Use Online Audio and Video to Say Thanks to Benefactors
Description of how to quickly send an audio-visual “thank you” to benefectors. These thanks can take less time to prepare than a traditional thank you note. ” Be sure to visit the samples in the story below.Even computer technology just a few years old can create
short audio and video files that your organization can use
to send to volunteers to thank them for their service. A
short recording from your organization’s executive
director or board president, or from a client whose life
has been positively affected by the efforts of volunteers
or donors can mean a lot to your supporters, and is
actually quite easy to produce.
Phil Shapiro (<a href=http://www.his.com/pshapiro/) notes: “The
human voice carries with it unique communications powers.
It’s worth exploring how multimedia on the web can connect
your project or organization in new ways with people who
support it.”
You don’t even have to use moving video; still pictures
with audio produces a nice effect and a smaller file that
is quicker to download (which will be particularly
appreciated by dial-up users).
Not sure where to begin? You could recruit a volunteer to
assess your current computer technology to see if you
already have the equipment necessary to make a short audio
or video file. Or, recruit a volunteer who has this type
of equipment themselves; for instance, an Apple iBook or
iMac and a digital camera is all a volunteer would need to
make a short audio and video file that could be sent via
email or available for download from your web site.
Mr. Shapiro noted recently just how easy it is to create
audio or video files to thank volunteers, and included
examples of such (reprinted here with permission):
It’s sometimes difficult to think of appropriate ways of
thanking these people (volunteers and other supporters). A
simple letter of thanks doesn’t seem sufficient to the
quantity and quality of help they give.
One way of thanking these folks is via multimedia on the
web. It’s possible to create a simple Quicktime movie that
combines a digital photo of a person with an accompanying
voice narration. The process of creating such a quicktime
can actually be faster than writing a short note,
especially if you have a digital photo of the person on
hand already.
You can see some examples of such quicktime files at
http://storymakers.net/thanks/
If you don’t have quicktime installed on your computer,
you can download it for free from
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/
Would you like to make some of these yourself? On this
same web site I’ve posted a Quicktime movie that shows how
to make these movies. Quicktime works on both Macintosh
and IBM/Clone computers. You do need the “Pro” version of
Quicktime to do this kind of thing ($30 from Apple); you
can also create such Quicktime files using “imovie,” which
is free on all macs since 1999. [NOTE from Jayne: you can
also use the old Macintosh application MoviePlayer, which
integrates easily with the free version of Quicktime to
make your own movies].
I suggest setting the frame rate to .01 (one frame every
hundred seconds) to keep the quicktime file size small.
If you’re going to use the Quicktime Pro route, which i
currently favor, here’s a tip for recording the voice
narration: in your sound recording software, I suggest
recording at 16-bit and 22 KHz (or 8-bit and 22 KHz.).
That will give you a clear sounding audio file without
making the file size too big. If you know for sure that
the recipient of this Quicktime has broadband, you might
choose to use 16-bit, 44 KHz sound (cd-quality audio).
It can actually be quite fun to write the script for such
“quicktime thank-you” movies.
TECH4IMPACT
an email update to help mission-based organizations
use computer and Internet technologies to
benefit people, communities and the environment.
produced by Jayne Cravens and Coyote Communications
http://www.coyotecommunications.com
Jayne is also active with United Nations Volunteers (UNV)
http://www.unvolunteers.org]
Tags: Philanthropy