To Facebook or not to...?

Facebook has it's fans and it's detractors. I am both. My personal Facebook page is not my favorite place to hang out because I actually prefer face to face interactions  and activities - gasp!

The same goes for my business life. It's part of why I love doing video - I get to meet great people and go to interesting places.Yes, good old fashioned reality that isn't a TV show - going places, doing things, experiencing life in 3D (no glasses necessary.)

However, in business, as in life,  Facebook has it's place and can be a great way to connect to other people, businesses, and organizations. Here is  our Facebook page still in infancy (feel free to connect!)

Now, by organizations I mean places like non-profits, those amazing entities whose only mission is to do good things - for motives other than making a profit - WOW! I confess that these are some of my personal favorite clients and collaborators and I find non-stop motivation and excitement when creating a video project with a committed and generous bunch of folks like that. Below is an example. 

Working for the Maine Philanthropy Center,  I was asked to take an amazing written piece and bring it to life. It was written and performed by Mark Swann, Executive Director of Preble Street in Portland, Maine. What does his organization do? They "create solutions for homelessness, hunger, and poverty." Now that is work worth crowing about - on Facebook or anywhere else for that matter.

What I do for a living may not be as impressive as all that, and I do try to run my business for-profit. However, I am quite proud of this one and get enormous satisfaction in knowing that in some small way I have contributed to such a lofty mission. Here is the video we created together. I hope in some way it helps people and I also hope it finds a way to connect me to other dedicated folks, working to create good in the world. And yes - I also posted it on Facebook!

The 900 Thousand Dollar Video

If you have any doubts that a video can help you in your fundraising efforts, this story should lay those doubts to rest.

A few months ago we created a video for MaineGeneral Health to use in support of their internal employee fundraising campaign. We produced for them a 2 minute testimonial montage, not too big a budget, nothing too fancy. We gave them just what they wanted, something simple, a brief video that they could have on their website and show at meetings to voice the heart and soul of the campaign. At the end of the project we both went away happy and a few months passed. Recently I received an email from Buffy Higgins, Director of the MaineGeneral Fund. She had the following to say:

"Carol, I just wanted you to know that we raised over $900,000 in our employee campaign this year. Now, it was a special year, fundraising for the new hospital but even compared to the year we raised money for the Cancer Center, we blew those numbers away!"

Well, I was thrilled to hear of our client's success, so I made a call to congratulate Buffy. While we were talking here's what she said to me:

"I think our success was definitely due to having the multimedia approach with the video you made for us...the interviews you did were fantastic. It was quick and direct. The video said all the right things...it was our most successful campaign to date!"

From my perspective, it is immensely gratifying to know that by producing a reasonably priced video for our client, we played a part in helping to raise funds for the New Regional Hospital in Augusta. Imagine what you could achieve using video! Here it is...the 900 thousand dollar video:

2011 Employee Combined Campaign from Linda Allen on Vimeo.

Fundraising With Heart

Here's a look at a recent video we produced for MaineGeneral Health in support of their Employee Combined Campaign. The interview subjects were so sincere and really great to work with; they made the project a success...and it's always nice to be working for a good cause.

2011 Employee Combined Campaign from Linda Allen on Vimeo.

Celebrating Success

I am happy to announce that we have just won our fourth Telly Award. The winning project is a campaign video we created for Winchester Hospital in Winchester, Mass. As an independent production company we measure our success by the satisfaction of our clients; a happy client always makes me feel great. Once in a while, though, it's nice to get a nod from the world at large, so thank you to the Telly Awards for recognizing our work and helping us celebrate it with our clients! And the winning video...