As creatives, we have chosen a career path to inform and entertain through the arts. We talk cameras, lighting, and editing often times forgetting these are tools of our trade. Our passions are strong; our ambition is boundless. We worry about landing the next client or finishing our latest edit on time and we forget our skills and tools can help others, but how?

The Nashville Filmmaker’s Guild has found a simple way to give their members a reason to give back to their community by giving a story to a non-profit in need. Storytelling is an artform with a long history and storytelling as promotion is one of the best ways to help an individual or an organization. Led by Executive Director Bobby Marko, The Nashville Filmmaker’s Guild came up with the idea of StoryGive.

In the Fall of 2017, The NFG turned loose dozens of volunteers for two days of filming for the story about Project Return which is a non-profit organization who provides services and connects people with resources needed to return successfully to work and community after incarceration. This was not a bundled at the last minute event. The crews went out with a full pre-production packet from weeks of planning and the hopes they were doing good work for those who need it. Their first video was released this week and you can watch it below.

The Nashville Filmmaker’s Guild hopes StoryGive, and this style of giving back to one’s community catches on with other film and video professionals in other cities around the country. With just a little bit of planning, this group of people helped lift an organization who likely never thought they could afford any advertising let alone a promotional video.