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The second webinar of the TSDigs event series focused on video production. The webinar, Capturing Your Story on Camera, featured David J. Neff, co-founder and CEO of Lights. Camera. Help.

Capture Video the Way the Pros Do

Neff began by advising organizations to approach capturing video much as a professional director would. The same principles that make a good movie also make a good nonprofit video. As such, the staff behind the video will have to approach video work in a different manner than they do their day-to-day work.

Video direction and production will involve tasks such as asking difficult questions, like asking your subject to change their outfit because the color does not look good on camera, and so on.

Tips to Produce Like a Pro

To develop a well-produced video for your organization, Neff shared the following key tips used by the pros.

1. Think in frames. While it may be tempting to place a subject directly in the center of a shot, visually it is boring. Subjects should be framed using the “rule of thirds” as a guide. The “rule of thirds” breaks up the visual plane into nine quadrants, three sections across and three down. Aligning subjects along these lines or intersections creates a more interesting composition.
2. Headroom, Max Headroom. Filling your frame with the subject results in less editing and a more professional-looking video. Using the “rule of thirds” as your guide, make sure your subject’s eyes should be one-third of the way down the frame.
3. Worry about sound. People are more inclined to watch bad video with good sound as opposed to a good video with bad sound. Consider background sounds like the hum of fluorescent lights if you’re recording indoors, which can be very distracting. Editing sound is difficult so it’s best to make sure there are no distracting background noises and a microphone is used to capture the action. A microphone is a great tool and it’s helpful to either use a camera with a built-in microphone or purchase an external one that can be plugged into the camera you do have.
4. Buy (or hire) a good camera. Recording a video for your organization is a great way to get people inside and outside of your organization involved. Organization’s can maximize the power of video by engaging people who have filming expertise and experience. Perhaps a volunteer with camera skills can lend a hand or audiovisual students at a local high school or college looking for experience would be willing to help.
5. Don’t go into the light. Like sound, light is very important to your video. Neff advises would-be filmmakers to consider not only how the light looks to their eyes but also how it looks through their cameras. When filming outdoors and relying on natural light it is best to film late in the afternoon before sundown or early in the morning when the light is at its softest. Often lighting conditions aren’t ideal and must be created in which case it is best to use the “three-point lighting” method used by professionals. The key light and fill light strike the subject directly but from different angles and are complemented by the back light which is also positioned at an angle to minimize shadows created the key and fill lights.

The tips above provide a solid foundation for creating effective and professional-looking videos, however, Neff does advise getting some practice. In the meantime, organizations looking for more expert advice should visit the TechSoup Digital Storytelling Challenge site for information on upcoming educational events, recaps from past events, and links to more resources. 

(Please visit the site to view this video)

In 2010, TechSoup's GreenTech initiative held a travel reduction campaign that we called our TeleGreen Your Work. It turned out to be a lame name, but we did compile some pretty useful information. I liked our 10 technology tips to help you reduce your need to travel, and also our travel reduction tools we compiled. This updated blog post from the campaign explores some ways to increase online collaboration and also reduce travel and work efficiency.

Online collaboration is one of these generic terms that seems to lose meaning the more people use it. From a GreenTech perspective, we mean something specific: a succession of online sessions over time that allow people to communicate and work together on long-term or shared projects, often by developing common work-plans, documents, presentations, meeting notes, and other work products that all participants can use whenever and wherever they want.

Why Is Online Collaboration Green?

The environmental impact of working collaboratively online is to reduce travel. For example, for every short-haul round trip on an airplane (for example, New York to Chicago or Frankfurt to London) you don't take, you'll save the environment around one half of a metric ton of CO2.

That's equivalent to 6 percent of the CO2 emitted from the electricity use of an average home per year. That doesn't include the hassle and expense of getting to and from the airports, getting through the airports, hotel expenses, and parking, for example.

Cloud Services for Collaborating

The easiest way to see what online collaboration is all about is to check out some of the new, free cloud computing services that are out there. Cloud computing basically means services you use over the Internet like Google Apps, Microsoft Office Web Apps, Live Documents, or One Hub rather than installing software and housing the document or information in-house.

All of the tools mentioned allow you to do things like store and share documents, calendars, project management schedules, and presentations online at no or low cost. This software as a service model of computing has the added environmental and budgetary benefit of needing a less robust computer system, servers, and installed software to host these applications.

See a good deal more about the new cloud computing online services and other ways of working collaboratively in the TechSoup article: A Few Good Tools for Sharing Files with Distributed Groups.

