Get Your Favorite Nonprofit Featured on YouTube

by Stephanie Ernst

categories: Activism and Actions, Videos

Published October 10, 2009 @ 07:22AM PT

The folks at YouTube have dropped us a line to let us know about a new project going called Video Volunteers. With a focus on animal welfare this month, the project asks people to choose a nonprofit they support, create an under-3-minute promotional video for that org, and submit it to be voted on -- well, sort of. According to the FAQ, Ben Stein gets to pick the top 10 submitted by October 22, and then YouTube users get 24 hours to vote those 10 down to their favorite 3, which will then be featured on the YouTube homepage.

Though "animal welfare" is the stated focus, I'm going to recommend that you actually create a video for an animal rights organization or sanctuary -- or at the very least an AR-friendly welfare/wildlife organization (e.g., not a happy-meat-promoting group, not a zoo, and not an aquarium) -- for obvious reasons. And just so everyone knows right from the start, Humane Society of the United States videos are already out of the running. Ben Stein's a supporter, and included in YouTube's must-meet-these-criteria-to-be-a-finalist list is this: "Not be about the Humane Society - Ben Stein's got them covered." But of all the animal rights and animal welfare organizations out there, HSUS needs the publicity and additional support the least, so I would have recommended going with a smaller or less-well-known group anyway, in addition to recommending a rights group.

There's no way to know in advance what's going to make it past Ben Stein into the 10 videos to vote on, but there are a lot of animal rights nonprofits and animal sanctuaries out there whose group (and whose message) could use this exposure -- with both the group and animals benefiting from the exposure -- and I know there are a lot of animal rights advocates out there with talents in this area, so I hope that some of you folks will consider grabbing your video camera and jumping on board with this and that interested nonprofits will reach out to their supporters about it. There are a number of rules for making sure your video is eligible (including making sure you have your chosen nonprofit's approval of the video) as well as some tips/guidelines for how to go about making your video, so be sure to read the details and FAQ before you get started. And then let us know here if you submit something so that we can go check it out!

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Photo uploaded to stock.xchng by tsevis