Introducing: The Gives Impact Report

By : Burr Purnell

9/1/21

When we launched VidMob Gives three years ago, our goal was to help nonprofits (NPOs) make more of an impact. Thanks to VidMob’s world-class creative solutions for digital marketers, we wanted to enable charities to take advantage of that offering as a powerful way to share stories, raise awareness and funding for their good work.

To this day, that mission starts with giving our partners equal access to the tools, insights, and real-time support that fuel great marketing performance. But more than just talking about it, we wanted to prove it.

The work nonprofits do literally saves lives. As a result, we hold ourselves accountable to delivering value to each and every organization that collaborates with VidMob Gives.

The Gives Impact Report helps us to be transparent about our successes and challenges to date. And as our first Report, it’s also a chance for you to get to know us better.

Making an Impact

2020 was a dramatic year for the world. For Gives, that meant scaling support faster than ever as our nonprofit partners and their communities raced to adapt to the new constraints imposed by the global pandemic.

To help nonprofits get the word out and ease some of that burden, we more than tripled our creative production capacity — equating to hundreds of creative assets — and saw employee engagement grow in record time to get there.

For example, the travel restrictions tied to COVID-19 hampered critical fundraising efforts for many NPOs last year. That situation impacted organizations like Child Legacy International and the Edna Adan Hospital Foundation, who provide vital support to families across Sub-Saharan Africa. So we equipped their teams with the creative assets and campaign best practices to reach new audiences across social media without the airfares.

As lockdowns set in, we turned to virtual collaborations to help urban organizations like Ronald McDonald House New York and the Arthur Ashe Institute reach new supporters, and give them access to exclusive online events like celebrity-filled annual galas for the very first time.

Meanwhile, a host of other organizations continued with their good work to support world health. That’s why much of Gives’ efforts last year went to supporting projects tied to the United Nations’ health-focused Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-3), including producing 57 videos on behalf of 10 NPOs fighting to combat COVID-19.

At the other end of the scale, Gives continued to pledge support for individual good causes like Auryn’s Heroes, a brave young boy and his family working to raise funds and awareness for childhood neuroblastoma.

Measuring Impact

We also launched an internal scorecard in 2020 to track and evaluate Gives’ work relative to the values in our mission. The Impact Report shares more about how that works, but the project started with a closer look at the breadth and depth of our engagement across the world.

To get there, we partnered with data scientists to produce a system for measuring and calibrating quarterly performance. That entailed quantifying key aspects of our work like external reach and efficiency.

Going forward, these metrics will ensure we continue to deliver value for every NPO that collaborates with Gives. In return, it also means we’ll be asking our partners to quantify their creative goals so that together, we can maximize the creative impact of so many good causes.

The Work Left to Do

Despite the challenges of the year, we ended 2020 on a positive note. However, like most young organizations, we still have work to do.

Our ambition to provide support for nonprofits aligned with each UN SDG proved to be a stretch goal. Many of our resources in 2020, maybe understandably, went to projects tied to addressing health-related issues.

That situation made collaborations with global organizations like the African Wildlife Foundation — and its ongoing work to combat poaching and trafficking of protected species — all the more meaningful.

We’re already midway through the year, but we hope 2021 will continue to provide rewarding opportunities like these to support amazing people doing all kinds of good work.

To see the full Impact Report, click here.