Additional Resources

• Online Project Management Tools
• Online Collaboration NPLive Recap
• Eight Tools to Keep Your Team Connected
• Collaboration Tools Chart
• And be sure and check out the great online video, Google Docs in Plain English

Related Discussions

• Project management tools for remote teams
• Checkvist (Cool Online Checklist Collaboration Tool)
• Can tech help ease volunteers' pocketbook shock with gas prices?
• More conversations in our Virtual Community Forum

Donated or Discounted Online Collaboration Products

Huddle: Huddle is a web-based content management and project collaboration tool that shares files, sets deadlines, assign tasks, centralizes feedback, does email alerts to project members, and centralizes calendaring. It is an essential tool for running projects that involves multiple people. Because it is cloud based it is available to everyone in a workgroup regardless of where they are. It is classic online collaboration. It is available to eligible organizations for a $99 admin fee.

If you want added features and the added security of not having your collaborative work online and hosted by Google or Yahoo, TechSoup has some useful software tools like Microsoft Lync Server. This software is essentially an extension of Microsoft Office. It has an array of features, which include instant messaging, phone conferencing, desktop sharing, and video conferencing. The real advantage of using MS Communicator is that you can see who is on your computer network and you can get a hold of them in a variety of ways. The TechSoup admin fee for eligible nonprofits and libraries is $40.00 plus $2 per user license.

Microsoft SharePoint Server: this application is classic online collaboration software that uses the Internet to allow team members, regardless of location, to share files, participate in online discussions or chats, plan meetings, and record team meetings. It also has a calendar tool to build a shared project schedule and track important project dates and milestones. It is currently available for nonprofits and libraries at an admin fee of $265 plus $9 per user license.

Wikispaces: Wikis are a new type of website that allows multiple people to add or modify content. The most famous wiki is of course Wikipedia. Wikispaces is a wiki-hosting service that allows you to create a collaborative website that is easy to setup and use. You choose who has access to create or modify content, and because each version of a page on Wikispaces is saved, users can compare versions or go back to a previous version for reference. The TechSoup nonprofit and library admin fee for a Wikispaces subscription is $10 per year.

Whether you have a home-based office or multiple offices around the world, online collaboration can help make your project teams more productive in addition to reducing your travel carbon footprint.

Learn more about cloud computing for your nonprofit or library on TechSoup's cloud page.

It’s the goal of every nonprofit that creates a video – creating a video that has impact. Examining what makes video have an impact was the topic of TechSoup’s recent Digital Storytelling Challenge tweet chat. The deadline for submissions is February 29 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time, so there's still time to take these tips and apply them to your digital story!

Joining the chat were experts behind some memorable nonprofit videos Christina Samala, Director of Online Strategy & Media for The Story of Stuff Project; Kirthi Nath, Media Producer and Filmmaker at Cinemagical Media; and Mike Bonifer, co-founder and CEO of GameChangers, LLC.

During the hour-long chat on Twitter, nonprofit video experts and audience shared thoughts on what makes powerful videos, technical aspects of creating video that leads to action, and techniques to ensure a video gets shared.

Distill the Message and Invite Supporters to Join the Story

Creating a short video that has meaningful impact might seem daunting but isn’t impossible. Effective storytelling requires distilling the message you want to get across without diluting its importance. Stories that make an impact are honest, connect emotionally, and open a dialogue with the viewer.

A story should connect to the organization’s value proposition and invite the viewer to join the organization. The story does not end when the on-screen action comes to a conclusion, instead it continues when the viewer joins the organization. The invitation to join, or call to action, gives viewers a task that involves them in the continuing narrative of the story. A good call to action is simple, feels valuable to the cause, and opens the door for further engagement.

Share Your Concept with Stakeholders

Creating a video with impact requires developing a story concept and turning it into a script. One expert tip offered by Samala is to share your story concept in conversation and note where your listener reacts before committing to a script. A story need not be linear, according to Bonifer, and deviating from a linear structure leaves stories open to be built upon.

There are many ways to tell a story and most organizations already have some of the ingredients at their disposal to get started. Testimonials, for instance, can be immensely powerful, particularly if they employ charismatic volunteers or constituents. Larger stories can be broken down into shorter stories that give the viewer something to come back to.

Add Visuals, Links, and Captions

Once a video is developed it needs to be easy to find on the Internet and connect back to the organization. It’s unfortunate but visual thumbnails, easy-to-find links to the organization’s website, and video descriptions are often overlooked when videos are uploaded. Visual thumbnails matter because they provide some context when users search for video.

