be an issue raiser instead of being simply a fundraiser.

Rob Feakins is the founder of For All Humankind, www.forallhumankind.com, a company that consults on social media and shoots films designed for social media for charities.

Being a filmmaker is nice but it's who I get to shoot that makes me love my job.

I have been asked why I shoot what I shoot.

Sometimes with a condescending smile, sometimes with a “really, this is what you are doing now” cocked eyebrow, and sometimes with a quiet look of mutual respect.

See I shoot 80 percent of my work for non-profits, charities and causes. The other twenty percent of my time I am shooting for adventure companies.

“For these charities I shoot at cost. No fee goes to my overhead (rent or salaries). All fees go to new equipment or replacing old equipment (film equipment is outdated every two years).

This is not a blueprint for being financially successful in the film production business.”

So how did I end up shooting for charities.

I won’t tell you my life story, but I will step back to my childhood for one second. I grew up in a family of nine: six kids, two parents and my grandfather. My mom was what you would describe as a charitable person.

My mom insisted that as teenagers we donate four hours a week to charity. My sisters were candy stripers (volunteers in the local hospital) and I was a junior corpsman in a hospital.

“Now four hours doesn’t sound like much. But it was New Jersey, there were parties, lots of parties and lots of fun things to do at parties. And the last thing I wanted to do on a Friday night was take a sample (I didn’t want to know what it was) down to the lab. ”

Anyhow I believe these things in your early years stick with you.

Fast forward to my advertising career. I had a great career and enjoyed it. But over the years the business turned from a bastion of sarcasm (I can be pretty sarcastic) and fun to a dark, cynical and even mean environment. The joy had gone from it.

Coupled with that, over the last few years, the work that mattered to me the most was the cause work: both for our clients and the Ad Council.

“I think the things I am most proud of in my career are helping my client, Citi, bring Citi Bike to New York City and helping Adopt A Foster Child get 40,000 kids adopted. I wanted to do this kind of work 100 percent of the time.”

In my last job, as President and Chief Creative Officer, I had helped take an agency from 220 people to over 800. But I felt little joy towards the end. So I left the industry.

I did a little travelling and within the year I was diagnosed with cancer. Cancer wasn’t an aha moment for me, but it certainly confirmed for me what I sought.

I wanted a different path. I wanted a life with more purpose.

I decided to take my marketing knowledge and apply it where it might be needed, helping non-profits, particularly with social media. I quickly realized most non-profits are focused on fundraising. Instead, I thought people needed to see where their money was going and emotionally connect them with the work charities were doing on the ground.

“I felt charities needed issue raising instead of simply fundraising.”

At first I directed a couple of videos for charities. On my second shoot, for Triple Negative Breast Cancer, I had two cameramen, hair and makeup, a producer, sound and there were even sandwiches on the shoot. But at lunch, the client said the only reason they were spending this much was because it was their fundraiser.

“I knew right then and there, charities couldn’t afford big production crews and the associated day rates. If I was going to support them with films for their social media feeds, I would have to become a one man band: cinematographer, director, producer, sound engineer, and editor. ”

A couple of classes and a few hundred hours of online training later, and I was on my first shoot as a professional with Regional Hospice in Danbury, Connecticut.

The size of the crew? Me.

Oh and I had a social worker.

We were interviewing caregivers who had gone through the hospice experience with a loved one. So if it got too tough for the people I was interviewing, the social worker was there to provide assistance.

“It was here I started my approach to filmmaking. I wanted it to be intimate. I was going to be filming tough stuff. I didn’t want the people I was interviewing nervous about a big crew and expansive film set with big lights and gear everywhere. ”

I designed a minimal set: no big lights, just natural light with one small fill light. I didn’t want a crew, I just wanted it to be me and the interviewee. I even wanted a small camera.

I wanted the act of filming the last thing these people had to think about.

“This light filmic approach also helped me with my shoots with environmental causes and adventure companies where I would need to be nimble and light, and go where many film companies could not.

”

I also began interviewing people either by phone or in person before the shoot. I wanted them comfortable with me before the day of the shoot. And I wanted to see what questions might help tell their story best.

