EP 36: Elevated Fundraising Through Visual Storytelling with Carly Euler

Jeff: Welcome to the Elevate Your Event podcast, where we talk about how to plan and execute an unforgettable event that will dazzle your guests and generate more income for your organization. From fundraising and securing trendy auction items to event production and logistics, get the best tips and advice from seasoned fundraising and event professionals who have been in your shoes.

Jeff: Welcome back to the Elevate Your Event podcast, where we talk about all the various ways you can make your next fundraising event better than the last one. I'm Jeff Porter, CEO of Handbid, and we have Lori Mackay here in the studio with me.

Lori: That's me.

Jeff: She is our auction event coach extraordinaire.

Lori: I'm an extraordinaire today.

Jeff: Well, you're not the fan favorite Diana DuPont-Shay, but you are a close second, I will tell you.

Lori: I would say yes. With the feedback we get, we want more Lori Mackay for sure.

Jeff: Less Jeff Porter, a little more Lori Mackay. We have a special guest in the studio today, and she's joining us from Rochester, New York. We love that. Upstate New York is gorgeous. So we have Carly Euler from Memory Fox. Carly, tell us a little bit about yourself and your company and how you guys got started.

Carly: Thanks so much for having me on today. I am here in Rochester, New York, and I'm just grateful that it's not snowing yet this year, but I know it's coming -- right down the pipeline. My name's Carly, and I'm the marketing manager at Memory Fox. I actually came from the nonprofit world where I worked for several different nonprofits for about a decade. And while I was at nonprofits, as I'm sure you all know and as I'm sure the people you work with all know, you wear a lot of hats, you do a lot of different things. My title was in the development department, but I did a lot of different stuff while I was there. And one of my roles I specifically did special events. I've run galas, I've done 5Ks, golf events -- lots of really cool stuff.

Jeff: And you're still smiling. Look at that. That's awesome.

Carly: Thank you, yes. I decided to come to Memory Fox because I knew the impact that Memory Fox had -- I was a customer myself. So I joined the Memory Fox team. We help nonprofits collect impact stories and then use them in ways to help meet their goals. A lot of times that means raising more funds, but there are a lot of ways you can use stories. I'm really excited to be here today and chat with you all specifically about events, storytelling, and how that relates to putting on a great event.

Jeff: That's awesome. So tell us, what does Memory Fox do and how did you guys get started?

Carly: Memory Fox is a tech platform that helps nonprofits collect, organize, and share impact stories directly from their community. This all started when our founder, Chris -- he's an army veteran -- when he came home, he wished he had a better way to collect stories from his grandfather who had dementia. His grandfather was also a veteran. So Chris originally built the platform as a fun way to collect family stories, sort of like a time capsule. He was connecting with people in the Buffalo area and sharing his vision and what he was doing. One of the local nonprofits in Buffalo reached out to him and said, "That sounds really cool. Do you think I could use that at our event that's coming up next month?" And he said, "I don't see why not. How do you collect stories right now?" And they basically said, "We always need more stories. We just don't have a good way to collect them." He realized there might be other people who were interested in collecting stories too. So he basically built the platform with a completely different idea in mind, and now five years later, we're helping hundreds of nonprofits.

Jeff: That is awesome. And I would imagine these are videos that you're capturing on a phone? Is that what it is?

Carly: You're exactly right. So how it works is when you become a Memory Fox storyteller, you create a campaign and you send it directly to the person you're looking to get a story from. Depending on what inputs you're looking for and what types of stories you're trying to collect, it could be a written testimonial, a text testimonial, just photos, or video testimonials. Video testimonials tend to be the most engaging format we see. As we all know, whether it's TikTok or other platforms, video is incredibly engaging, and I don't think that's going to go away.

Jeff: If I told you I wasn't on TikTok, you would not think I'm cool. So I'm on TikTok.

Carly: I wasn't sure.

Jeff: Okay, so I'm supposed to think you're cool. That's what's happening.

Lori: Only because you told her you're on TikTok. Now you've got to go download the app and figure it out after the show's over.

Carly: He's not on TikTok.

Jeff: Then you definitely know how powerful video storytelling is.

Carly: Oh, for sure. I've seen it in action.

