2010 veranstaltete das betteplace lab einen FLIP Video Wettbewerb, in dem Organisationen des sozialen Sektors ihr Projekte vorstellen sollten. Doch führte das Video-Feedback und die vielen Klicks bei der Abstimmung auch zu mehr Spenden? Konnte zumindest die Aufmerksamkeit für die Projekte erhöht werden? Dies und mehr in dieser Evaluation.

1. The FLIP Video Competition"
In 2010, the betterplace lab
invited organizations on
betterplace.org to pitch their
ideas for a video competition
that would show their
projectsʻ achievements,
failures and learnings. The
top 10 pitches each received
2 FLIP cameras with which
to realize their film ideas. "

2. Our goals in holding the competition were:"
1. To test whether film is a useful
feedback and learning tool for
NGOs"
2. Whether the video
competition would influence
support and fundraising for
participating organizations on
betterplace.org"
3. Whether the public would vote
for the best quality film"
2

3. These inputs led to the following outputs"
- Staff time and expertise: idea - Bid opens April 14, 2010: Send us your
development, call for pitches, several film ideas in script format. Question to
marketing campaigns, email be addressed: What have you
management (a lot), evaluation of achieved and what can be improved?"
pitches, research for technical - By May 25, we received 240 inquiries,
solutions, trouble shooting, process 68 pitches (48 eligible), shortlisted 20
monitoring, project management, blog through peer review and chose 11"
entries
http://www.betterplace-lab.org/de/blog " - 11 organizations received FLIP
cameras, of whom 8 put their films on
- Cisco provided 20 FLIP cameras and YouTube by the deadline (3 failed to
facilitated international delivery" submit anything)"
- Research and development of tools - The competition was open for public
for online video usage: voting"
http://www.betterplace-lab.org/
forschung/stakeholder-feedback/de/flip - By October 17, 2010, the winner had
and for effective voting platforms and received 617 votes:
software" http://www.betterplace-lab.org/de/blog/
der-flip-video-wettbewerb-hat-einen- 3
gewinner "

4. Finding: The FLIP competition had almost no
effect on increased funding through betterplace.org"
SAEP
Kinderhospiz
Regenbogenland
KIDS
Glasses
for
Everyone
HCFA
Provide
Hope
to
kids
in
Africa
APer:
18.Oct
Kick
HIV!
Before:
29.Sep
BeBook
the
mobile
library
Sol
y
Vida
Nursery
School
for
Togo
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
4

5. Finding: The „supporters“ on betterplace.org only
increased substantially for one organization"
SAEP
KIDS
Glasses
for
Everyone
HCFA
Provide
Hope
to
kids
in
Africa
BeBook
the
mobile
library
APer:
Nursery
School
for
Togo
Before:
Kick
HIV!
Sol
y
Vida
Kinderhospiz
Regenbogenland
0
20
40
60
80
100
5

6. The videos on YouTube attracted the following
number of hits per film (total 6.807 views):"
SAEP
South
Africa
539
David
im
Regenbogenland
728
HCFA
Ziegeprojekt
761
KIDS
–
Brillen
für
Alle
859
Togo
Nursery
School
874
Sol
y
Vida
876
BeBook
Mobile
Library
1029
Kick
HIV
1141
Total views: 6.807 0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
6

7. The data shows that there is no correlation
between the number of views and the ratings
given"
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
Views
0
Oct
17
ra^ngs
7

8. And it shows the time period over which
NGOs were able to attract votes"
Kick HIV"
HCFA Ziegenprojekt"
SAEP South Africa"
Togo Nursery School"
BeBook Mobile Library"
Sol y Vida"
KIDS – Brillen für Alle" Oct-04" Oct-11" Oct-15" Oct-17"
David im
Regenbogenland"
0" 200" 400" 600" 800" 1000" 1200" 1400"
8

9. So what does this data tell us?"
 Video feedback is a great tool for raising awareness for an
organization among their own networks, mobilizing their own
constituency and promoting what has been achieved (we know that
from email feedback), however this campaign did not affect
organizationsʼ funding on betterplace.org.!
 Winning such a competition has not necessarily to do with the
quality of oneʼs work but with his/her ability to mobilize social
networks (we know that from the time period over which
NGOs were able to attract votes). Hence an open video competition
is not a valid evaluation, but rather a mobilization tool if well
played with their own constituency."
9