That first shoot for Regional Hospice I met with a couple who had lost a thirteen year daughter the year before. This child had physical complications from birth. Her life was filled with organ transplants and then finally cancer.

I met with the couple before the shoot and during the interview, everything was fine. But the day of the shoot, the mother really struggled. I felt terrible. Was I making her journey through grief only worse? I was incredibly thankful that I had my social worker with me. Fortunately, they got through it. To this day, I still hear from the father.

But the thing that stayed with me, was just how inspirational this couple was. They had spent virtually 13 years caring for their sick child, travelling to different cities and different hospitals, putting virtually everything on hold. The other stories in that film were equally powerful and demonstrations of caring and commitment that were unbelievably powerful and humbling for me.

“While I love the creative aspect of filmmaking (deciding what lens to shoot with, what your b roll should be, editing, color correcting and the like), what i truly love is how inspired I am by the people I interview. ”

In Tanzania, I interviewed a poacher, a woman, who poached to merely survive and put food on her family’s table. But through entrepreneurial training from a charity, Grumeti Fund, she was now a successful seamstress who could send her kids to school. Closer to home in Bridgeport, Connecticut, I got to meet a homeless veteran that had been a drug addict for 40 years of his life, and now he was clean, sober and studying to be a drug counselor. I met another homeless vet, who had suffered in her life as she said, “Every kind of abuse imaginable.” While sheltered with a charity, Homes for the Brave, she went to community college and then went to undergraduate college and received her Bachelor’s Degree and now works in public health. In Boston, I got to meet and shoot disadvantaged youth who were working to generate enough money to build a school for disadvantaged youths in Africa.

I once had an ex-poacher describe for me the nightmares and PTSD he still suffers. As he told me, the life of a poacher is a nightmare. Imagine walking to work except you are walking through the high grass in the Serengeti, where hidden lies any number of predators: lions, leopards, snakes, cheetahs. He once stepped on a crocodile while crossing a river. He once held off a lion with a hunting knife. He was chased by elephants and wild buffalo. Now he had a life of peace as beekeeper and shopkeeper thanks to the entrepreneurial training he had received from Grumeti Fund.

“Not only am I inspired when I meet these people and then film their stories, I then get to sit in an edit bay for a month with their stories.

There have been a few days where I have sat in my office, editing, with a lump in my throat or worse, overcome by the stories of the people I have filmed.”

And then there are my clients.

I had some great clients in advertising. But I also had some clients who weren’t so nice.

Every single one of my clients now is amazing. Because every single one of them is trying to change the world.

Sure, disagreements happen just like in advertising. After all, that’s part of the creative process. But now when we are debating a cut, I will remind myself, she’s trying to change the world. He’s trying to change the world, Every single one of them is trying to change the world.

“So yes, I love being a filmmaker.

But what I love most is being witness to what my clients are trying to change in the world. ”

And most importantly, being witness to how the people they are helping are moving forward in their life, what these people have overcome, and where they are headed.

I wonder how did they have the strength to overcome 40 years of drug addiction, a life of abuse, 13 years of taking care of a sick child, years of struggling to put food on their dinner table, and years of simply trying to survive.

That’s why I film what I shoot. I am not shooting a plate of food. I am not shooting a model in jeans. I am not shooting a soda can pour shot.

I get to shoot the strongest people I have ever known.

Rob Feakins is the founder and director of For All Humankind, a company that is dedicated to shooting and consulting with charities, non-profits and environmental causes.

The best anti-poaching tool is perhaps education

Imagine, if you will, you are going to work. Except you don’t have a normal job and you’re not standing on train platform or sitting in traffic. Instead, you are wading through chest high grass in the Serengeti armed with a spear, wire traps, and poison. It’s a beautiful day in the grassland, but as you look for your prey say a gazelle, all you can think of is that you, too, are prey. For nestled in this grassland are any number of prides of lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, and other predators.