Jeff: Not with Memory Fox yet, although I think that's an amazing idea. We were actually talking about it earlier -- I know you guys are in the nonprofit space, but I'm thinking there's a commercial application to this too. This is really neat, because I was on a mission trip to Africa a couple of years ago.

Carly: That's so cool. Where did you go?

Jeff: Went to Rwanda. And there, I watched this organization do so much social proof with Instagram. It blew me away. We were in people's houses, providing clean water filters, building houses. And they were just filming it and showing the impact we were having on families right there on the spot, posting these on Instagram. That is a powerful way to show your donors that you're making an impact. I loved it. I thought it was great.

Carly: You're exactly right. I'm really excited to hear that you spent some time in Africa, because I've actually lived in Kenya before. I've coached lacrosse over there for several years. And one big way that we would raise funds -- we eventually took our team to the World Cup -- was through video storytelling.

Jeff: That is awesome. So with Memory Fox, kind of wrapping it back into the concept of events -- when Chris did this first event and they asked him, "Hey, can we bring this in?" -- were they looking specifically for people to give them feedback on the event? Or how was it used there?

Carly: In those early days, they were using it to collect people's experiences at the event. What were they enjoying? Why were they there? Why did they sign up to be a part of the event? Why did they register? Basically, why are they supporting us? But as the years have gone on, we've noticed that there are so many different stories that can be involved with events. And it really starts before the event, then there's the during, and then there's the after.

Jeff: Very cool. So you go and send these requests out to get stories collected. People get this on their phone, they're self-recording a video, and these are getting submitted back into Memory Fox into the charity's account, I would assume.

Carly: Absolutely. Once you get a submission, it goes into what we call the story bank. The nonprofit -- the person who is the storyteller in this sense -- has access to all the content that's submitted to them. They can use it to organize it in a way that makes sense for them. We usually tell people to tag it by how you're planning to use it, so you can remember ways that you want to use it in the future. Like your annual report, for example -- you put a tag on that so you remember months later when you're putting it together. And then we have all these different share options that really help people take the story and actually use it in an impactful way. For example, we're integrated with Canva, which is amazing for nonprofits. I hope that every nonprofit listening to this has a free Canva account because it is free. The content automatically goes into Canva as well, so it's really easy to just drag and drop and make sure that your stories are extra impactful because they've got your branding and your colors.

Jeff: That's awesome. So I take this information, it's in my story bank, and now I want to start sharing this -- maybe through social media, through Canva like you're describing. In those cases, does the charity have to edit these videos in most cases? Are they pretty raw? What do you typically see happen?

Carly: I'm really glad you asked that, because we're actually seeing a shift here. Maybe about three to five years ago, nonprofits were really focused on highly produced videos -- you'd bring in a professional videographer, do professional lighting and interview-style setups and all of that. It could be quite expensive. And I think, again -- not to bring it back to TikTok or Reels -- but we're seeing that authentic content, where people are just sitting on their couches, sitting where they're comfortable, and they still have their ums and their natural speech patterns, those videos are actually performing much better because they're a lot more relatable and they make people feel more connected to the mission. So to answer your question -- of course, we have a video editor in our system that people can use if they see fit. But in terms of the outcome of the video, what we've been seeing work really well is a more authentic, less formal video. We're getting really good results with that.

Lori: I think that makes sense. It makes it a little bit more real, a little bit less produced.

Carly: Definitely. And it's cheaper, which is always great from a nonprofit perspective.

Jeff: It's a better investment, right? Because if a produced video would generate a huge response or some sort of massive return, people would do it. But to your point, these tend to be more effective because people see them as more authentic. As much as we love a tear-jerky produced video at the event, I think what you're describing here really does give some authenticity to what people are saying. That's cool. I like that.

Carly: And it can even supplement those highly produced videos. You could collect the B-roll of people actually performing your programs. If you're a nonprofit that plants trees, it's really good to get a bunch of video at your event where you're planting the trees, because you can't really recreate that when you bring in the video crew later -- unless you're unplanting and replanting trees, which would be a silly thing to do. That B-roll and all the other footage you're going to need for those highly produced videos, you can get it cheaper just by doing it this way. And like you said, it's more authentic.

