Why are there so few nonprofit videos that really go viral?
It's not for lack of trying. Everywhere you turn, there's another cute, clever, nonprofit video that's gunning for the big V -- and most of them have a couple thousand views. Or a lot less. They aren't going viral.
Sure, it would be great to have tens of millions of YouTube views and have everyone on planet Earth see your message.
But really, what's the point of that?
Those videos that go mega-viral are usually funny, subversive, surprising, and most of all entertaining.
Being entertaining to "everyone" is almost for sure a long, long way from engaging and motivating people to take action in your cause. Even if you could pull it off, it probably wouldn't get you anywhere. It would be empty fame.
You aren't the Trololo Guy. Not even his remix. You aren't, you can't be, and you shouldn't be.
Don't try to take the entire internet by storm.
Just create something compelling for the slice of people who are or could be your supporters. Spread it around in a reasonable manner. Make sure it leads to some kind of action.
You can accomplish more with a few hundred or thousand well-targeted views than by going viral.
Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 30 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you'll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com. 
