Virtual Site Visits.org

How To Download Online Videos to Your iPod (or MP3 Device)

2008-12-17T22:19:54Z

With a video on your mobile device (iPod, iPhone, MP3 player), you can show it to anyone, anywhere, anytime by pulling it out of your purse or jacket pocket! This is particularly useful for non-profit staff working off-site, or for board and volunteers out in the community.

But, what if you have a video that is either on the web, on VirtualSiteVisit.org, or on your computer, and you're not quite sure how to move it onto your handheld device?

This video will walk you through the two processes -- downloading a video from the web to your computer, and then using iTunes to load the video onto your handheld device so you can take it with you anywhere.

Note: There is no audio in this video.

Would you rather print out directions to follow instead of following along with the video? Download this PDF: How To Download Online Videos to Your iPod

Top Ten Ways For Nonprofits to Communicate Online

2008-06-24T20:18:25Z

Online communication changes quickly. It's hard to keep up and to know what will really help your NPO. Here is our list of the current top ten ways your NPO can communicate using the internet.

We hope to post How-To articles on each of these ten methods in coming months. in the meantime we want to keep you informed so you can explore on your own as well. You may be familiar with some, and others may be completely new to you. See what sparks your interest, and what might be a good fit with your current processes, to increase your impact.

#10 - Monitor and Share Relevant News
Online news search engines make it easier to find the specific news that is most relevant to your cause. You can set up ongoing searches on topics relevant to your NPO. You no longer have to spend valuable time browsing through different news sites each week. Articles that fit your search criteria are emailed directly to you! You can then forward interesting items to staff, board members, donors, and volunteers, keeping them informed. You can also use RSS Feeds to get the same information without adding clutter to your email inbox. Read more about RSS Feeds on our subscription page.

#9 - Photos
You probably already take lots of photographs of events, clients, teachers, donors, volunteers in action. You name it - you probably already document it! We know you use these in your annual report, website and other publications, but you can share more pics online than in print. Try using Flickr, Picasa or another online photo service. Invite your funders and volunteers to subscribe to your photo albums. Share all the great moments your organization experiences.

#8 - Document Sharing Online
Are several people in your NPO working on the same document? Or do you just want someone to read over or edit something you have written? It can be hard to keep track of the edits if you are emailing it around. Try working with an online document system like Google Documents or Zoho Writer or even Microsoft Office Online. The foundation uses Google Documents to share and edit these very articles. With Google Docs, you can share the document by invitation only, giving invitees the permission to read only, or edit. You can see past versions easily, and even work on the same document as someone else at the same time, and see each other's work while you're on the phone! No more confusion, no more multiple copies clogging up your computer!

#7 - Help your supporters spread the word!
More than likely, your board, staff, and donors use the Internet several times a week. If you give them an easy-to-use, online tool for telling their friends and colleagues about your organization, you'll get much further than if you ask them to pick up a phone and call, or draft their own email. You want to provide and control your message and presentation, BUT provide them with the ability to personalized their approach. Create a "personal email pitch" with photos and/or video, that anyone can send to their friends just by going to the site and designating whom to send it to, on their behalf. To go a step further, you can even set up mini-campaigns for each supporter. Donor-fundraisers can set a personal fundraising goal, then send the pitch piece to friends on their own personal "donation page" on your site. Oftentimes, a recipient of such an email will find it more compelling to reach into his/her wallet when they're asked personally, and can actually see the needle moving on their own friend's fundraising goal.

#6 - Surveys
Using an online survey, find out what your constituents are thinking, and easily graph the results. SurveyMonkey or Google Documents can help you do this. Set up a survey to place on your website or send via email. The program will calculate the results for you, saving you time and the cost of stamps.

#5 Online Statistics - Analytics
Tracking what works and what doesn't can be one of the most valuable tools in an NPO's toolbox. Find out which communications are working! This lets you optimize your efforts, putting your limited resources where it will yield the biggest 'bang for the buck'. One of the best places to start is to track "how did you hear about us'" information. More advanced techniques include using web analytics tools like Google Analytics and Feedburner to understand where your online visitors come from, and what turns a casual visitor into a more active supporter of your NPO.

#4 - Online Events Calendar Notification
Google Calendar keeps your own personal calendar, and lets you create multiple online calendars to share, so your team is all on the same page.

You can view multiple departmental calendars in a variety of views, and customize special calendars for volunteers, staff, or donors so they can subscribe, to stay informed about events relevant for them. You can even send out email invitations directly from the calendar for a specific event -- this lets invitees RSVP for a board meeting, office meeting or other event easily, and lets you track it better. Plus, your calendar is available anywhere there's a computer -- you can access google calendar through your Google account. You can even import import your contacts from Outlook!