Jeff: That's cool. So with this, describe how charities get set up and what your packages and pricing are. How does this work for a nonprofit that wants to get started?

Carly: We are a platform that operates on an equitable pricing model. By that, I mean we take a look at your 990 and we have a conversation with you to see what you can afford, because we really feel like every nonprofit has great stories to tell and they deserve to tell those great stories. We really pride ourselves in trying to find a solution for everybody of every size.

Jeff: So your pricing looks at their current ratios or their current fundraising expense and tries to come up with something that works financially for them. Does the amount affect what they get? Are there certain limitations in the platform -- like less videos or less campaigns?

Carly: No, we don't do any limitations. But I will say we do offer add-ons. If people want a highly produced video using the content they collect through Memory Fox, we do offer that. We'll offer Canva training in case somebody is brand new to Canva and they want to get started but aren't sure where to begin. We do a lot of other things that might help the nonprofit feel more empowered when it comes to actually using the content, because we really just don't want anybody to be in a situation where they collect content and then sit on it and don't use it. We don't remove features, but we definitely have ways that people can add additional services.

Jeff: That's cool. I can see that being an interesting service you could provide, where you could be digging through their accounts and saying, "You've got a lot of videos in here and you haven't shared any of them. Do you guys have a plan?"

Lori: Or combine the videos together so you can create a montage of whatever people collected. Do you guys provide that opportunity for editing within your platform as well -- for people to be able to stitch the content together into longer videos?

Carly: Oh yeah, definitely.

Jeff: That's cool. I think so. Even if you sent that off to a professional studio, they're getting more reasonable these days. For a few hundred a month, you can send 50, 60, 70 videos. They have to be short. I would imagine your direction to a lot of these folks is short, right? What's the typical length of the video that you get back?

Carly: So we do have our best practices that we recommend. It's usually something very targeted, 30 seconds or less. We'll ask them -- like if you want to collect volunteer experiences at your event, you might pull a volunteer aside and say, "Hey, in just 30 seconds or less, look right here at the camera and let me know, what has this experience been like for you today? How are you feeling after volunteering today?" And that's going to get those couple of sentences that you're really looking for, as opposed to just pulling someone aside and saying, "Tell me your story." A lot of times people get nervous, they're not really sure where to start or where to end, for that matter. When you give someone a more targeted question and a sense of how long it should be, maybe a little bit of framing, you're actually going to get better content because people feel more empowered with that direction.

Jeff: I think that's great advice. To go in there and just be like, "So what did you think?" -- what do you think of what? It can be really hard. You might get feedback like, "Well, the weather was bad." That's not really what I'm looking for. That's not going to help me raise more money.

Lori: No, I think that makes a lot of sense. I'm trying to think about this type of service -- when you're out there doing outreach, are you recommending this specifically just for events? Or are you saying, "Hey, this is a tool that you can use across your entire fundraising and operational platform" -- everything from donor development to your end users, your constituents, the people that you're impacting?

Jeff: If you're planting trees, obviously the trees aren't going to do videos, but if it's somebody that could actually produce a video, that could be good. And then down the road, even talking to the people that actually attend your fundraisers and getting feedback from them. I'd love an example of how you've seen this used in a fundraising event experience -- a client or somebody you worked with where you saw them use this platform before an event, and then potentially during, and then even after. Do you have a good story about how somebody was able to weave this into an actual event to elevate it, and what the impact was?

Carly: Definitely. It's hard to pick just one, so maybe I'll share a couple. The first one that comes to mind is our friends at Kids Health Connections. They have a program that they hold over the summer called Fit Kids 360. It's kind of like an outdoor event with fun activities for kids in their community that don't normally get those types of activities. What they did at their event was they asked the participants -- the children with their parents, participating together -- if they wouldn't mind sharing how they were enjoying their day and whether they would recommend the program to somebody else, and if so, why. They got so many really adorable videos of these kids saying things like, "My counselors are so encouraging" and "I have so much fun" and "It's so fun to be outside." When you see them, they're just so impactful. I can't recreate them in my own voice, and that's exactly why video is so impactful. But then they took those videos and actually used them to apply for grant applications, and they did secure a grant. Part of the application was the video submission. We can't say it was definitely because of the video, but I'd have to say it was a pretty strong indicator.

