Learn how to create professional quality animated videos to share your nonprofit's message with the world...without breaking the bank. Real examples, tips and step by step guides.

1. MARKETING GUIDE
CREATING INEXPENSIVE
ANIMATED VIDEOS
SEPTEMBER 2017

2. EXAMPLE VIDEO END PRODUCT
Video Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymkcsFhUWiE
The Google Grant is a powerful
program, but is difficult to explain
succinctly using only text on a
website.
To overcome this challenge, we
wanted to create an animated video
in the popular “whiteboard
illustration” style.
You can see the final product to the
right, or using the link below.
Typically, these types of videos cost
$5,000-$10,000. Guess how much
we paid for it?

3. WE PAID…
UNDER $300

4. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?
To pull this off, we leveraged an on-demand
freelancing site called Fiverr.
Fiverr allows you to hire talented freelancers from
all over the world to perform specified “gigs” – in
this case, the creation of an animated whiteboard
explainer video.
All projects are fixed fee, so you know exactly
what you will pay up front. And you can see
reviews and examples of the freelancer’s past
work to get a sense of their quality.
Your experience with Fiverr will be as good as the
person you hire.
THE KEY, THEN IS CHOOSING THE RIGHT FREELANCER

5. CREATING A VIDEO SCRIPT
The script is the foundation of your video.
As you write your script, think of each section of
1-2 sentences being its own scene. You want to
create a cohesive story that puts your audience in
a position to understand an empathize with your
message.
Often, it can be effective to tell the story from a
person who has the same persona as your
audience. Our video, for example, tells the story
of Amy, the Director of Marketing at a nonprofit.
Our goal is that when other Directors of
Marketing watch the video, they can empathize
with Amy and make the connection that a
program that helped her could probably help
them too.
As a rough proxy, 250 words of script = 90 seconds
of video running time. This is a good length to aim
for.
Nonprofit Megaphone Whiteboard Video
Background
Our company is Nonprofit Megaphone (nonprofitmegaphone.com).
We help nonprofit organizations get a $10,000 grant from Google for online advertising. This
program is called the Google Ad Grant, or “Google Grant.” Information on the grant is here:
https://www.google.com/nonprofits/products/google-ad-grants.html
After an organization gets the grant, we manage their AdWords account to create advertising
campaigns and send new people to their website.
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
Video Script
This is Amy, the Director of Marketing at a nonprofit.
She has dozens of responsibilities: print campaigns, the website, social media, events…
She wants more people to learn about her organization
But it seems like there aren’t enough hours in the day
Then, Amy learned about the Google Grant.
Have you seen the ads that show up at the top of the page when you search for something in
Google?
These ads are placed by businesses, and every time someone clicks on an ad, the business pays
Google, typically a few dollars.
The great news is, as a nonprofit, you don’t have to pay
The Google Grant gives you $10,000 per month to spend on these ads
And allows you to reach the people searching for your services or topics online
At Nonprofit Megaphone, we help organizations acquire the Google Grant
We then create ad campaigns to bring people interested in your work
Directly to your website.
Now that Amy has the Google Grant
And has her ad campaigns being managed by a Google-certified professional
She is able to show continual progress: 100+ new people are learning about her organization
each day.
She also has more time for her other projects
And is something of a hero at the office.
The actual script document we used is above:
double click to open in Microsoft Word.

6. PROVIDING FEEDBACK
Depending on the package you select, the
freelancer may provide you a storyboard showing
sketches of the different scenes and how he/she
imagines them unfolding.
This is a critical stage of the process, and your
feedback should be as detailed as possible. I like
to copy/paste the storyboard image into
PowerPoint, and place comments on every scene
or portion of a scene that I would like changed.
There are typically extra charges if you decide to
change the script or imagery after you have
signed off on it, so this is a great opportunity to
measure twice and cut once.
Here is example feedback that we gave during
this stage of our video creation:
•Replace Nonprofit Megaphone logo with higher
resolution version (attached)
•Change the word "Grant" as the headline in the
Google search result page with "Featured
Organization"
•$10.000 per month should be $10,000 per month,
with a comma in the number, not a period
•On that same page, in the web browser, it should say
"Google", not Goocle"
•On the "Google Certified", add the Google AdWords
Certified Individual logo (attached)
•On the "Show continual progress page", change ">
100 people per day" to "100+ people per day"
•For the "Hero at the office page", draw a crown on
Amy's head instead of the word Hero with an arrow

7. USING THE FINISHED PRODUCT
Post to YouTube
First, post your video to YouTube. This
will make it much easier to share and
embed later. (Instructions)
Embed on Your Website
You can then embed the video on your
website from YouTube. This lets
YouTube do the hard work of video
hosting and playback. (Instructions)

8. GETTING STARTED
There are only two questions left to get started.
Which freelancer should I use?
We have used many, and our strongest recommendation is for
a gentleman with the username Ollydave. The page for the
exact gig we purchased to create our video is here:
https://www.fiverr.com/ollydave/create-a-custom-hand-drawn-whiteboard-animation-video
Can I further reduce the cost?
I’m glad you asked. There are a number of coupon codes
available to first time buyers. You can find the most recent ones
here:
https://www.retailmenot.com/view/fiverr.com

9. Q&A
We hope you enjoyed this guide! If you have questions, feedback
or have hit any roadblocks creating a video of your own, feel free
to email me – I would be happy to help however I can.
grant@nonprofitmegaphone.com