Every crisis-response organization has the same tension in its marketing: the most powerful footage is of people at their lowest, and using it is a betrayal of the trust that made the work possible. The films that work are about recovery, told by the people who chose to tell it.
The Kansas City angle
Kansas City's crisis and community-support organizations run across housing, violence intervention, mental health, food security and neighborhood recovery, concentrated on the east side, in the Northeast, in Wyandotte County and in the older suburbs. Most are funded by a mix of local foundations and individual donors who want to see the work, not the statistics.
The local angle is the neighborhood. A block in the Northeast that came back, a Wyandotte County program that kept a family housed, a community center that reopened: those are places donors can drive past.
One program, one person, filmed with their consent and control
We would agree the story with the participant before anyone picks up a camera: what will be shown, what will not, and their right to pull it at any point. Then a day with the program: the staff, the space, the ordinary work. The participant is interviewed where they choose, about what they choose, and reviews the cut before it goes anywhere.
A two-minute film for the annual appeal and the gala, and a program explainer that can be used in grant applications without the personal story attached.
What to actually make
- A two-minute recovery film — one program and one participant, on their terms.
- A program explainer — the work and the staff, no personal stories, for grant applications.
- Staff and volunteer voices — short interviews for recruiting and board materials.
- Neighborhood pieces — the place before and after, for the funders who want to see impact on a map.
What it costs in Kansas City
For most of the businesses in this post the right starting point is the Story Film at $4,500: a full shoot day with interviews, cut into a two-to-three-minute film. Every package is published on our nonprofit video page, and the video production cost page explains what moves the number up or down. There is no travel fee anywhere in the metro, Overland Park to Lee's Summit to Lawrence.
How the shoot works
It is the same two people on every project, Josh and Brandon. We scope it on a call, write the shot list, show up with lights and a lav mic, and stay out of the way of your customers. A first cut lands in about two weeks with unlimited revisions after that, and you own every frame, including the raw footage on request.
If this is your business, the nonprofit video page has the packages, the examples and the calendar link. If you are not sure which package fits, this is how we work and why the prices are on the site.