Jeff: Very cool. I love that idea.

Lori: I do too. There's nothing like seeing the faces of the people that these nonprofits are helping. Anytime we work events and they have an ask or anything along that line where it's actually at a fundraiser, the most impactful moments are those videos. I love the concept of having just different shots and different moments -- things that kids or whoever the target population is -- all these shots coming in of the actual faces of the people that you really are helping and impacting. Because even at events we work, we're working with the development team or the volunteers, and you rarely get to see the people they're actually affecting. Being able to see a lot of people, as opposed to one story, gives you the ability as a nonprofit to expand into tons of different stories. I love that. That would be really impactful.

Jeff: And I would say on top of that, that's a good example of showing impact -- showing how you're impacting the people the charity directly serves or just the people who were impacted at the event. But another cool thing to use it for would be getting feedback at the event. I'm just going to put my cynical hat on here, because afterwards, everybody rolls back in and they had one or two things that got whispered in their ear. So it'd be interesting to be able to say, "Yeah, maybe that one guy complained about the food lines being too long, but we have 50 twenty-second videos that we went around and captured at the event of what people were doing and what they thought." That's going to be way faster than a survey, which you're going to send out. And you're going to get a way higher response rate, I would think, versus sending an email out. Now, you obviously have to crunch through the data. It's not going to be something where you can just throw it into a spreadsheet and do graphs on it, but I think it's going to be way more informational in a lot of ways. Because what do we do with those event feedback surveys? We skip all the questions and we go right to the comments, don't we?

Lori: It's true. And this is basically the way of getting comments, but you're getting it on video. I love that. You're going to see the face, you're going to see the interaction right there. And I love that you can do it right on the spot.

Jeff: Now, you're going to know who they are, so if they want to give hidden feedback -- do you allow them to be anonymous?

Lori: Just put this hood on. That's right. I love it because I'm thinking about this right now -- of course, we're in Colorado and we're in the middle of the Coach Prime era. But anytime you see Coach Prime, he's always got a whole video crew following him around. So this is a great way to be able to get real-life things that are happening at your event or your fundraiser. The other thing I love that was mentioned -- you kind of skimmed over it -- is the volunteer experience. When you're dealing with nonprofits, one of the biggest areas of strain can be how to recruit volunteers. How do I get volunteers? Well, you can show them that being a part of your organization is fun or engaging or purposeful or bucket-filling, right there with the faces of the people that are actually volunteering. I love it as a recruitment tool and a retention tool for volunteers as well.

Jeff: Right. And even just feedback to say, "I didn't like this job" or "When I got here, I didn't know what to do, I didn't know where to go. Next time can I do this other job?" All that kind of stuff is good to capture at these types of events. I love it. I think it's a cool idea. And you could chop it up, right? What did you think of the paddle raise? What did you think of the auctioneer? What did you think of the food? You could give them a little mini interview where they'd be like, sitting there eating, "The food is awesome. The lines are too long." And like I said, it's so hard at these events. Everybody's all over the place. Carly, you've done these galas, so you know -- it's like I catch things out of the corner of my eye, people whisper in my ear, but did I really know what all the issues are and what worked and what didn't work? You don't. So this would be a great way to capture that too.

Lori: I was also thinking about it in the context of other fundraising opportunities. You mentioned different campaigns and different abilities. You could do something along the line of a peer-to-peer fundraiser concept where everybody has their own individual fundraising page. This would make it easier for them to record a video to put on their own page. Sometimes people don't do that because it's a little intimidating -- like, what do I say in the video? You can make this really easy: "Here, just tell us your story. Tell us why you're fundraising for this organization. Tell us how this organization has impacted you." It's a cool way to make it easy for people to record those kinds of videos too.

Carly: You're exactly right. One of the number one ways we first recommend people use Memory Fox -- their first campaign -- is a "why I support" campaign. There are so many people you can get stories from: board members, staff members, volunteers, donors. One of the things we've recently been encouraging people to do more often is, after someone gives a donation, have a link on the thank-you page that says, "Hey, would you mind telling us right now, why did you give today?" Maybe it's something as simple as, "My friend is doing your 5K that's coming up and I just want to support my friend." But it might be something deeper, and they might potentially be a much bigger donor in the future if you know that information.

