A nonprofit’s short fundraising film about a very long year
A nonprofit's short film about a very long year
Date
Aug 11, 2024
Category
Spotlight
In this client spotlight, we talk with Katie Richards, the executive director at Siloam Health in Nashville, Tennessee. Siloam is a nonprofit clinic that serves Nashville’s immigrant and refugee population, and it depends heavily on donor support to continue its mission. Katie explains why Siloam invested in a short documentary and trusted Stonecastle to make it worth the money.
VIDEO: Siloam Health CEO Katie Richards discusses her partnership with Stonecastle Pictures on Siloam's short documentary.
Remember the pandemic?
In 2021, as the world was still reeling from the pandemic, Siloam made the difficult decision to abandon plans for its annual fundraising gala and host a virtual one instead. In years past, Siloam had asked Stonecastle to produce an emotional call-to-action video for these events, but this year they needed much more: they asked us to produce a short documentary that would anchor the virtual event.
“Videos are always important, but it is especially important if the event is entirely virtual,” says Katie. “And so we knew that we needed to invest in a quality product that would withstand the test of time.”
Production still from "Same storm, different boat"
Finding the story
As we cast around for a story to tell, we discovered that Siloam had played a pivotal role in the local government's efforts to reach Nashville's immigrant and refugee population during COVID. At the time, cities across the country were having difficulty winning the trust of these marginalized groups, which left them dangerously uninformed. But thanks to Siloam's community health worker program, Nashville's Department of Health had a direct line to those communities.
This became our story.
"I trust that I can sit down with [Stonecastle] and share a vision and trust that he is going to know how to tell it in a way that brings the heart and the love of our organization out in film," Katie says. "I know that there is a standard there that I just innately trust."
Production still from "Same boat, different storm"
Quote I implicitly trust Stonecastle’s standard for production, their standard for telling a story, and the way that they’re uniquely able to do that. I don’t have to worry about it. — Katie Richards / Siloam Health
The bottome line: was it worth the investment?
The virtual event, which was anchored by our short documentary "Same storm, different boat" raised over $250,000 for Siloam Health. “I can say without a doubt, it was worth it. We blew the fundraising goal out of the water. We had more people attend and give,” Katie says. “And I know that having a quality video certainly contributed to people feeling like we were an organization worth investing in.”
Katie tells us that the value of Siloam’s video goes beyond fundraising. It’s already helping the clinic build broader brand awareness. “Hearing high-powered CEOs of large companies say to me, ‘I want to show that video to my staff team. Can I forward that video to my peers?’ To me, the fact that they want to associate their reputation with that video speaks volumes about the quality of the product.”
You can watch the entire short film below.
