I have absolutely no idea how I hadn’t heard of this before, but I just found out today about the YouTube Nonprofit Program. Basically, YouTube provides nonprofit organizations with premium branding capabilities, the option to allow fundraising through a Google “Donate” button and tons more tips and tricks!

Right now, the program is only available in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. Additionally, YouTube stipulates that the campaign cannot be focused on religion or politics.

Other benefits include:

- A listing on the Nonprofit channels and the Nonprofit videos pages
- Option to add a “Call to action” overlay on videos to drive campaigns

The tips page is definitely helpful, and includes information on how to customize your organization’s channel, develop content and network and distribute your videos.

The program also brings organizations with similar missions together, allowing them to partner and work together.

I think YouTube’s suggestion to tell serial stories is a fantastic one – decide on a theme or central message for your campaign and keep viewers coming back for more. Additionally, weaving any current events into your videos will make them that much more timely and significant.

I previously wrote about YouTube as part of the “Beyond the Big Three” series here. I wrote a lot about what YouTube can do as part of providing a virtual conference experience, but videos can truly be more powerful than just interviews with attendees or keynote speakers.

Online video is absolutely a noteworthy channel and can be a great way for nonprofits to help supplement and drive their campaigns. Through videos and comments on YouTube, your organization can touch base with donors and people who care about your mission.

This is the fourth in an ongoing series called “Beyond The Big Three,” which highlights social networking sites other than Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. There are tons of other social media outposts on the Web, and they’re great places for associations to curate content. The first installments on Flickr, Delicious and Tumblr/Posterous can be found here. Stay tuned.

Ah, YouTube … home of the Muppets singing “Bohemian Rhapsody,” dancing babies and brides and the “Numa Numa” guy.

Sure, it can be a source of endless entertainment, but can YouTube — or another video service such Vimeo — really benefit your organization?

ASAE and The Center has its own YouTube channel. They post interviews with ASAE staffers and conference speakers every few weeks. Of course, during this year’s annual meeting, posting was more frequent.

Maybe you don’t want to post videos right away. No problem! Simply create a channel for your organization and compile some of your favorite YouTube videos for your members. But taking it one step further can really enhance the experience for your members.

What videos could your association create and share?

• Conference highlights or random moments
• Interviews with keynote speakers
• Interviews with attendees
• Videos created by members
• News updates relating to the industry

Not to be cheesy, but the possibilities are practically endless!

Videos can be great for helping virtual attendees get a more complete experience. Or they can just be amusing — they don’t necessarily have to be 100 percent business-focused. They can showcase your association’s personality and aid in recruiting new members.

You don’t have to have any fancy video editing software to take advantage of YouTube. You don’t even have to have a great camera — many cell phones have video capabilities, and Flip cameras are pretty popular. Videos can also be easily embedded into your association’s blog or homepage.

One major suggestion I have is to keep your videos shorter than five minutes — three, if possible. People just don’t have the attention span to watch videos longer than that online — let alone waiting for it to buffer!

Also, YouTube recently rolled out YouTube Direct, which “enables your organization to request, review, and re-broadcast user-submitted videos with ease.” Your members can upload videos directly to your site and then administrators can review and approve (or deny) them. It was built with news organizations in mind (“citizen journalists” can send amateur videos to them with ease), but I think it’d be great to issue a call for videos from conference or meeting attendees!

YouTube is one of the most-trafficked sites on the Internet, and for good reason. There are lots of amusing videos to be sure, but there is also a great potential for creating and sharing valuable content with your members.

Oh, and for more YouTube goodness and why you should use it, check out this post from Small Business Trends!

Do you use YouTube? What do you share? Or, would you consider it? What would you share?