Nath advises organizations to add their site’s URL at the top or before the video description so it is not overlooked. Video descriptions also give viewers content and optimize the video for search engines.

It’s also advisable to add captions and annotations to. Captions make video accessible to the hearing impaired or those who speak different languages. YouTube includes captioning tools but, because they’re not always accurate, require verification. Annotations can emphasize and direct viewers to a call to action. Both captions and annotations, like music, can add to the story if they are used judiciously.

Stories can have an impact even without the latest video tools. A well-developed story that’s honest and connects emotionally is what matters. Organizations interested in learning more about creating video can do so by signing up for upcoming Digital Storytelling events or join the TechSoup forums.

There are any number of ways that nonprofits keep track of projects: manilla folders, email, databases, and, if you’re like me, often notebooks and sticky notes. You might have a copy of a document you need to review sitting on your desk; relevant notes from a board member or constituents on your note pad; and the project’s history tucked away in a reply-all email chain.

Now, thanks to Huddle, nonprofits and libraries can effectively manage their projects, content, and collaboration, both internally and externally. The new Huddle Donation Program at TechSoup offers a donated, cloud-based collaboration tool (admin fee: $99 for up to 25 users for one year) that takes this scattershot system and integrates it through:

• Project management (organize calendars and assign tasks)
• Communication (tie relevant conversations to their projects)
• File sharing (upload and share a variety of files with team members and others)
• People (the most important part — create profiles for folks inside and out of your organization)

Streamline Communication and Project Management

With Huddle, you can create a project, share documents, and hold discussions all on one platform. Each person in your organization — and even outside vendors and contractors — can be assigned a profile, complete with contact information and a photo. And since Huddle is web-based, you can create project workspaces from your web browser, and anyone can securely access their tasks from any computer.

If I’m writing a brochure about TechSoup to circulate to our users, I’d create a project for it, and include anyone who may need to be involved. For example, myself as the writer, our designer, board members or managers who might need to approve it, and even the printer at the end of the process.

Huddle also lets you assign tasks to individuals or groups, schedule meetings, and post documents for review with version control. Team members can share text, images, and other content via whiteboards and store conversations on discussion boards. Huddle also offers a pay-as-you-go phone conferencing service (five cents per minute in the United States). Plus: You can integrate your email directly into Huddle, or hold discussions within the program itself (no more searching for that missing email from ten months ago!).

The above image shows a calendar within Huddle. From here, you can populate it with assignment deadlines, meetings, and project due dates. You can even sync calendars in Huddle with your Outlook or iCal calendar!

Integrate File Sharing with Team Communication

Almost any file type — Word documents, PDFs, images, and even video — can be uploaded to Huddle’s virtual whiteboard. Once there, anyone on your team can share, edit, or comment.

See if Huddle Is Right for You

Huddle’s look and feel can be customized to your organization. You can add your logo, change color schemes, enable or remove certain features, and turn it into a discussion forum as well as a content management tool.

Each account includes 10 GB of file storage space. Huddle also works with your mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, so you can check in on a project and approve materials from the road.

Check out Huddle’s website for a comprehensive overview of how the system works. From there, you can also watch free webinars and take an interactive tour of the product. Important: Huddle asks potential donation recipients not to sign up for the free trials on its site. Trial accounts cannot be converted to accounts requested from TechSoup.   

Frank Barry is a digital and online marketing strategist at Blackbaud. He's spent close to ten years helping nonprofits be more effective online (fundraising, email communications, social media, technology solutions).

Are you searching for ways to raise more money for your organization?

If you’ve been in the nonprofit industry for a while, you’ve likely heard that “direct mail is dead” or that offline fundraising is on the decline.

Why?

Because Internet usage continues to skyrocket. Data storage and hardware is cheap. Smartphones are in everyone’s hands and social networking online has become an everyday activity for millions of people.

Simply put, the world is going online.

All these elements (and many others) lead one to believe that “going online” is a must. That online fundraising is the way for your organization to break through its fundraising ceiling and raise millions of dollars tomorrow. But …

Offline Still Rules

90 percent or more of fundraising revenue comes from offline sources. Direct mail and other offline fundraising sources are still the most effective ways to raise money – by a long shot!

Online Is a Critical Piece

You could argue that if offline fundraising accounts for such a large portion of fundraising revenue in the industry then you should place all your focus there. But that would be slightly short-sighted. Online fundraising continues to grow by leaps and bounds. It’s grown 34.5 percent to $20+ billion in 2010. And it continues to be the best way to acquire new donors.

