Podcast Host: Stephen Halasnik, Managing Partner, Financing Solutions

Guest:  Matt Barnett, Owner, Bonjoro, Video Emails

Today, I am excited to be speaking with Matt Barnett Founder of Bonjoro.

Bonjoro is on a mission, to help nonprofits triple their donations/fundraising by helping them to build a one to one- personal relationship with their donors by using video technology that can be easily embedded into emails or texts.

Matt, Welcome to the Nonprofit MBA podcast.

40% of People Prefer Video’s

Videos are very powerful and statistically, 40% of people prefer and seek out videos when they search so they don’t have to read.

What Gave Matt the Idea of Video Emails

Matt started using video email at another company before Bonjoro started and saw how effective video emails were. He saw that videos were more personal.

Matt started to send video emails instead of text emails and they tripled the response rate. Matt feels that prospects felt that video’s build better relationships than a regular text email.

Matt went on to start Bonjoro which is now a global company that provides nonprofits and businesses with the ability to more easily send video emails.

Bonjoro for Nonprofits

Bonjoro is an excellent fit for nonprofits because it is more personal and the more personal your organization can get the more closely your donors can see your cause. Plus, your way of communicating can really stand out from the pack.

Bonjoro doesn’t just give you the ability to send video emails, it gives you the ability to send video emails much easier.

Video’s to Reengage Nonprofit Lapsed Donors

Bonjoro is used the most with their nonprofits clients to reengage lapsed donors who have not given in a while which is great for fundraising efforts.

Nonprofits who use video email have tested it against traditional email or phone calls and there is a much better response rate with the video emails.

Video Emails to Thank Donors

The second use for video emails is to thank donors with a video email that is more personal. There are a lot of other software applications like Mailchimp, Zappia, and others that nonprofits are using which allow Bonjoro to be plugged into the ap so that notifications and other capabilities can be used.

Video’s to Show Donors the Inside Story

The third use for video emails is to give donors the inside story of where their money is going, allowing donors to have a real understanding of the good the nonprofit is doing.

Video’s Are Making Nonprofit Culture More Personal

The use of Bonjoro has been adding to the culture inside of nonprofits because more employees are thanking donors.

Nonprofits are also benefiting from more video emails because it seems to bring the nonprofit back into one to one personal marketing instead of the mass marketing that has become more commonplace.

Bonjoro Is Making Video’s Easier

Bonjoro makes everything very easy allowing you to just shoot the video in one minute and send it out. It takes care of sending, tracking, reminders, and a lot of other good features.

You can also send a video to groups or embed the video into websites easily. The idea behind the video is to make it very authentic so there is not a ton of editing.

Bonjoro is working on a reply video that will allow a nonprofit’s donor to easily reply with a testimonial which will be great for websites.

Because Bonjoro works with a lot of businesses and nonprofits it has a lot of case studies on how people are using Bonjoro which tends to really help nonprofits with new uses of video.

A Nonprofits Needs to Keep Their Donors and Reengage Them

Funnel is a new fundraising process terminology being used now to describe getting a lot of prospects into the top of a funnel and what comes out on the bottom are donors.

Videos are helping to convert more of those prospects and to keep them as donors.

Before and After Video’s

Another case for Bonjoro is a before and after the video. It can show the impact of your donors’ dollar which has a huge impact on improving larger donations and referrals.

The nonprofit that is communicating the best with their story is often going to win. Storytelling has been the biggest buzz word at nonprofit conferences in the last 5 years.

Pricing of Bonjoro

100% free plans. Other pricing plans have tiers with additional capabilities but overall, Bonjoro is very inexpensive.

Transparency for nonprofits has been a big deal and video really helps you be authentic and personal which donors really want to see.

According Matt, who sees nonprofits throughout the world, he says the United States is very innovative. However, what Matt is seeing in other countries is more personalization in how they deal with donors getting them away from massive donation marketing.  Video’s can help in that effort.