See how Our Place Society has used video to connect with their community and tell their most important stories.

The Goal

Build brand recognition and drive donor engagement

Meet Melissa, Community Communications Coordinator at Our Place Society. Her organization supports people experiencing homelessness and poverty, and strives to create an environment in which they can feel hope and belonging.

Melissa saw an opportunity to grow their social platform from a storytelling perspective. “So much of what we put out there are calls for donations. We wanted to humanize our organization and our service users by sharing more about the services we provide, and telling our family members’ (service users) stories.”

Our Place had an existing social presence to build on but there was work to do. ”We didn’t have any videos, and algorithms are more likely to bump you if you have a diversity of posts.” Melissa was looking to broaden their content in order to better appeal to both their audience as well as to the social networks themselves.

The Challenge

Give audiences a new perspective

Despite a dedicated donor base, Our Place Society faced the challenge of expanding awareness of their daily efforts. “When many people think about Our Place, one of the first things that comes to mind are the street-entrenched individuals who live downtown. We want people to get an understanding of the services we provide and the good we do in the community.”

Melissa is bridging that divide by telling stories from their service users. “My goal is to show how each of our family members is a unique individual who arrives from a unique path.” Sharing these stories not only makes them more relatable but also illustrates the impact of donor contributions.

Our Place has many of these stories on their website already, but not everyone has the time or attention-span to read through a blog post. Video helps Melissa make these stories more accessible to more people.

Why Animoto

Easy to start, easy to make it her own

Melissa had clear stories in mind but needed the right tool to convey them. "Our goal was to create content that's easily consumable. A short video can be more engaging than a lengthy blog post," she says.

As a writer, not a trained video editor, Melissa sought a user-friendly tool with adaptable templates. Animoto provided her with the perfect solution. She quickly customized a template, infusing it with Our Place’s unique brand through animations, transitions, colors, and music. "The flexibility to experiment with different styles ensures each story is told just right." By saving her final video as a template, Melissa streamlined future video creation, significantly reducing the time and effort involved.

“When we share a video, we bring our viewers into our family members’ world. Animoto has given us the flexibility to create videos quickly and tell the stories that connect people with our mission and our service users.”

Key Takeaways

• Efficient Creation
• Impactful Storytelling
• Brand Consistency