A teenage “cancer slayer,” mental health, a humorous reminder about testicular cancer self-exams, and an honest look at teen refugee life in America were among the topics tackled by winners of the 2014 DoGooder Video Awards.
Nearly 4,500 votes were cast by the YouTube community among more than 350 videos from hundreds of nonprofits. Winners of the eighth annual contest, sponsored by Cisco, were announced at the opening session of the Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) last week in Washington, D.C.:
- The ImpactX Award, recognizing a video and short essay for creators who demonstrate the impact their video had on their cause: Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, “Slaying Childhood Cancer,” features Jordan Vincent, a 15-year-old “cancer slayer” who was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer 10 years ago.
- The Best Non-Profit Video Award, recognizing the best overall video created by a nonprofit organization: Partners for Mental Health, “Right By You Campaign,” a 30-second Public Service Announcement (PSA) about youth suicide.
- The Funny for Good Award, recognizing effective use of comedy to make people laugh and take action: Canadian Cancer Society, “Nutiquette: A Dude’s Guide to Checking His Nuts,” takes a humorous and melodiic approach to the three basic steps of a testicular self-exam.
- The Most Inspiring Youth Media Award, recognizing youth who best communicated their thoughts on pressing social issues in a way that inspired others: Wide Angle Youth Media, “The Paradise That Wasn’t,” is a 10-minute film looking at the perspective of teen refugees from Iraq, Senegal and South Sudan who have relocated to Baltimore, Md.
The contest is presented by See3 Communications, YouTube, and the Portland, Ore.-based Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN), with additional support from The National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, National Youth Media Network and the National Association for Media literacy Education Nickelodeon.
Winners receive free registration to next year’s NTC, to be held in March in Austin Texas. The winner of the Youth Media category will receive a $3,000 cash prize from Nickelodeon to the award-winning film’s nonprofit along with two festival passes for the 2014 AFI Docs film festival. Lights. Camera. Help. in Austin, Texas, will screen all four finalist films in the Youth Media category at its 2014 festival this summer.
The winner of the Funny for Good category also will receive a $500 gift card from Zacuto. Winners in the ImpactX category will receive a cash prize from Cisco “to help them harness the power of human and technology networks to multiply their impact on the people and communities they serve.”
The eighth annual DoGooder Awards recognize the creative and effective use of video in promoting social good and providing advocates who use video an outlet to highlight their work. Entries were submitted between Feb. 1 and Feb. 15, with members of the YouTube community voting from among the finalists between Feb. 28 and March 10.
“When we started the awards eight years ago, no one knew why they needed to focus on video,” said Michael Hoffman, CEO of Chicago, Ill.-based See3. “Now, the majority of all bandwidth is video and video messaging has become more important than ever for nonprofits.”
Here’s the link to the DoGooder award page.