10. Compared to our original goals:"
1. We learned that a film is useful as a marketing tool and to
show achievements, but not failures or feedback for NGOs. "
2. The video competition did not influence support and
fundraising for organizations significantly on betterplace.org"
3. The public apparently did vote for the films of organizations
that were well connected through social media campaigning.
This leads to the assumption that it was not “the best quality”
they voted for but they supported the cause of the NGO. "
10

11. Other lessons learned"
 Transparency and communication are absolutely key: Never
change deadlines or rules of the game without solid reasons and
never do it without first explaining the change to participants (we
made that mistake by changing the final voting deadline for
purely internal reasons. This upset KickHIV, who had planned
their big campaigning push for the last days of our original
deadline. They claimed that this kept them from winning.)!
 Precise marketing campaigns planning is vital at the
beginning of your project (we did it rather spontaneously…).
Keep in mind that your inbox will be flooded at times and it is
important to respond to participants and answer their questions!"
 Participants did not address failures and learnings in their films
but rather used the medium as a marketing tool. This means
that such a competition is not useful as a learning tool from
failure. !
11

12. Other lessons learned"
 The organizations who participated had almost all great fun with
the whole campaign and used it in their own contexts (not
necessarily with the betterplace.org platform)"
 The usefulness of the tools we provided (How to make a good
video etc. ) cannot be properly assessed. One should plan a
proper survey from the beginning when providing such tools."
12

13. We did not anticipate the following technical
challenges for participants:"
 how to upload to YouTube"
 naming their YouTube videos (and renaming them when we
asked them to give better, more accessible titles)"
 attaching and syncing sound to their videos"
 creating hi-resolution videos"
 loading the large files online with very slow internet connection"
 creating captions (for translations)"
 finding editing software that worked on their computers"
13

14. And these technical challenges remain when it
comes to public voting using open Internet
platforms"
 What information should be required (besides an email address)
from voters which discourages duplicate voting of single
individuals? Their names? How can we keep them accountable?"
 What if one village or a school, for example, has very few
computers? Should it matter if multiple votes come from a single
IP address?"
 How to deal with the fact that some of these places (like
Nicaragua or Africa) have a much lower instance of computer/
Internet users than in Germany for instance? Should we consider
this discrepancy?"
 How do we evaluate the validity of votes?"
14

15. And last but not least..."
The winner was offered a free consulting
session with an NGO expert, but they never
asked for it."
What is the lesson to be learned from that???"
"

16. Appendix"
Extra charts showing before and after
numbers during the competition."

17. During the voting phase, the organizations were
barely active through blogposts on betterplace.org"
Kinderhospiz
Regenbogenland
KIDS
Glasses
for
Everyone
SAEP
HCFA
Provide
Hope
to
kids
in
Africa
APer:
Nursery
School
for
Togo
Before:
Kick
HIV!
BeBook
the
mobile
library
Sol
y
Vida
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
17

18. The number of „advocates“ on their betterplace
profiles was only marginally increased "
SAEP
KIDS
Glasses
for
Everyone
Nursery
School
for
Togo
Sol
y
Vida
APer:
BeBook
the
mobile
library
Before:
HCFA
Provide
Hope
to
kids
in
Africa
Kick
HIV!
Kinderhospiz
Regenbogenland
0
10
20
30
40
50
18

19. And the „visitors“ to their betterplace profiles
did not increase at all"
KIDS
Glasses
for
Everyone
Kick
HIV!
BeBook
the
mobile
library
Nursery
School
for
Togo
APer:
HCFA
Provide
Hope
to
kids
in
Africa
Before:
Sol
y
Vida
SAEP
Kinderhospiz
Regenbogenland
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
19

20. Vielen Dank." Thank you."
Susanna Krueger and the betterplace
lab team (especially Becky Crook)
betterplace lab" and also thanks to Martin Sprott for
excellent advise."
Schlesische Strasse 26"
10997 Berlin"
Tel +49 30 76 76 44 88-0"
Fax +49 30 76 76 44 88-40"
lab@betterplace.org"