Jeff: Very cool. I agree with that. At the end of the day, you can ask those things on the form -- like, how did you hear about us? But it's way better, I think, to have them pop up a video and do it, if they feel comfortable doing it. Are you able to limit the length of the video? So if you sent out a link and said, "I really just want them to record a two-minute video rather than a 30-minute video" -- can you put those parameters in the software?

Carly: That is a great question. I don't believe so. We usually just offer people the ability to put expected instructions in there. I'm not sure if that's ever come up as an issue before, but that is a good point -- we don't always want people to just go on and on.

Jeff: Right, like we don't need them to start their story at birth. Record this quick two-minute video, there's a countdown, they've got to get moving on it. "Let me tell you, when I first encountered this organization 45 years ago..."

Lori: Started with the Mayflower. Don't want to go there.

Jeff: It'd be kind of cool, though. I don't know -- we're in product development mode right now. Almost like when you're recording the video -- because you see this a little bit with Instagram -- that progress indicator going around and then it's done.

Lori: And you have to re-record if you don't like it. "Oh fooey, I went too long." When I'm doing TikToks, if I don't hit the right amount of what I want my TikTok to be, sometimes I have to cut myself off and start over again. And I'm not very happy.

Jeff: There you go. New feature. Memory Talk. I'm not changing your company's name or anything.

Carly: I'll ask my boss what he thinks about that.

Jeff: "Don't talk to those Handbid people anymore. I don't know what they're doing." So let's get techie for a second. Is this an app that people download, or is this a web page? How do they record these videos?

Carly: That's a really good question. It actually just comes to the person as a link. It's not an app. You don't have to download it. You don't have to sign in. So it's very barrier-free when it comes to getting a story from your community. One thing I will mention is we do collect consent up front. We work with the nonprofit to make sure that their consent language makes sense for them, makes sense for their state, and makes sense for what they're planning to use the story for. That way the storyteller feels a lot more comfortable up front before they've recorded anything -- they know how it might be used, so they know what they want to say. You just don't want to ever make anybody feel uncomfortable, and you definitely don't want to share a story without someone's consent. I know that question comes up a lot: "Well, how do I make sure that people are okay with it after they've sent it to me?" When you go through the Memory Fox platform, we make sure it comes up front for that very reason. So there's no discrepancy there.

Jeff: Got it. So when I'm sent a link and I click it, I open up this webpage and I provide my video feedback -- I know you can do text and photos too -- but do you know who I am? Am I entering in my name and my email address?

Carly: That's completely up to the nonprofit. They can put in any of those fields if they choose. They can also make them required or just optional. We work with a lot of veteran nonprofits, for example, and they might put something optional on there. They might require a name and an email address if they want to look for clarification later about the story or ask for additional details, but then they might put something optional like "What branch of the military did you serve in?" or "Where were you stationed?" And then they have more context if they want to use that later. That would be completely up to the nonprofit.

Jeff: I would imagine it's in most nonprofits' best interests -- although you're making them do a little more work -- to get at least a name and an email so you can reach back out. So let me ask you this question, though: are the charities just pushing these out to people they already know?

Carly: That's a really good question. I'm glad you asked that. I have a great example. We work with Wreaths Across America. Are you familiar with them?

Jeff: So they are actually a small nonprofit, but they have this massive, massive reach.

Carly: They have their national wreath-laying day in December, where they place wreaths on the graves of service members who have fallen due to their service. It's this massive undertaking -- they're in thousands and thousands of cemeteries. They obviously don't know each volunteer by name that helps lay those wreaths. But after they do lay the wreaths, volunteers receive a campaign where they can share the photos they took while they were volunteering. They're welcome to upload videos or written testimonials from the day, but by far it's videos and photos that people were probably going to take anyway -- they took them organically on their phone and uploaded them later. Then Wreaths Across America asks them to share what location they were at, what cemetery they participated in. And they got something like 8,000 pieces of content in less than a week just from this event. That's content for the whole year. That is life-changing content for a nonprofit.

Jeff: Well, the reach is so much bigger. I mean, they're all over the place doing that. That's such a cool concept.

