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Broadcast Your Cause. Use YouTube.

Ramya Raghavan is the new Nonprofits & Activism Manager at YouTube. We invited her to share some recent developments at YouTube to help nonprofits leverage their free online video tools. Here's a note from Ramya, who can be reached at rraghavan@youtube.com:

Hi Idealists!

Last September, we launched the YouTube Nonprofit Program with the help of 13 nonprofit partner organizations. Today, thousands of nonprofits (including many of y'all here on Idealist) have joined the program and are using YouTube to raise awareness about important issues, fundraise for causes, and engage with supporters. Take it from a former nonprofiteer -- it's totally worth getting set up. If you're a United States-based 501c(3) organization, you can sign up now for a designated "Nonprofit" channel, which comes with a slew of awesome perks like increased branding and video uploading capacity, the chance to be featured in one of the "promoted videos" areas on YouTube, and the option to embed a Checkout gadget on your channel to drive fundraising (and which also has no processing fee!).

I also want to give a shout out to all of the activists out there who aren't affiliated with a particular organization. Whether you're a filmmaker trying to expose new AIDS prevention techniques, a student organizer working to make your campus greener, or a citizen who just wants to make the world a better place, we want to help you share your ideas and experiences through online video. Just a few months ago, YouTube debuted the Nonprofits & Activism video page where your content can bubble to the top and get seen by a global audience. Our goal is to build a vibrant community that draws attention to the world's most pressing issues. You can also build the Idealist community using YouTube by tagging the videos that you upload with "idealistcommunity." Click here to check out some videos which have already been added by Idealist members!

I'll be checking in with the YouTube community on my channel, www.youtube.com/agentchange. And I'd love to hear your feedback and ideas about nonprofits and activism on YouTube - email me at any time at agentchange@youtube.com. Also, if you see brilliant uses of YouTube popping up on the Nonprofits & Activism page, please let me know!

Ramya