#3 - Online Donations
A "Donate now" feature makes it easy for viewers to donate, right there, on the spot! NPO's are eligible for reduced or even free service, through sites like Paypal or Google Checkout, to set up online donations without merchant accounts or banks. Donated funds are transferred directly to your NPO's bank account. Do you send an annual letter, with a pre-paid postage envelope enclosed? Do it online via email, with a link directly to your donation service to make donations. This appeals to the younger generation and baby boomers alike in many cases.

#2 - Website
A website is the window on your organization, allowing the whole world to see what you do, and why you do it. It raises your visibility, helps you find new donors, clients and volunteers. It allows you to be "found" via web searches on topics relevant to your organization, even if someone doesn't know your name or that you exist! A website is not a luxury, it is a necessity, and it's easy to make one that sufficiently tells your story and shows your images, just by using an off the shelf program like Dreamweaver. If you're new to this, ask a high schooler or college student - most of them have learned how to build a pretty standard website in school.

#1 - Virtual Site Visit Video
A picture is worth a thousand words, so a story full of pictures must be worth a lot more. Sometimes, words alone are insufficient to tell people what it is that you do. Isn't it true that once you get a potential donor to come and visit, your odds go up enormously of obtaining a donation? Well, the web makes it REALLY EASY to provide a "virtual" site visit.

You don't need high-end equipment or expensive companies to make one. You don't need a videographer. You can simply use photographs, and some simple off the shelf software to create collages of photos moving in and out, with music background and text to deliver your message. Perhaps you have some great taped interview with staff, volunteers or the people you help every day? Or a great excerpt from a Gala video? These can be just as powerful. Nowadays, you can use a laptop with a camera to record an interview, and simple software to string it together. Be clear, to the point, and most importantly, craft your message as it comes from your heart. Create a Virtual Site Visit!

Green Dot Schools Make a Difference

2008-06-18T19:34:27Z

Virtual Site Visits is happy to promote the FCFox grantee Green Dot. See their 30 second video about making a difference in the the LA county school districts.

See Green Dot's video in the VSV video gallery.

List A Job Opening - Free in June

2008-06-11T22:21:18Z

What is Idealist.org?:

According to their site, "Idealist is a project of Action Without Borders, a nonprofit organization founded in 1995 with offices in the United States and Argentina. Idealist is an interactive site where people and organizations can exchange resources and ideas, locate opportunities and supporters, and take steps toward building a world where all people can lead free and dignified lives."

Essentially it's a nonprofit for nonprofits that we, here at FCF have not yet used much, but we have two reasons for including them here on VSV.

1. They offer a job posting service with sections specifically for nonprofits. Normally, fees are charged when posting a job, but for the rest of June 2008, nonprofits can post for free. Not wanting anyone to miss out on such an opportunity, we thought we should let you know.

2. Idealist.org provides a good example of effective use of video, and uses placement on their site equally effectively.

What can you learn from their video and placement?

They created a video for a specific promotion, their "June is Free" offer to nonprofits. It appears that a professional was working with them, but this could have been done without one. Make something short, clear and from the heart and you will get a targeted message across.

They simply used YouTube to host the video, then they embedded the video on their site. You can do this too - just read our "How-To" article" links.
They placed their video in a prime location on their website, and left some empty space around it so that it stands out and draws the eye. They also placed a title and description just above the embedded video to help people understand why they should watch the video.

So take a look, learn from their example, and maybe take advantage of the free job posting opportunity.

How To Embed Your Vimeo Video into Your Website

2008-06-04T20:18:37Z

Step 1: Getting Started
Here is a video tutorial by the Vimeo staff about the features you can change in Vimeo before you embed.

Embed Customizer from Vimeo Staff on Vimeo.

Step 2: Making Adjustments
I do have one extra bit to add to what the Vimeo staff has said. You may notice that in Vimeo the title of your video and your Vimeo name and a link to the Vimeo site appears below the video. This is great for other people's websites, but you may not want it there. Viewers on your website already know your name, you may already have your name visible elsewhere, and/or you may just not want it there at all.

This step is not essential it is a preference, so you can either SKIP down to Step 3, or follow the directions here to remove the name and link.

In order to do this work, you must copy/paste your code into a "safe place to work." Something like a Word doc, notepad, or draft email. You'll work with your code there, then when you're done, you'll copy/paste it back into your website.

If you know how to work with html code, you can make this change in the program you use to edit your website code. You may, however be more comfortable copy/pasting it into a safe place to work with it first.

This is what your video will look like if using the code directly from Vimeo:

Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp - After School Program from Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation on Vimeo.

This is what your code should look like when you paste it into your website or safe workplace:
fullscreen=1&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF" height="300" width="400">


Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp
- After School Program from Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation
on Vimeo.

The PURPLE code above, between the instances of the word "object" is the code you need, so be sure NOT to change any of that code.

Place your cursor after the second "object" tag, before the tag with "br." Hit return a few times to separate the purple from the black code so you can work with it separately. Highlight the second piece of code (the black text).

Your code should now look like this:
fullscreen=1&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF" height="300" width="400">



Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp - After School Program from Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation on Vimeo.

