Nonprofits are constantly looking for creative ways to achieve their strategic goals that will fulfill their mission and drive growth and impact. One innovative way is by creating a documentary.
Stories sell. Businesses invest millions in marketing and advertising to share a story to make a profit. Understandably, nonprofits must be very strategic in where they spend their precious and limited funding to generate the most growth and impact. A documentary has the potential to shift everything. It did for us.
When I directed and produced my first documentary, Stopping Traffic: The Movement to End Sex Trafficking, I had no idea what would come of it. Our monk team at Siddhayatan Tirth wanted to make Stopping Traffic to raise awareness about human trafficking: What is it? Why does trafficking happen and where? How do we help end it? Our goal was to help end the suffering and educate our small spiritual community. We interviewed survivors, celebrities, activists and a reformed ex-trafficker. We didn’t realize the benefits of creating a film at the time. It went from movie to movement.
How Making A Movie Can Help Your Nonprofit
Documentaries, especially when powerfully and boldly told, can educate communities, start conversations, create opportunities, expand platforms, inspire action and potentially bring in income. A documentary film can help nonprofits achieve their strategic goals by:
• raising awareness about a cause.
• establishing brand recognition and credibility.
• engaging and building community.
• fundraising.
• recruiting volunteers.
• creating partnerships.
• getting press and receiving awards.
By creating multiple documentaries, we have been able to educate, engage and expand our community of supporters and establish ourselves as social impact filmmakers. Our films have brought in steady income to go back to our cause and they’ve given us the opportunity to partner with and support local, national and international nonprofit organizations. We’ve worked with celebrity activists, which boosted our visibility and platform, and our premieres and screenings were attended by celebrities and influencers, local politicians and, most importantly, community members who would immediately take to social media to talk about the film and the issue, and inspire their followers, friends and family to get involved. We’ve had major press opportunities to talk about the issue and the film, and give calls to action to their millions of viewers. I share all of this to show what’s possible for your nonprofit, too. With every new documentary production, we gain experience and realize even more benefits of making films. Making films is now no longer a passion project; it’s a strategy.
How To Get Started On Your Own Film Project
Before jumping into a documentary or film project, like any strategy you decide to implement for your nonprofit, you need to think through things for yourself and with your leadership team. While the idea to create your own movie can be very exciting, it’s also important to know that it requires a lot of time, energy and perseverance.
1. Get clear on your film idea, vision and goals.
Your heart and mind will likely be flooded with ideas for a new film project. Write down all of them. I like to write everything on index cards and lay them out in front of me. With each card, I ask myself, Is this really the story and message I want to share? If it’s an immediate “no,” drop it. You need to find the idea that is a must-be-told story, no matter what.
2. Do your research.
What stories are out there already? How can you tell the story or the angle of your cause differently? It’s rare that anything is truly new, but what is unique is you. When we were working on our second film, Surviving Sex Trafficking, Netflix released Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich. Even though both films were on sex trafficking, the stories, intentions and target audiences were different. Think about what you can add to the conversation.
3. Find a heart-based team.
With a cause-based film, it’s important to find a production crew that has a big heart, too. When you have a team that absolutely cares, it is truly priceless. Surprisingly, it’s not easy to find. This is important because it translates to the message onscreen. You can’t buy heart, and you want it poured into the film because when working with heart, it reaches others’ hearts, too. Pure intention is how you reach and inspire people, and people can sense it in a film.
4. Hire a story editor.
Although we were very pleased with our budding indie-filmmaker efforts for our first film, we knew we wanted to make a stronger, higher caliber and higher production film with the second. I learned later that having a story editor as part of the team is very critical to telling a compelling story. The story editor is not as attached as you are to the project—they will be able to keep the best parts and remove the redundant, unnecessary parts, which makes for a well-told, well-paced film. Let them advise and cut up the film, not you.
5. Crowdfund your project.
Imagine monks playing piano and their dog dancing, holding “donate to our film project” signs along with their cows and posting to social media multiple times a day asking for support. Atypical for monks, right? But we did it. We stepped out of our comfort zone to engage our audience and the community and garner support for our second film. “People buy [or support] from people they like,” another monk and filmmaker had shared with me from her sales and marketing background. Through our crowdfunding campaigns, we stepped out of our comfort zone and garnered support. We were willing to do whatever it took to make our film and help survivors. Nothing is impossible when you believe in yourself.
How do you see a film helping you achieve your nonprofit’s goals? What story would you like to tell through your documentary?