“No one ever grows up wanting to become a poacher, but this is what many are forced to be to survive. ”

Grumeti Fund, a charity in Tanzania off the Serengeti, understands this well. This past summer, I was hired by Grumeti Fund to shoot a series of community enterprise subjects for them.

As background, Grumeti Reserve is 350,000 acres west of the Serengeti National Park. In essence it sits as a buffer zone between the Serengeti and the villages outside the Serengeti.

It was created as a buffer between the population and the wildlife of the Serengeti. Grumeti’s efforts in ani-poaching are legendary and they use the latest technology and patrol-based tactics to combat poaching.

“But consider this, last year 90,000 wildebeests were poached in the Serengeti. Some of this are huge poaching consortiums that operate out of Kenya, but a lot of it are individuals simply wanting to put food on their family’s table. ”

Why? I believe it starts with education. In Tanzania, outside the Serengeti, many people grow up speaking a tribal language. Then when they go to grade school, they must learn Swahili, which all of the classes are taught in. Around the sixth grade, they begin spending one hour a day learning English. This is taught by a teacher who generally isn’t fluent in English. When they get to high school, everything is taught in English. Imagine growing up speaking a tribal language, then learning Swahili and then learning and being taught in English. All by the time you are 13 or 14 years old.

“Coupled with that, most schools experience huge overcrowding. It isn’t unusual for a classroom to have 100 students. Because educational materials are scarce, there might be only 10 desks and 10 textbooks. Students will sometimes bring rocks into the classroom to sit on. At night, they can’t study because they have no light (many villages are still without electricity). So the drop out rate is huge.

”

Without an education, the opportunities for jobs are scarce. We would drive through villages with twenty or thirty men just sitting around chatting. So with no other way to put food on the table, men and, yes, women, turn to poaching to put food on the table.

Grumeti Fund recognized the plight many poachers face. And decided to start an Enterprise Training Program for the villagers. This course teaches them how to start an entrepreneurial business. The goal isn’t to steer them into a particular business, but to set them up for success with skills and understanding what it takes to be successful.

Grace is an ex-poacher who because of the Grumeti Fund’s Enterprise Program is now a successful seamstress.

Grace was an ex-poacher who poached, as she says, merely to survive and put food on her family’s table. Dropping out is particularly hard for women in Tanzania who face many cultural challenges including early pregnancy and FGM, female gender mutilation. Thanks to the Enterprise Program Grace became a successful seamstress. She now has a small shop that she operates on her own. Not only did she stop poaching, she now has a successful dress making business that has empowered her and unleashed a creative side. As Grace says, “When I make a dress that my client likes, it makes me unbelievably happy.” You can see her video at https://vimeo.com/367809076.

Another product of the Grumeti Fund Enterprise Program is Pius. Pius is an ex-poacher who, too, poached to survive and put food on the table for his growing family.

Pius spoke of what it was like to be a poacher. As he described it, it was a life of terror. The famed Serengeti high grass hides every sort of predator. As we were shooting a scene in the Serengeti of Pius walking through the grass with his old poaching weapons, he became visibly nervous and made sure we never got too far from the truck. During his time poaching, Pius had many incidents, stepping on a crocodile once as we attempted to cross a river, being chased by a leopard, and once fighting off a lion with a knife. Years later, Pius suffered, if you will, poaching PTSD with constant nightmares of his previous poaching life.

With the Grumeti Fund’s Enterprise Program, Pius is now a successful beekeeper and shopkeeper. He proudly shows us his house and shows up for his interview in a suit he is obviously proud of .

Because of his business successful Pius, can now send his kids to private schools which have much smaller classroom sizes and has been able to afford a very nice house. He clearly takes pride in the spread he provides us over lunch.

You can see Pius’s video at https://vimeo.com/358187458.

I thought Benson, an elephant monitoring technician, who know works at Grumeti summarized it simply. “I have never met a poacher who was educated.” If he met a young poacher in his village, he says, he would advise them to get some kind of scholarship, or do everything they could do to finish secondary school.

Rob Feakins is a documentary filmmaker and founder of For All Humankind which specializes in shooting films for non-profits and environmental causes. You can see work and client recommendations at forallhumankind.com