Now, DELETE the highlighted section. Ok, now highlight the remaining code (the purple) and COPY/PASTE it back into your website. Step 3 has more information how to do this.

Step 3: Paste in the video's code to Embed in your site.
Don't be daunted by the length of these instructions! The steps depend on how your organization manages your website, choose the option below that best fits your situation!

Option A: For organizations that have a person or company that manages your website.

Send an email to that person or company, letting them know two things:

1) where in your site you would like to place the video, and

2) the code you just copied, in step two. So, "paste" the code into the email (using the "Edit" menu or other pasting method you know). Give them the go-ahead, and they'll embed the video for you.

Option B: You don't know a lot about websites, but you use a program like MS Frontpage or Adobe Dreamweaver and do it yourself.

This may be a little tricky, but you can do it! Dreamweaver will be a little bit easier for you, if you can choose which program to use.

When you open your program, it takes you to the front page of your website. Decide which page you want your video to appear on. You can place the video on your main index page, or any other page on your site. You could also create a separate page in your site just for displaying your video and then link to it elsewhere on your site. This is your choice, but be sure to give your video strong visibility.

Once you have pulled up the page you want, place your cursor in the window and "Paste" the code in. (Use your Internet browser's "Edit" menu or your favorite other method to "Paste" your code.)

You may all done now! But, you should test the page to see if displays properly. Different website management programs treat this code in different ways!

Your program should show you right on the screen what it looks like, however if you are not connected to the Internet you may just see blank space where you placed the video, since your program needs to access the Vimeo page from the web to display your video.

If there is a blank space where your video should be, then your program will require you to "save" your work, and then go visit your website online to see how it looks. In that case, you may want to test it out by embedding it on a page that isn't linked to other pages, as a beta test, or, doing this process late at night when you likely do not have very many viewers, because you're working right on your "live" website.

Troubleshooting a common problem: "I copied and pasted the code, but when I check the website, all I see is the code just printed on my site."
The Fix: Your website management program thinks that this is plain text rather than code, so here's what you do:

First, delete the code - we'll have to try again in a different "view" mode. (Delete can be done using the "Undo" option in your "Edit" menu, or the undo arrow, or any other delete option on your keyboard or browser).

Now, to edit the code directly, we'll need you to be in "Code View" or "HTML View" depending on what your program calls it. Most programs have an option near the top of your screen that will allow you to change the "view" you're working in. You can switch back and forth between the "Design View" mode and the "Code View" mode. If you don't see such a toggle button, try looking in the "View" menu in your program's main menu, and look at the options. You'll probably see something like "Design View" and "Code View" as Dreamweaver calls them. If you still can't find this, please refer to your program's Help files to switch to the "Code View" or "HTML View" mode.

Note: Some programs, like Dreamweaver, let you use a "Split View" option which will let you see your pages in "Design View" and "Code View" at the same time, which is quite helpful!

Now, let's work with the code and put your cursor exactly where you want the video to appear.

Code looks a bit odd if you are not accustomed to looking at HTML code. If you place your cursor in the position on the screen where you wish to place your video while in "Design View" mode, your cursor should still be in that spot when you switch to "Code View" mode. If not, you may need to do some trial and error. Be sure you don't click "Save" until you are sure things look just right. Before you "Save" you have the option of closing the page, and everything goes back to the way it was, no damage done.

When you've got your cursor in the right location, within the code, "Paste" in the Vimeo code we copied earlier.

Then go back to your "Design View" mode or test online and see how it looks.

If you want to include text beside your video on your website, read on to Option D where we show you some added table code that can help you. You should also have table options in your program that can help you with this if you'd like to try it on your own.

Option C: You use a blog program to run your organization's website.

Log into your blog program. (It doesn't matter if you use blogger, typepad, myspace or something else entirely). Create a new post as you would in any other situation. Give your post a title and anything else you would normally do when updating your site. Place your cursor in the blog post window where you would normally write something and "Paste" the video code.

You should be done, but if you look online and all you see is code instead of a video, go to the Option B's "Common Problem" box, above. Copy the text you wrote so you don't have to rewrite it later and then delete that blog entry.

Option D: You know how to code, so you build and manage your own website.

If you fall into this category you most likely know what to do with the code now, but, in the interest of helping everyone, here are instructions.

You will likely want to place your video code into table code so that you can align a paragraph of text beside the video. Here, we will build a very basic table to display your video which can be inserted into your current website.

Example Of Single Video Embedding Table

You can put all the text that you want here. Tell us about your organization, program, video. Sell us on you. And don't forget to throw in a link to your donation information or directly to online donation form!

Click to see this example larger and on its own page

The Code To Build The Above Example:
= this text is a note explaining what a piece of code does. The arrow like pieces at either side make it invisible when it remains in the code of your site.