What the Data Tells Us

They key to raising more money is to figure out how to utilize offline and online channels together. When you do them both well you have an opportunity to increase overall giving per donor by up to 3 times that of a single channel donor. Check out the multichannel fundraising infographic below to learn more about how online and offline giving go hand in hand.

Data sources used in above infographic:

• 2011 donorCentrics Internet and Multichannel Giving Benchmarking Report
• 2010 Online Giving Report by Blackbaud

What do you think? Share your tips on successfully building multichannel fundraising at your organization in the comments below.

Long-time technology journalist Ed Bott just came out with his seven favorite Windows 7 utilities that he installs every time he sets up a new PC. Definitely worth a look at this top seven list.

The utilities he likes are:

1. 7-Zip File Manager
2. ClipMate
3. Ninite
4. Ninite Updater
5. RoboForm
6. Snagit 10
7. Synergy

7-Zip File Manager is an open-source free download that compresses and uncompresses files or groups of files in most formats - ZIP and GZIP, TAR and ARJ, CAB, and DMG files. Windows Explorer does do this, but Ed Bott says that 7-Zip is faster.

ClipMate is a $35 (one time purchase) clipboard extender utility. It’s not free, but Ed Bott describes it as “one of my 10 favorite Windows programs of all time." This clipboard extender saves every bit of text you cut or copy to a place where it’s easy to get to. It’s especially useful for when you’re working with an online editor. He uses it to back up his work in case he navigates away from a page.

Ninite is a free, multiple application installer utility. It provides you with a list of popular Windows add-on programs. You choose the ones you want and it installs all of them. It’s particularly useful if you’re upgrading from an older OS, or setting up a new PC.

Ninite Updater is a $10 per year utility that addresses the problem of having to stop what you’re doing to update all the different programs on your computer individually. Instead, you just check your Ninite Updater periodically and click on the updates you want and it takes care of them all at once. The Ninite website now includes 85 apps.

RoboForm is ‘freemium’ password manager software. Freemium means that you can use a free-but-limited version or get a more robust version for a yearly subscription fee. The more robust form is probably worth the money.

RoboForm Everywhere costs $10 for the first year and $20 to renew. It keeps track of your passwords, but also generates strong passwords for web logins. It saves your username/password combinations in an encrypted file, and fills in the information for you when you return to websites with logins. It can be installed on as many devices as you own. Your passwords are stored in an encrypted file that is on your own computer and other devices and it also keeps a copy in an encrypted file on RoboForm’s cloud servers. Any changes you make on one device are synchronized automatically to other devices. RoboForm Everywhere works on PCs and Macs, in all leading browsers, and on iPhone, iPad and Android devices.

As computing moves more and more to the cloud, password managers will be ever more important. I don’t know about you, but I already have dozens of passwords to keep track of.

Snagit is a $50 (one time purchase) screenshot program. It takes a picture of whatever is on your computer screen for use in creating how-to pieces or grabbing pictures of error messages or anything you’d like someone else to see. Snagit extends the basic "print screen" function in Windows by offering a number of ways to customize screenshots and also edit them by cropping, resizing, or changing file formats.

Synergy is a free open-source utility that allows you to move from back and forth between two computers using a single mouse and keyboard if you happen to have both going at the same time - like Ed Bott admits he often does. He says he uses it to go between his Mac and PC. It also connects the PC and Mac clipboards. That’s a little rarified, admittedly, but believe it or not, the majority of comments on Ed’s favorite Windows 7 utilities piece is about Synergy.

What are your favorite Windows 7 utilities? Tell us in the comments.

The Online Community Meetup kicked off 2012 with Bill Johnston, head of Global Community at Dell; Gail Ann Williams, community director at Salon / The Well; Rachel Luxemburg, group manager, Community at Adobe; and Thor Muller, chief technology officer, Get Satisfaction.

Together the panel shared their “secret sauce” tips to building engaged online communities and even took the time to look at some of their failures. The discussion ended with the panelists discussing what they look forward to in online community management and inviting the audience to contribute to the discussion.

Community Management "Secret Sauce" Ingredients

Panelists each contributed their own tip, or ingredient, which taken together were meant to give audience members a powerful secret sauce for online community managers.

