KTA: Your Community School
The challenge of creating fundraising films is finding an approach that keep supporters engaged and invested over time. In the three years since we’ve partnered with KTA, we’ve seen a remarkable 47% increase in annual donations.
CHALLENGE
This is the third year that we've had the honor of working alongside Kosloff Torah Academy to create their annual fundraising film. With this great privilege comes the yearly challenge of finding a fresh, new approach to keep supporters engaged and remind them why they’ve chosen to make KTA an ongoing part of their lives.
The school’s distinctive personality and characteristics may remain largely consistent, but every time we make a video, we have a chance to highlight one particular angle or aspect – and, more importantly, to make a unique emotional appeal. We use video to tell stories, create narratives that resonate with the intuitions and feelings of the viewer.
PROCESS
This year, we developed a film around the concept of community. KTA is a community school, a place that welcomes and meets the needs of a wide range of young women from the Philadelphia area. Despite their differences, KTA students join together to take part in a shared educational experience. This theme was an appeal to the viewer’s local solidarity and desire to strengthen such a valuable neighborhood resource.
We didn’t bog down the viewer with too much technical information on KTA’s academic credentials. Instead, we kept our interviews focused on the emotional message of the relationship between KTA and the wider community. Satisfied parents enthused about their daughters’ progress and how confident they were in KTA’s support system. The principals of feeder schools revealed how secure they felt entrusting their beloved students to KTA for the next phase of their education. KTA’s administrators affirmed their commitment to nurturing every young woman who passed through the halls of their institution.
The emphasis was on the joy so many different personalities found in this learning environment. Most shots involved students and teachers laughing and smiling, as opposed to working hard with a pencil and paper or poring over a textbook. The overlay footage contained a very high number of close-ups – nuanced shots that captured every eloquent shift of expression and every look of enjoyment or gratification.
RESULTS
When KTA premiered this film at their fundraising dinner, attendees responded to this imagery with overwhelming enthusiasm. That night, no one could stop talking about the video.
We are proud to state that the growth KTA has seen this year this brings us to a remarkable 47% increase in annual donations since we began our partnership three years ago.