Lori: It kind of reminds me -- this might not be the best analogy -- but I think about when you have your wedding and people got really popular putting cameras all over the place, right? The idea of instead having a link like this at the event where you can sit there and just take video of your experience. And then now you have all this stuff, but you as the event manager, you missed it all. It was all happening at your event. It's a cool way to build a whole story around your event, which is pretty neat.

Jeff: I love that. You remember people putting cameras out on the tables? Now they don't because everyone has phones. I got married 27 years ago, so you don't want to know what the cameras looked like. We didn't even have portable cameras to put out on tables. Carly's like, okay...

Lori: You used to have to take your film and go to a drugstore and get it developed.

Jeff: We've got to catch you up on how things used to work around here. As my kids say, there's no such thing as unlimited photos back in the '80s and '90s.

Lori: I do remember doubles. I remember the photos -- you'd drop them off at like a Walmart and they would develop them.

Jeff: You've got to get the doubles, exactly, and then you give them out. You make an album, you give them out. You know what's funny -- I don't know why we're on this, but this is a fun topic. My daughter, who's in college, has a Polaroid camera now. Have you seen these things?

Carly: Yeah, they're trendy.

Jeff: Are you kidding me? And she's waving it, "You have to wait for it to develop." I said, you know, technology has advanced. That was back in my day. That's what we used.

Carly: People still need memorabilia like that.

Jeff: Well, you are speaking with someone in Rochester, the home of Kodak.

Carly: Yes, it is true.

Jeff: But I think for organizations that have those nationwide events happening at one time, that's a really cool idea. It's an awesome idea. To your point, you can't be everywhere. And so this is a way of creating a massive memory across an entire national event. I think it's awesome. You could even be broadcasting it at your event where you have different things happening throughout the country and you're getting this feedback coming in. And then you as the manager can put it up on a big screen at a different event and show other things that are happening elsewhere.

Lori: It reminds me of when we did house parties during COVID. Same type of concept.

Jeff: So you're hosting all this stuff on YouTube, or is this something you host internally and then people share it on YouTube? How does that work?

Carly: Basically, once it's in your story bank, that is your original content and you're welcome to do with it whatever works best for you. Like I said, we're integrated with Canva, and I'm a big fan of adding your branding and your logo before you share it out. But we see people use their short-form video on YouTube Shorts, on TikTok, on Instagram, on Instagram Reels, Facebook Watch -- I mean, everything has its own short-form video now. And of course, you can use it on just regular YouTube as well.

Jeff: Is it even called "regular YouTube"? I don't even know what you call that.

Lori: Basic YouTube?

Jeff: YouTube OG.

Carly: That's funny.

Jeff: No, it's good. I love that. We could dive into all the technical stuff around this. This sounds like so much fun. But I love the concept, I love the product. It sounds amazing. So how do our listeners get in touch with you if they're interested in learning more about Memory Fox?

Carly: Our website is MemoryFox.io. You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. And like I've mentioned now several times, I am on TikTok. If you want to follow me, I'm at Carly underscore MemFox. I do fundraising videos. I also have videos of my dog on there, so that's super fun.

Jeff: Wait, you don't do the dances?

Lori: Oh, I bet she does.

Carly: I haven't done a dance. I'm more on the nonprofit tips side, but maybe I'll get there. Maybe I'll dance.

Jeff: I took four teenage girls to Rwanda, and every time I turned around -- I said, "I'm going to let you use your phones simply because I want you to capture these memories, not because I want you on TikTok." And every time I turned around, they're doing their thing. Doesn't stop.

Lori: No.

Jeff: Awesome. Carly, thank you so much for spending time with us today. I think our listeners really do appreciate some of the things they can learn about what they can do with video and testimonials and collecting content. That's awesome.

Carly: Thank you for having me.

Jeff: You're most welcome. All right, we're going to wrap up this episode of Elevate Your Event podcast. Until we see you next time, leave us a five-star review. If you're not going to leave us a five-star review, you don't need to leave us a review. Five-star reviews only.

Lori: Send us a TikTok. We don't have a TikTok account yet, but send it to Carly. She'll be willing to share with us.

Jeff: Other than that, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else -- including YouTube OG -- that you might be watching or listening to your podcasts. We so appreciate you guys. We appreciate your comments. Keep bringing them in. Until next time, happy fundraising.