• The first secret sauce ingredient was shared by Luxemburg, who advises community managers “to choose your battles wisely.” She recounted a boss who advised her to wait 24-hours before answering an email from a community member. Although this went against her instinct to respond immediately, she found she didn’t need to when the community stepped in to help the email sender. The lesson she learned was to spend her time on what mattered and trust her community to help with the rest.
• Williams advises community managers to be mindful of using any form of ranking system on their platform. Implicitly or explicitly creating competition will impact members on an emotional level. Ranking systems can drive competition by driving up engagement but this doesn’t work in all contexts. For instance, ranking can be off-putting when attached to personal stories. Community managers interested in incorporating ranking and gaming dynamics within their communities should consider what will actually motivate members.
• Johnston believes that the key to good communities is to build ones that strive for a higher purpose. Johnston uses his company as an example, recounting how Dell first built an online community forum and later built upon that with a blog. Johnston also advises community managers to identify and engage their advocates and make their platform provider their best friend.
• Muller’s secret sauce ingredient is to give community members a sense of meaning. Giving community members a sense of meaning and belonging drives people to the community. Community managers should broadcast their purpose in everything they do; over time this will help build trust in the community.

Community Management Failures

Just as is important as knowing what works for building online community, it also helps to learn what hasn’t worked.

• Williams found that making an exception to immediately answer an angry email in an effort to be nice backfired. The lesson learned was to let the situation cool off before responding.
• In an effort to address the layoff of a community manager, Luxemberg used an image for emphasis in message to the community. Unfortunately, the image was misinterpreted and the ensuing laughter sidetracked the conversation.
• When Muller’s company was met with a critique of a design flaw, there was some pushback from the community. Fortunately, GetSatisfaction responded quickly, in an apologetic and transparent manner, minimizing fallout.

The conversation then turned to what the guest experts are looking forward to in the online community management space – opening up the floor for audience members to share in turn.

Audience members also had the opportunity to share some community secret sauce ingredients they’ve discovered in the course of both serving as community managers and community members. Hoping to pass off the collective wisdom shared at the meetup, notes from the discussion were collected live and can be found here. 

Photo: Online Community Meetup

Kyle Henri Andrei is a research assistant at Idealware and is a recent graduate of communications at Indiana State University. He authored a newly-published article comparing A Few Good Tools for Video Editing, as well as this blog post with tips on making video better.

Visit TechSoup's Digital Storytelling Challenge for more great resources on creating effective videos for your organization.

Want to make editing easier? Start out with better video footage. Shoot thoughtfully, and use the best equipment you can. You don’t necessarily need a lot of expensive gear, just a few basic items.

A good camera is easily the most expensive item you’ll need, and the most essential, but you don’t have to break the bank on professional-level equipment. Among the things to consider are the recording medium (flash drives are becoming ubiquitous, but some cameras still use digital video tape) and transfer method — can you remove the media and plug it directly into your computer, or can you use a cable? 

A tripod is the cheapest and easiest way to get better video. Holding a camera usually results in shaky footage that can turn your fundraising video into the Blair Witch Project. A tripod keeps the camera stable, eliminating the shake. Again, you don’t need anything professional-caliber, but don’t skimp, either. A heavy, expensive camera on a flimsy tripod will only result in a broken camera.

Most consumer video cameras have built-in microphones, but they’re limited — move more than a few feet from your subject and you won’t be able to hear them at all. Shoot outside, and you’ll find that even the slightest breeze can sound like a hurricane on video. An external microphone can drastically improve audio quality. Some, like lavalier or lapel mics, are small enough to clip onto clothing. Others are handheld.

Finally, photography — both still and video — is about capturing light. Different light sources will change the way your video looks, so consider where you’re shooting. A small, bright light like a reading or desk lamp can provide extra light when you need it, and can be easily moved to fill in dark spaces. You can also purchase a small light that attaches directly to your camera or tripod. When shooting outside, the sun is your light source, so pay attention to shade and glare.

For more on video production, visit TechSoup's Digital Storytelling Challenge and read recaps from a variety of events with experts on creating great video for nonprofits and libraries.

Photo: Photochiel

Grant Howe is VP of research & development for Sage North America’s Nonprofit Solutions business, based in Austin, Texas. Follow him on Twitter and read his first post in the Tag, You’re IT! series.

Technical leadership generally gets a bad rap for not having quality soft skills in managing people. Most of us have grown up through a technical career ladder that values technical brilliance over these desired soft skills.

As bright techies with “leadership potential” we are often thrust into leadership positions with little training and a shift of importance to working with people versus working with “bits and gear.” Our initial move to a management position is often made with little to no training, mentoring, or support. Tag, you’re it….

This blog will focus on methods that will allow you to quickly begin to provide leadership and direction and overcome the lack of training and support new technical managers often suffer from. Execute well and you might find yourself quickly outperforming more experienced classically trained managers.