Now that you understand this code you can modify it for your organization.

fullscreen=1&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF" height="300" width="400">

Now that you understand this code you can modify it for your organization.

1. Replace the Purple code with the code that you copied from the Vimeo site earlier.
2. Replace the header and description with information about your own video.

3. Determine where in your website you want your video to appear, and then open the file for that page.

4. Select all of this code, "Copy" the code and then "Paste" it directly into the code of your website in the location that you want this video to appear. All of my text in green or between tags that look like this: are fine to stay there. You can remove those if you wish, but if you choose not to, they'll stay invisible on your page. You will see them only in the code. They may serve as a good reference, for later.
5. Save your page and check it out online. You may want to do this late at night or during a time when not many people are looking at your website, in case you find mistakes.

Step 4: Congratulations!
Your Virtual Site Visit video is embedded on your site!

That's it, you are done. You can now use your website to give a "virtual site visit" to potential donors, volunteers, clients and everyone!

Check back soon, for more How-To articles! And, please share your stories about how you use your virtual site visit with us and others!

How To Embed Your YouTube Video into Your Website

2008-05-28T21:49:00Z

If you already have a YouTube video that you want to put up on your organization's website, here is the step by step guide to make the task easier.

If your video is not yet uploaded to YouTube, see our article, "How To Upload Your Video To YouTube".

1: Getting Started
As you may already know, at the end of every YouTube video a list of "related videos" appears. You probably don't want this list to scroll by, since you can't control the types of video might be listed there.

So, first, let's remove the "related videos" list before you embed your video. Go the viewing page for your new YouTube video, as if you were going to watch it now. To the right of the video you will see a box containing information about you and your video. In the section entitled "Embed", click on the "Customize" link (labeled A in green, below). This will expand the embedding options.

In the options, choose the radio button (circle) beside "Don't include related videos" (labeled B).

Step 2: Copy the video's code
Now we're going to "Copy" the video embedding code, and in Step 3, we'll "Paste" that code into your site.

You probably know how to copy/paste already. So, go ahead and highlight all the text in the window in the white box under "Embed" (labeled C in the diagram above).

If you don't know how to copy/paste already follow these instructions. Highlight all the text in the window in the white box under "Embed" (labeled C in the diagram above). Next, go to the "Edit" menu from your Internet browser, which is probably in the top right if you're using Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Netscape. In the "Edit" menu, select the "Copy" option to copy all the highlighted text in the "Embed" window.

You've now COPIED the code. Go on to Step 3.

Option A: For organizations that have a person or company that manages your website.

Send an email to that person or company, letting them know two things:

1) where in your site you would like to place the video, and

2) the code you just copied, in step two. So, "paste" the code into the email (using the "Edit" menu or other pasting method you know). Give them the go-ahead, and they'll embed the video for you.

Option B: You don't know a lot about websites, but you use a program like MS Frontpage or Adobe Dreamweaver and do it yourself.

This may be a little tricky, but you can do it! Dreamweaver will be a little bit easier for you, if you can choose which program to use.

Once you have pulled up the page you want, place your cursor in the window and "Paste" the code in. (Use your Internet browser's "Edit" menu or your favorite other method to "Paste" your code.)

You may all done now! But, you should test the page to see if displays properly. Different website management programs treat this code in different ways!

Troubleshooting a common problem: "I copied and pasted the code, but when I check the website, all I see is the code just printed on my site."
The Fix: Your website management program thinks that this is plain text rather than code, so here's what you do:

First, delete the code - we'll have to try again in a different "view" mode. (Delete can be done using the "Undo" option in your "Edit" menu, or the undo arrow, or any other delete option on your keyboard or browser).

Now, to edit the code directly, we'll need you to be in "Code View" or "HTML View" depending on what your program calls it. Most programs have an option near the top of your screen that will allow you to change the "view" you're working in. You can switch back and forth between the "Design View" mode and the "Code View" mode. If you don't see such a toggle button, try looking in the "View" menu in your program's main menu, and look at the options. You'll probably see something like "Design View" and "Code View" as Dreamweaver calls them. If you still can't find this, please refer to your program's Help files to switch to the "Code View" or "HTML View" mode.

Note: Some programs, like Dreamweaver, let you use a "Split View" option which will let you see your pages in "Design View" and "Code View" at the same time, which is quite helpful!

Now, let's work with the code and put your cursor exactly where you want the video to appear.

Code looks a bit odd if you are not accustomed to looking at HTML code. If you place your cursor in the position on the screen where you wish to place your video while in "Design View" mode, your cursor should still be in that spot when you switch to "Code View" mode. If not, you may need to do some trial and error. Be sure you don't click "Save" until you are sure things look just right. Before you "Save" you have the option of closing the page, and everything goes back to the way it was, no damage done.

When you've got your cursor in the right location, within the code, "Paste" in the YouTube code we copied earlier.

Then go back to your "Design View" mode or test online and see how it looks.

Option C: You use a blog program to run your organization's website.

