An impact report is read by the people who already gave. An impact film is watched by the people who have not decided yet. The difference is not production value; it is whether the film shows a person doing the work and a person the work reached, on a specific street, in a specific year.
The Kansas City angle
Kansas City's nonprofit sector is large and unusually well-funded for a city its size, and it competes for the same foundation dollars and the same November donors. The organizations that win are the ones whose funders can describe the work in a sentence, and the annual impact film is where that sentence gets learned.
The local angle is the map. Kansas City donors give to places they recognize: a school in Wyandotte County, a clinic on Prospect, a shelter in Independence. Put the address in the film.
Three numbers, three people, one year
We would pick the three outcomes the board cares about most and find one person behind each: a client, a volunteer, a staff member. One shoot day across two or three sites. Short interviews, kept to what happened this year. The three numbers go on screen at the end, sourced to the report. That is the whole structure; it works because it is small.
A two-minute impact film for the annual report, the gala and the year-end email, and the three stories as separate sixty-second pieces for the months between.
What to actually make
- A two-minute impact film — three outcomes, three people, one year, for the annual report and the appeal.
- Three story clips — sixty seconds each, released across the quarter after the report.
- A gala open — ninety seconds cut to run before the executive director speaks.
- Funder-specific cuts — the same footage re-ordered for each major foundation's priorities.
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.