Today’s topic is coaching employees.

Coaching

It’s important to both listen to your employees as well as provide feedback. Where I work we have a quarterly coaching session with employees. Sure, I have an individual status meeting each week as well as a group status meeting, but coaching is special.

The focus of coaching sessions is to get your employee to bring “Did Well” accomplishments and “Next Time” improvements to discuss. The idea here is to keep the employee talking for 30 minutes about what they think of their own performance. It's 30 minutes dedicated to listening and dialog with their manager about themselves.

As I allude to above, you should have multiple touch points in listening and talking to your employees.

Be Direct

Not many folks like their bad news candy coated. Even fewer like excellent news delivered casually. Before you meet, write down the important points you want the employee to take away from the discussion (preferably one).

Think of a single sentence that clearly expresses the heart of what you want to communicate, deliver it, and discuss the facts around it. Make your point and discuss it, don’t tell a story.

Be Recent

You remember last year at that meeting, well there was something you said that….?

Most people can barely remember what they had for breakfast yesterday let alone what they said at a meeting two weeks ago. If you see an employee behavior that you either want to applaud or stop, now is the time to talk about it.

Not only will they have trouble remembering longer term, you are also likely to “alter” the memory of what happened by replaying it in your mind. Nothing causes conflict like divergent perceptions of reality. So do you have a few minutes to chat? Let’s step into my office and talk.

Be Relevant

“Did you get the memo about the TPS reports? You see, we’re all using cover pages now when we fax our reports..” – Office Space

Trying to hold an employee’s attention during a discussion where there are clearly more important things going on is folly. Trying to give your attention to an employee when your brain is fixated on another issue can insult them. People can tell when you aren’t listening just as well as you can tell when they aren’t. The result can be that they think you dismissive or uninterested.

Avoid these situations. Postpone meaningful conversations to times when you can both focus and set aside the time. “I’m sorry, but I have an important issue consuming my attention and I’m afraid I will not be able to give you my full attention.”

That said, I have to get going. I have an important issue that needs my full attention. Give some of these ideas a try and let me know how it goes in the comments below.

Tag, you’re IT!

New to TechSoup: Save time and energy by automating many of your fundraising and donor management tasks with Exceed! Basic 3.0 – donated by Telosa for organizations with budgets under $50,000. Exceed! helps nonprofits or libraries of any size organize donors, gifts, volunteers, and contact information, develop email campaigns, and generate reports. The tool integrates easily with QuickBooks and Outlook.

Nonprofits and libraries can use Exceed! Basic to:

• Manage information about donors, prospects, board members, volunteers, and constituents
• Organize and track donor gifts, pledges, and dues
• Create reports to target and analyze their outreach campaigns
• Create emails, direct mail letters and postcards, and online surveys

With Exceed! you can also export data and contacts to be used with Microsoft Word and Outlook, and post your transactions directly into QuickBooks.

Organizations with budgets under $50,000 are eligible donations of Exceed! Basic (admin fee: $45), while organizations with budgets up to $500,000 can take advantage of discounted pricing for Exceed! (admin fee: $299). Exceed! Basic retails for $499. Available for Windows only.

Check out TechSoup’s Telosa Exceed! Resource Page to learn more about the tool, plus hear how other nonprofits are putting Exceed! Basic to use.

Do you currently collect credit card information from donors and other supporters? Are you interested in finding out more about what other organizations do to process this information? If so, you may want to attend our webinar Processing Payments for Good on February 23 at 11 a.m. Pacific time.

Register now for this free webinar!

During this free, one-hour event, we will be speaking with Alexia Marcous from Dharma Merchant Services about how and when to use a credit card processing service.

We will then talk to Megan Southern from the Northern Jaguar Project about her organization's experiences working with Dharma. The webinar will conclude with time for questions from the audience. 

This webinar is appropriate for nonprofits and libraries interested in learning more about merchant services (otherwise known as credit card processing services).

Want to Learn More About Processing Credit Card Payments?

TechSoup offers a variety of articles on credit card payments, including:

• A Few Good Methods for Processing Credit Cards
• Getting the Best Prices for Processing Credit Cards
• Laws for Organizations that Accept Online Payments

You can also join in a forum discussion on the subject.

Want to Learn More About Dharma Merchant Services?

You can find out all about Dharma Merchant Services' discounted rates through TechSoup at their TechSoup product page. Not sure if you're eligible? Take the TechSoup eligibility quiz to find out more. For more information on checking eligibility, view the new TechSoup Eligibility Tutorial.