Option D: You know how to code, so you build and manage your own website.

If you fall into this category you most likely know what to do with the code now, but, in the interest of helping everyone, here are instructions.

Click to see this example larger and on its own page

The Code To Build The Above Example:
= this text is a note explaining what a piece of code does. The arrow like pieces at either side make it invisible when it remains in the code of your site.

Now that you understand this code you can modify it for your organization.

1. Replace the Purple code with the code that you copied from the YouTube site earlier.
2. Replace the header and description with information about your own video.

3. Determine where in your website you want your video to appear, and then open the file for that page.

4. Select all of this code, "Copy" the code and then "Paste" it directly into the code of your website in the location that you want this video to appear. All of my text in green or between tags that look like this: are fine to stay there. You can remove those if you wish, but if you choose not to, they'll stay invisible on your page. You will see them only in the code. They may serve as a good reference, for later.
5. Save your page and check it out online. You may want to do this late at night or during a time when not many people are looking at your website, in case you find mistakes.

Step 4: Congratulations!
Your Virtual Site Visit video is embedded on your site!

That's it, you are done. You can now use your website to give a "virtual site visit" to potential donors, volunteers, clients and everyone!

Check back soon, for more How-To articles! And, please share your stories about how you use your virtual site visit with us and others!

How To Upload Your Video to Vimeo

2008-05-19T19:24:58Z

This article will guide you through moving your video from your computer's hard drive to the web, on Vimeo.

If your video is on a DVD, you must first convert it to digital format on your hard drive. We'll address that in a separate "how to" article.

Once your video is on Vimeo, it can be placed (embedded) in your organization's website. You can find the instructions for this in "How to Embed Your YouTube Video Into Your Website" coming soon!

Vimeo has made uploading easy for you.
Here is their video, which walks you through the whole process.

Upload Tutorial from Vimeo Staff hosted on Vimeo.

Please note that Vimeo does not restrict the length of your video, allowing you to upload up to 500 MB per week. However, your web connection may not be able to transfer that much data, at least not without your being very persistent and having to restart the upload several times. We recommend you work with video files that are 50MB or less, which is sufficient for a decent-quality, online video.

If your video is larger than 50MB, we recommend you follow these Side Step instructions, below, to make your video smaller before uploading to Vimeo.

Side Step: My video is too large to upload! How do I make it smaller?

One of the easiest. most accessible ways to render your video to a smaller size while maintaining quality is through iTunes. Follow these easy steps:
1. Open iTunes and import your video into it by selecting the file, importing it, then finding your video on your hard drive and selecting "ok"

2. In the "Movies" section of the "Library," click on the video file you wish to render.

3. In the "Advanced" menu along the top select the "Convert Selection for iPod" option. The iPod version is a clear, crisp rendering which will still be small in data size.

4. iTunes will go through the process of converting your video. When it is complete, it will ding.

5. You will then see a new video appear directly below the original in the listing on the page, named the same as your original. Drag this new file to your desktop and go back and resume the Upload to Vimeo steps above.

You are now done with your "Upload!"

Your video will be on hosted on Vimeo ready for use.

You can now:

- Email your video - Send to donors, volunteers, members, participants, etc. Use your video as a virtual site visit for your organization. Show them exactly what you have to offer.

- Embed your video on your website - Show off your video while controlling all the content that appears around it. To do this, look for our article "How to Embed Your Vimeo Video Into Your Website" coming soon.

How To Upload Your Video to YouTube

2008-05-16T00:42:12Z

If you have a video on your computer, and want to put it on the web via YouTube, here is the step by step guide to make the task easier.

If you have a video, but it is on a DVD, and not stored on your computer, you first need to convert that format to digital. (We'll address that in a separate "how to" article).

A video on YouTube can be later embedded in your organization's website. You can find instructions in "How to Embed Your YouTube Video Into Your Website"

If your video is longer than 10 minutes, YouTube will not work for you. You will need to use Vimeo to post your video online. A how-to article on Vimeo is coming soon!

Step 1: Getting Started
First, go to your YouTube account.
If you do not already have one, sign up by clicking the "Sign Up" link at the top-right of the page at YouTube. Once you are logged into your account, you will see the yellow "Upload" button near the top of the page on the far right:

Next, Click "Upload" to begin the process
The first page asks you to provide information about your video like the title, description, video category and tags. This doesn't have to be the final information, since you can change it later.

"Video Category" - choose the "Nonprofit & Activism" option.

"Tags" - should be short keywords that relate to your film (e.g. children, diabetes, camp). If you can't think of any tags right now, just type "nonprofit" as your only tag. Your tags should be short descriptive words that someone might search for if they were looking for your video. Or more importantly, if someone were to search for a specific word or words, it would make sense to them to find your video as one of the results.

After the 'Basic Information' section, there are three small blue boxes to complete.

