Nonprofit Brand Story Video Example: Highland Park Community Foundation

This year, we worked with the Highland Park Community Foundation to update its brand story video. A brand story video is an important tool for nonprofits to have when sharing their story. It will tell your audience about your mission, core values, who you serve, why you do the work, and more. Nonprofits put brand story videos on their website and social media pages, and they also share them in presentations with potential donors and supporters. Let's dive in to how we helped the Highland Park Community Foundation staff put this video together!

Earlier in 2025, Steve Schapiro, Director of Philanthropy, reached out to me about helping him put together an updated brand story video. He shared their current one, and while it was a very nice video, I could tell it was time for an update and that we would be able to make a very nice video for them. After meeting with Steve and Terri Olian, Executive Director, everyone decided to move forward!

The first planning meeting gave me a chance to learn all about the organization: the mission, core values, their buckets of giving, their grantees, their Board Members, and more. I was able to ask Terri and Steve what messages and themes they were hoping to include in the video. Terri gave a lot of ideas, including, "the impact we, together with our donors, make for residents and our community as a whole; how much we’ve grown; the breadth of our work - annual and emergency grants, nonprofit seminars, networking events that bring together grantees and foster collaborations."

Once we establish the themes and message of the video, I like to ask my clients to think about who we can interview that will help us share that message. Terri and Steve came up with a whole list and we went through each person, identifying who they are, what they would be able to talk about, how they could fit into the video, and more. It's a really great process that gets everyone involved on the same page. From there, Terri and Steve reached out to our potential interviewees to gauge their interest and availability. I began to work on the interview questions for each person, which I always share with my clients and ask for feedback on.

With a few meetings over the next couple of months, we were able to set a shooting date, find a location to conduct the interviews, schedule all of the interviews, confirm b-roll locations with various nonprofits, and more. We were all so pleased with how easily everything came together, and I personally appreciated Terri and Steve's proactive planning and organization. They made our job easy!

The day of filming went so well. Everyone showed up, was on time (early, even!), and we got so many great soundbites to use in the video. When you interview a lot of people and every person is so great, it makes our editing that much more difficult!

Filming with the Highland Park Community Foundation

After our full day of filming, we were ready to start editing. This is definitely the most time-consuming part of the entire production process. We have to go through all of the interviews we captured, pick out the best soundbites, and then decide how to use those soundbites in the video. There are always so many soundbites that we don't get to use and it's up to us to pick the best ones. While we edit, we are constantly thinking back to the very beginning of our production process where the client identified the video's theme and message. That helps us stay on track!

When we send a client the first draft of the video, it's a very polished copy. There's music, we added in graphics, and everything is color corrected. It's ready to share! Of course, clients deserve to have a say in the video and we ask that they review it and give us feedback. Typically our videos are finalized after two rounds of revisions. This is a really great process that ensures the client is 100% satisfied with their video.

The final brand story video for the Highland Park Community Foundation ended up being four minutes long. It featured eight people (Board Members and grantees), b-roll we captured from HPCF grantee nonprofits, photos provided to us by HPCF staff, and drone footage of Highland Park and Highwood. It really came together so beautifully and we're thrilled knowing Terri and Steve have this video to share for years to come. They were able to premiere the video at HPCF's annual fundraising event, Gather for Good, and Terri said it was very well received. Steve said, "ACG Productions approached the project with an open mind, great ideas, and the utmost professionalism. They did a superb job putting the interviewees at ease when filming and brought out the best in all of them. I high recommend ACG Productions to any organization looking to create or update a mission video. They have a keen understanding of the needs of the nonprofit community and storytelling and capture that exceedingly well through video."

Watch the full video below!