You can read more about Dharma Merchant Services and their support of the nonprofit community on their website.

The first installment of the TechSoup Digital Storytelling Challenge webinar series covered everything you need to consider before you hit record.

The hour-long webinar was led by Rich Vázquez, co-founder and board president of Lights. Camera. Help. Vázquez, who has a background in screenwriting, guided the audience through some of the basic concepts of developing stories for production. The discussion concluded with some examples of effective nonprofit video and suggestions for storytelling resources.

What Drives a Great Nonprofit Story?

The basic elements of a story are style, setting, theme, plot, and character. The style covers what sort of tone is used to tell the story. The setting not only locates the action but also can drive much of your film’s tone. The theme is the broad idea or message that your moving is trying to convey. Plot is the vehicle that moves the story – the action. The character, an integral element to the plot, can be a person, object, or even the setting.

One important question that drives storytelling is why do we tell stories? Understanding the intent of your digital story informs all aspects of how that story is developed.

Key considerations include understanding who your audience is and where you want to take the audience when the story concludes. Make certain the story you are telling and how you are telling it appeals to your intended audience.

Questions, to ask include:

• Does the story build on existing relationships or is it meant to cultivate new ones?
• What is the call to action?
• Are you recruiting volunteers or donors?
• Is the story meant to appeal to those that might benefit from your organization’s services?

Have a Stated Mission for Your Story

Like your organization, Vázquez suggests that your digital story have a stated goal or mission statement. Having a stated mission for your digital story can serve as central organizing element.

Planning a digital story, he proposes, is like event planning. And like event planning, involves elements such as deciding who will be involved, how much time is expected of them, and what tools or other elements are needed.

Production Planning How-Tos

Production generally requires much more in terms of time and resources than most people initially think, which is why careful planning is a must. As an example, Vázquez talked about shooting outdoors, which can be noisy depending on the time of day. Vázquez also advises that nonprofits obtain permission from subjects or the owners locations used in filming.

As for equipment, both for pre- and post-production, Vázquez’s first suggestion is for nonprofits to contact their local public access channel, which can be a great source for camera and sound tools. Organizations that want to take a more professional approach to screenwriting and production planning can use Celtx, a free online tool.

Obtaining free music, photos, or video clips is possible through online searches for creative commons licensed content. Other music sources include Jamendo, ccMixter, and MobyGratis.com. Finding photos is even easier if using CreativeCommons.org, which searches only for creative commons licensed content on Google, Flickr, Wikimedia Commons, and more.

Those looking for video content can search through Archive.org or Vimeo, which features a special search setting for reusable content. And finally, Vázquez suggests that nonprofits look to the relationships they have and just ask. Sponsors will sometimes contribute for higher filmmaking budget and music, photo, or video creators are more inclined to lend freely to nonprofits. 

Learn More

To learn more to help you tell your digital storytelling, make sure to mark your calendar for the upcoming TSDigs tweetchats and webinars. 

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Telling your organization’s story in video does not always require investing in expensive equipment. Advances in technology now mean that many nonprofits most likely have access to basic video storytelling tools. Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, can be really powerful storytelling tools.

Understanding what mobile applications to use, the limitations of your tools, and what makes a good video were the goals of TechSoup’s recent Mobile Storytelling tweet chat. The tweet chat was held one day before the official launch of the TechSoup Digital Storytelling Challenge (TSDigs). On hand to share their film expertise during the chat were Aaron Bramley and David Neff from TSDigs partner, Lights. Camera. Help.

Mobile devices seem to be everywhere and are easily used to take photos and record videos. Your mobile device’s native photo and video applications are a good place to get started but applications, or apps, can sometimes do a better job or improve on your product. For instance Instagram and its many photo filters can make photo stills used in video much more compelling.

SoundCloud offers recording tools not found natively on most mobile devices that make it easier to create narration for video. Of course, apps also help share video content on YouTube, Vimeo, and Ustream – all of which have apps.

Mobile Video Is Great, But Has Limitations

However, for all their relative benefits, mobile devices do present some challenges. Would-be mobile storytellers will quickly find that audio and lighting capabilities on most mobile devices are limited. Before shooting video on a mobile device, composition and distractions should be taken into consideration.

If at all possible it can be worth purchasing an external microphone or handheld LED light. If that’s not an option outdoor lighting and a quiet environment were highly encouraged by the tweet chat’s participating video experts.

Compelling Stories Matter Most

Ideally an effective nonprofit video can tell a compelling story in a relatively short amount of time. Although 60-90 seconds is considered ideal, a longer video can be effective if it can keep the viewer engaged.