"Broadcast Options" - YouTube videos are "Public" by default. Anyone can search for them, anyone can watch them, and they need to be "Public" in order to be embedded in other web pages. However ,if you aren't ready for the world to see your video, go ahead and make this option Private. As before, we can go back and change this setting when we're ready to.

"Map Options" - You are welcome to fill this in because it might help people searching on YouTube for a local nonprofit find you, but it's not necessary to do so.

"Sharing Options" - This box asks whether you want visitors on YouTube to be able to leave comments on your video and/or embed the video on other web pages. If you allow "comments" and "video responses" you should be prepared to monitor the content that people may leave on your YouTube video page. You are best off turning this off if you don't believe you will have the time to check on this at least once a week. Make sure the "Embedding" option is set to "Yes, external sites may embed and play this video" so that you can place your video on your own web site.

Note: If you have previously uploaded your video and you believe you checked "No" on the "Embedding" option, you can change the setting by following the "Your Account" link and then clicking the "Manage My Videos" link. Next select the "Videos, Favorites, & Playlists" option. Select your video from the list and select the "Edit Video Info" button. You can now change the setting to the "Yes, external sites may embed and play this video" option.

To move to the final page, click "Upload a Video..."

Step 2: Upload
You should now see a screen that looks like this:

Just click the "Browse..." button and then navigate to select your video file on your computer.

You should know that YouTube limits your video to 10 minutes and 1024 MB. However, your web connection is not likely to be able to transfer that much data, at least not without your being very persistent and possibly restarting the upload several times. You are best off trying to work with files that are 50MB or less, which is sufficient for a decent quality online video.

If your video is under 50MB, go ahead and click the "Upload Video" option.

If your video is over 50MB, you should either download the 'uploader application' from YouTube by clicking the orange "Install Uploader" button OR follow the Side Step instructions below to make your video smaller. When you are done, go ahead and click the "Upload Video" option.

Side Step: My video is too large to upload! How do I make it smaller?

One of the easiest. most accessible ways to render your video to a smaller size while maintaining quality is through iTunes. Follow these easy steps:
1. Open iTunes and import your video into it by selecting the file, importing it, then finding your video on your hard drive and selecting "ok"

2. In the "Movies" section of the "Library," click on the video file you wish to render.

3. In the "Advanced" menu along the top select the "Convert Selection for iPod" option. The iPod version is a clear, crisp rendering which will still be small in data size.

4. iTunes will go through the process of converting your video. When it is complete, it will ding.

5. You will then see a new video appear directly below the original in the listing on the page, named the same as your original. Drag thisnew file to your desktop and go back and resume.

You are now done with your "Upload!"

Your video will be on YouTube ready for use.

You can now:

- Email your video - Send to donors, volunteers, members, participants, etc. Use your video as a virtual site visit for your organization. Show them exactly what you have to offer.

- Embed your video on your website - Show off your video on your own website where you control all of the content that appears around it. To do this, look for our next article "How to Embed Your YouTube Video Into Your Website" coming soon.

Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation Case Study

2008-05-13T23:05:07Z

Introduction:
VirtualSiteVisit.org grew out of the Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation's experimentation with video and online promotion of its grantee Non Profit Organizations (NPOs). After several years of trials, errors, successes and research, we feel we have some valuable information to share about best practices in conveying the message and spirit of nonprofit organizations through multimedia and the web.

Through this website we will share information with NPOs and Foundations using two main teaching vehicles, How-To-Guides and Case Studies.

How-To Guides
Online technology changes so quickly that it's not always easy to keep up, and the latest tools often require new skills. There's a whole new breed of media tools and services, like YouTube, Flickr, RSS Feed Readers, Blogger and more.

But despite all the talk about how critical it is for the nonprofit sector to embrace these tools and run with them, we find a shortage of practical, step-by-step guides geared for the nonprofit practitioner. Time is a precious and limited commodity for the busy non profit professional, and we can't take time away from our core mission and services to struggle with new technologies and uncertain results.

So, to make it easier to venture into the world of Internet technologies, VirtualSiteVisit.org will create step-by-step how-to articles demonstrating both the basics and the details of how to get your message out on the internet, so you can concentrate on your message itself.

Case Studies
We all learn from experience, and so naturally we would like to share some of our experiences as a foundation, and the experiences of some of our NPO's so you can learn from them too. Consider this article our first case study - one on ourselves - a window into where we've been and how we got here.

Who is the Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation?:
The Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation supports NPO's in California's Los Angeles and Santa Clara Counties whose programs maximize the potential of children and youth. Named for Frieda Fox, a teacher, musician, mother and grandmother who shared her love of learning with all who knew her, this foundation is the loving tribute of four generations who hope to do the same. They envision all children having the strong and effective learning environments they need to encourage their talent, creativity and excellence independent of their families' household income or socio-economic status.

