Five Nonprofits Maximizing YouTube’s Nonprofit Program
March 14, 2011
A quick browse of nonprofits on YouTube reveals that the vast majority of nonprofits are not taking advantage of YouTube’s Nonprofit Program. Available to most nonprofits in United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, the program is free and only takes a few to minutes to apply. Once approved, which can take weeks and sometimes months (be forewarned), nonprofits are offered:
- Premium branding capabilities and increased uploading capacity
- The option to drive fundraising through a Google Checkout “Donate” button
- Listing on the Nonprofit channels and the Nonprofit videos pages
- Ability to add a call-to-action overlay on your videos to drive campaigns
The premium branding capabilities alone make it well worth your time and effort to apply. First impressions are very important online and non-branded YouTube channesl pale in comparison to those nonprofits that utilize YouTube’s Nonprofit Program features, such as:
UNICEF USA :: youtube.com/unicefusa
Survival International :: youtube.com/survivalintl
National Wildlife Federation :: youtube. com/nationalwildlife
Museum of Modern Art :: youtube.com/momavideos
The Humane Society of the United States :: youtube.com/hsus
Related Link:
Webinar: How Nonprofits Can Successfully Use YouTube and Flickr
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We highly recommend YouTube’s Nonprofit Program, and we are tweeting this post!
We are in the application process currently but the value here is obvious. The success we have seen in converting “likes” on facebook after creating a custom welcome page is almost guaranteed to have a similar effect as branding a YouTube page. Nonprofits should also check out Googles other free tools:
http://www.google.com/nonprofits/
For some reason, although we have a Google Grant, we have not been able to get the greenlight for YouTube for Nonprofits despite applying ages ago (and periodically trying to apply again). It may have to do with some disconnect between the login for our Google account and the YouTube account. Both have the same sign in… but one isn’t recognizing the other. Anyway, I would love to be able to talk /correspond with a real life person to get it straightened out because I think we’d be ideal candidates, but so far no luck.
That’s the biggest frustration with the program. Nonprofits fall through the cracks during the application process. Not enough staff obviously and no customer service.
Were you at the #google4np meeting today? Did Google address the lack of customer support at all?
Wasn’t there. My guess is they don’t know how bad it is.
I really like the possibilities that social networks offer to nonprofits. But with most of them it is restricted to the US, and the UK. Can anyone tell me why they do not yet offer these possibilities to NGO’s in other parts of the world?
It’s because their is no master database i.e. Guidestar that can instantaneously verify a nonprofit’s legal status. They would have to hire a lot of people to research nonprofits… Guidestar now operates in US, UK, Canada and Australia. They want to do more countries, but are a nonprofit themselves. It’s not that these tools don’t want to help nonprofits in other nations… it’s that the technology isn’t there yet to make it financially feasible.
Our NPO applied for YouTube for Nonprofits eons ago (at least a year ago, if my memory serves) and never heard back. It wouldn’t let us reapply, either, as our previous application was in limbo.
Tried again today, and got a whole new series of hoops to jump through for “Google for Nonprofits”. Applied through that, and it says we’ll hear back within 30 days. Hope that works!
Yehp. Same thing happened to me. Applied and never heard back. In limbo. This is the conundrum the nonprofit sector is in now… using free sites that are built primarily for the for-profit sector. I think many nonprofits would be willing to pay $20 a year if it meant customer service.
Thank you for including an Arts sector non-profit in your examples. Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival has been utilizing a YouTube non-profit channel for their PillowTV programming and experiencing increased referral traffic to the homesite from YouTube as a direct result of the premium capabilities. For those orgs who feel like they are waiting in line, it is worth the wait ; )
Lisa
Virtual Pillow Projects Manager
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
http://www.youtube.com/JacobsPillow