Another alternative for longer stories is to break them into installments, similar to The Story of Stuff, with embedded links to videos in the series. No matter how long a story is the focus of a video must be clear and interesting.

Use Mobile Storytelling to Let Volunteers Share

Organizations should not overlook how powerful it can be to have their story told by its supporters and volunteers. Mobile devices are great for capturing honest, in-the-moment testimonials from supporters and volunteers.

The ubiquity and relative ease of use of mobile devices also creates another opportunity to engage supporters and volunteers as videographers. Organizational supporters and volunteers can help by taking photos and videos at events, sharing video online, and experimenting with mobile apps.

The hour-long tweet chat covered a lot of useful advice for creating mobile video. However, the digital storytelling conversation is only beginning with more tweet chats and webinars scheduled for the month of February. Those interested in learning how to use video to tell their organization’s story is invited to learn about TSDigs here.  

In conjunction with the third annual TechSoup Digital Storytelling Challenge, we are offering three free webinars to ensure you know the nuts and bolts of all the stages of production — and get your questions answered by the experts.

The last installment of this three-part webinar series on Thursday, February 16, at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time will help you turn your footage into a story well-told. You will learn the basics of video editing from software recommendations to common stumbling blocks to getting the most out of your equipment. The last portion of the webinar will be dedicated to distributing your story to your audience. You'll come away understanding search engine optimization for video and how to best use your organization's YouTube account. Register now!

The third webinar of the series will provide you with great tips for shooting your video. You'll learn:

• Recommendations for editing software
• The basics of creating a more professional video
• How to upload, tag, and describe your video in order to get it seen

Aaron Bramley is the co-founder and director of communications and education for Lights. Camera. Help. In this role, he's responsible for conceptualizing the organization’s vision and working to see it through. He focuses on communication, collaboration, nonprofits, video, social media, and the bleeding edge technology behind these things.

He learns, he teaches, he shares, and he works to make the world, or at least a small part of it, a better place. 

Find Aaron on Twitter at @aaronMSB.

The media is constantly going on and on about iPads and other tablet computers, but computer makers this year seem to be betting on a different type of computing device – the ultrabook.

Most ordinary people I talk to about ultrabooks haven’t a clue what they are, but the fact remains that over 50 different ones debuted at the Consumer Electronic Show recently.

Just after the show, Sean Nicholson from Microsoft sent me a roster of new green Windows PCs, including the Toshiba Portégé Z835 ultrabook that has a mercury free-LED display and halogen-free printed wiring board. Laptops and now ultrabooks are much more energy efficient than desktop computers, and so in that aspect, can be regarded as green IT devices.

What Is an Ultrabook?

If you don’t already know, I’m afraid you’re in for a disappointment. Ultrabooks are light, thin, laptop computers with long battery life and that cost under $1,000. The first and foremost of them was and probably still is the Apple MacBook Air. The Macbook Air has been around since early 2008, and frankly struggled in its first years with poor sales and technical problems.

A redesigned, lower cost version came out in 2010 and it took off. Ultrabooks are now being made by nearly all major computer makers. According to James Kendrick, Intel is predicting that 40 percent of all laptops sold will be ultrabooks by the end of 2012.

Intel in fact is all over this new development. The company trademarked the term, ultrabook, and defines it as is a laptop that:

• Is less than 20mm (0.8 inches) thick
• Has no optical (CD or DVD) drive
• Uses a flash drive for storage instead of a conventional mechanical hard drive
• Uses a Core i5, i7 processor (including Apple Macbook Airs)
• Weighs less than 1.4 kg (3.1 lbs.)
• Has 5 to 8 hours of battery life
• Is priced at around $1,000 or below

Most of them now seem to have small 13 inch screens, but are expected to be designed with larger screens in the near future. Comparing them with tablets is interesting. They’re nearly as convenient and portable, but have a fully functional keyboard and are expected to come down in price pretty quickly.

To quote James Kendrick again, “while netbooks were essentially a flash in the pan, quickly getting big sales numbers and fading just as fast, ultrabooks are here to stay. Netbooks went the underpowered route to acheive cost effectiveness, and many owners quickly tired of the corner-cutting. Ultrabooks are full laptops, with good performance packed in a highly portable form. In spite of the fancy new marketing term, they are the natural evolution of the bigger laptops, and they’ll be around for a good while, post-PC era or not.”

What do you think of ultrabooks for nonprofits and libraries? Are you buying them or planning them into your tech budget?

Photo: kenworker