The Beginning:
The path to VirtualSiteVisit began with a site visit to the Diabetes Society of Santa Clara County, back in 2003. As the program was an educational summer camp, and it was fall, their Executive Director showed our Executive Director a short video to "experience" the camp.    But that video was prefaced with their E.D.'s warning - that they use more modern medical equipment than featured in the video. The video was nearly a decade old, and it showed. She then apologized for the outdated clothes and poor video quality. The organization as a whole came off "dated" and set in the past, but without the video, no prospective funder could see what the summer camp was like.

When this was reported back to the foundation's board, we began to brainstorm. The Foundation's founding donor thought to tap a Hollywood film company to help the Diabetes Society and several of the foundation's other grantees. So in 2003 the foundation collaborated with Film Garden to produce short documentaries as part of a filmmaker internship program, where non profits would provide the subjects for the aspiring filmmakers' projects.   Of the films the Greenhouse produced, 15 documentaries were produced for our grantees, each film was 7 - 12 minutes in length.

Then, the real learning started. Some films met the NPO's needs, others did not. The pieces were well done, so why didn't they all convey the message, the spirit, mission, or program goals well enough? We honed in on a few key areas for improvement. First, there can't be any gaps in communication between NPO and Producer. Second, the Producer must really "know" the organization and understand the intended audience and how the video will be utilized to advance the NPO's stated needs. Third, the Producer must collaborate through the whole process with the NPO to make videos that are on-message, informative and powerful. Fourth, a better dissemination tool is needed than a a few copies of a video on DVD and no plan how to distribute next.

The Foundation was inundated with requests to fund DVD replication so they could mail the video to their sponsors. But there was no way for them to know if this was really beneficial or cost-effective, and often the DVDs were placed on a shelf and brought out only during site visits or special events. This was not a good use of funds or resources for the nonprofits or the FCFox Foundation. We knew that there were many ways these videos could be beneficial to the organizations, and now we had to ask ourselves "Is there a way to spend a little more time and money to make the larger amount of resources that we have already put into the project more meaningful and effective"?

Taking The Next Step:
With several of the foundation's active participants in the Silicon Valley and the technology sector, it was a logical move for the foundation to bring the videos online, hosting them so that they could be seen by a much wider audience with minimal added costs. In 2005 the bandwidth expenses and knowledge to host a video on a website meant a lot of work and money for each nonprofit video. If the Foundation acted as the "hub," we could invest once and provide the service to each NPO video recipient, to avoid each reinventing the wheel. We could promote our grantees, and feature them on our website, to reach their constituents and attract additional foundations and other funders.

In January 2006, shortly after launching our video hosting, foundation members attended a Council on Foundations conference. While preparing for the conference, Kevin Fox and I came up with the idea to load a few of the most recent videos onto our (newly released) video iPods.   That way, we could take the videos with us in our pockets.   The attention we received was amazing.

We were quick to realize that how powerful this tool would be for an NPO. Getting a potential funder to come for a site visit is the hardest step in the funding cycle. Being able to bring the site visit to them in a compelling and effortless way is an extremely powerful tool for our grantees.

Now an NPO could go to a donor meeting with the organization's video in hand, or be ready at any moment for an elevator pitch. It was now possible to plug into most TVs to show off the organization to create interest and generate new volunteers and donor-advocates. It really started us thinking.

We started looking at which videos did best online and on the iPod. How long were they? What was the right balance of statistics and heart? Were there better ways to present the most pertinent information in a short period of time?

At this point we came full circle back to the Diabetes Society. While parts of their documentary were good, they could not use it to show parents or children, because the tone was off for the message they were trying to convey.   They had been seeking a video to promote their summer camps program, and gain the trust of parents that their children would be well cared and safe in professional care of doctors and nurses while at the camp. The children could have fun, and LEARN about how to manage their diabetes and BE with children who faced the same challenges, perhaps for the first time in their lives.

Their documentary focused on issue awareness and how difficult diabetes is, which parents and potential campers already knew. The video needed to drive home the activities and safety aspects in a positive and upbeat way – the way the Diabetes Society approaches the problem.

Looking at the situation, the Fox Foundation's first question was, "how can we fix this without completely starting over?" We offered to try.

The Process:
My artistic background was in theatre and photography, not videography, but I had been playing around with Apple's iMovie over the previous few months and decided to give it a try. My Masters degree is in Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon, and I've worked with NPOs. Dana Marcus has experience as a teacher, lawyer, NPO development director, educator and foundation director. Together, we had a VERY focused perspective on the needs of nonprofits the Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation serves.

We also brought in James Noah, Professor Emeritus of Public Relations and Journalism as well as former Director of Public Relations at San Jose University. Jim graciously offered his time and expertise pro-bono. The team honed in on what were the successful and less successful aspects of short and mobile videos, and focused on short pieces that proved effective in online environments. The key was getting between 3 and 5 minutes, and getting to the point quickly and directly. Jim's years of experience crafting messages would prove a valuable asset.

