Overview and Goal
The New Israel Fund (NIF) is an international non-profit working to make Israel a more progressive society and promote diversity, justice, and inclusion in Israel. Each year, NIF US produces an annual fundraising gala and in the fall of 2020, they chose TalkingTree Creative to produce the event entirely online.
The NIF virtual gala would need to be broadcast-quality to engage their high-end audience of donors. All of the on-camera participants would be recorded or perform live from their homes or offices to remain isolated during the COVID lockdown.
The Platform
Our production team designed a custom webpage that could host the show and enable seamless back-and-forth between the audience and the hosts through real-time donations and pledges. Guests were able to donate live via buttons on the site. We also made sure to integrate easy-access tech support for members who might have trouble connecting to the show.
Pre-Production
In the weeks leading up to the live event, we sent out remote production kits and worked one-on-one with presenters to prepare them for the event and help them rehearse for their recording or live broadcast. We also pre-recorded VIP interviews and sound bytes.
Our production team designed virtual sets so the hosts, who were located at their homes in different locations, would appear as if they were broadcasting from professional, cohesive studio environments.
The show
The live event played out as a series of presentations and discussions broken up by pre-produced video content and musical entertainment by international artists that NIF enlisted. We even included a few ways for the audience to interact during the live broadcast, like coordinating a virtual toast.
The different pieces of the broadcast were thoughtfully coordinated and edited together to create an engaging, emotionally powerful virtual experience.
Results
The NIF gala was an amazing success. NIF was able to raise over $1.4M from the gala in total, and the virtual event cost them a fraction of what they spend on their in-person gala. The audience feedback was overwhelmingly positive and we have received multiple requests from other organizations who happened to be in the audience asking us to produce their virtual events modeled after the NIF Gala.