I'll go more into the step-by-step details of how to build a video in another article, but for the purposes of this case study I will give a brief description of the process that we found successful.

We had several initial meetings with key staff at Diabetes Society where we discussed the intended uses of the video, and the message and key points they needed to convey.

We looked at the documentary and identified which parts (both audio and visual) worked

After getting the necessary permission to use the footage already in the prior video with credits given, I used iMovie to cut the video in pieces. I separated out the audio and video and further split them into pieces, keeping the pieces that worked.

Because the original video was longer than than what we were planning to build I had enough quality audio to craft our message, but we needed more visual assets. Working with the Diabetes Society's archives, we collected photography from many of their summer camps as well as statistics about their services and quotes from campers and their families, all of which could be used for the video.

I arranged, crafted and worked through the data as much as I could on my own and then, through a series of meetings with the FCFox team as well as Diabetes Society, we worked through a few rounds of drafts, leading up to a final product that all were happy with.

We hosted the video online and linked to it from the Diabetes Society website.

The video became an effective tool that staff could show to parents of potential campers, as well as their doctors and nurses, who in turn could make their other patients aware of the program or volunteer for the program themselves. Moreover, it has become an excellent awareness tool for getting potential individual donors and foundations interested in the program. This became our first real Virtual Site Visit.

Next, we wanted to create a multi-media piece from scratch, without depending on video. None of us were experienced videographers, but we had success in the first piece with text and photos, so that was our starting point.   We chose to work with Fox Foundation grantee, Project H.E.L.P. in Sunnyvale, California.  Their needs were urgent, as interest was coming in from everywhere, including the California Department of Education, so a mobile, visual "elevator pitch" would be a compelling tool.   Dana set up our first meeting to discuss the message needs and goals for the piece. We then we set up site visits where I visited several classrooms over a few days. I borrowed a audio recorder, took my camera and dove in to begin to understand the program, documenting along the way. Through our talks, we had all agreed to focus on the story of one family in the program. Project HELP chose a family that they had worked with for several years, who I then met and talked to. With ample material, we began the process of building another video. We found ways to animate the piece and keep viewers engaged even without recorded video. In the process, we found that when the visuals aren't constantly animated, the viewer has a greater opportunity to listen and understand the data better.

Our second Virtual Site Visit was done.

How were these received?
As we continued building and editing videos, hosting online, and promoting the use of portable media players (predominantly iPods) to increase the value of the videos, we started getting questions from nonprofits and foundations alike. "Who created these for you?" "How do you do this?"

The 'how' was not something we could answer easily or in a thorough manner over the phone or email but we did our best to point people in the right direction. In the meantime, we kept experimenting with our own videos, finding ways to make them more effective and engaging. We took photos, and wrote text. We asked the NPO's for their favorite photos and statistics. We experimented with online promotional campaigns and Google AdWords ads with our nonproft Jeremiah's Promise. We experimented with YouTube as it got bigger, and we made lists of the web technologies we wanted to explore in the future because they seemed to show promise for nonprofit use. Over the two years we have been doing this, we have received many more requests from NPOs asking for videos than we could handle ourselves.

We do not take applications for video grants. Our foundation works only with our current grantees, with a preference towards those grantees whom we have funded for several years. Because of an open door policy that Dana Marcus set up early in the foundation's life, many of our nonprofits call or email to ask us questions when they have a problem that we might help with. This keeps us privy to current events at our grantee organizations, and provides Dana with a unique opportunity to identify organizations who could best benefit from a video or online resource right when they most need it.

This system works for us, and it may work for other small foundations, but is not a one-size-fits-all. We hope to hear from other foundations and NPOs about their variations on the theme.   We hope this site will be a venue to teach what we know geared specifically for the non -profit sector.

Articles up next:
I can't promise a new article every day or every week, but we will be as diligent as we can, posting new unique content as well as sharing the content we find on the web that others are putting out there. Don't worry, we won't just say "you should use YouTube." we'll show you how to use YouTube effectively, and provide step by step instructions how to embed your video in a webpage so you can show your own page, logo and information without other distractions on the YouTube site.

We're excited, and so are our featured NPO partners, so here we go!
Please sign up for our RSS feed for notification of new content, and thanks for joining us!

Annoucing VirtualSiteVisit.org

2008-05-13T22:52:02Z

Our new site is now live at VirtualSiteVisit.org!!!

VirtualSiteVisit.org is a multimedia resource for foundations and non-profit organizations. Through the use of Internet video, potential donors, volunteers, and participants can get an clear look at the heart of the organization, gaining the kind of insight that would usually require a personal site visit.

Can't see this video promo? View the video here.

Thank you for showing early interest in the our new website. The Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation hopes to provide a valuable resource to the Nonprofit and Foundation communities through the VirtualSiteVisit.org website.

Come visit us! http://virtualsitevisit.org

-Rachel Fisher

Project Manager -- VirtualSiteVisit.org
Communications and Media Specialist -- Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation