1-2-MINUTE VIDEO
See sample images and narration in the slide show below, which will take a minute or two to load.
Examples of photos and the narration that would go over them, with music, are here in a slide show. Click the arrow on the side to make images go faster. Mouse on the image to pause.
Title slide to be created with text and image. Draft title text: “DC Gardens: Turning people on to our Visiting Gardens…and Gardening”
Credit slide at end? Could say “Support gardens and the growth of gardening by donating to the DC Gardens Indiegogo campaign.” (More research needed into titles/credits of crowdsource videos.)
Music would accompany the entire video, with narration over it in places.
THE INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN PAGE, DRAFT(Photos to be added throughout.)
Why Gardens (and Gardening) Matter
The D.C. area is blessed with fabulous gardens that are open to the public, most of them free, yet they’re largely unknown to visitors and locals. If people could just see what they look like – throughout the year – more would visit and that matters because:
- Gardens bring visitors close to nature, calming them and lifting their spirits.
- Visiting gardens is a gateway experience to gardening at home and in the community.
- Public gardens are the primary teaching facilities for turning residents into gardeners, with classes and workshops on growing food, providing for wildlife, protecting our waterways from polluting run-off, and so much more.
- Turning people on to gardening benefits us all because it results in more beauty and better stewardship of our land. More effective than nagging!
The DC Gardens Campaign
- By creating images and videos of each public garden by month, the campaign entices people to visit gardens not just in the spring.
- By using digital images and videos created by volunteers, the campaign is super-cost-efficient. Bang for the buck? Tons of it.
- By being managed and funded independently from the gardens, most of them government agencies, DC Gardens can be nimble, inexpensive, and very, very useful.
How it Started
The Smithsonian’s Cindy Brown invited garden-tourism expert Dr. Richard Benfield to speak to public garden staffers in February of 2013. That led to brainstorming with garden writer, teacher and volunteer Susan Harris, who attended the talk, and the independent DC Gardens.com is the result. Susan co-founded the popular blog GardenRant.com, among other successful digital projects, and she’s been joined in the DC Gardens cause by other volunteer photographers and videographers.
What the Money will be Used For
- $25,000 will fund DC Gardens for all of 2015, our “demonstration year.” Results from 2015 will attract long-term sponsors so that the project can continue indefinitely and do more. We’ll seek sponsors who don’t sell products related to gardening.
- Most of the funds ($18,000) will be used to hire a digital communications expert (Washington Gardener Magazine editor and social media maven Kathy Jentz) to regularly get the word out to general, travel and garden audiences locally, nationally and internationally.
- Updates will include Upcoming Major Garden-Related Events and What the Gardens will Look like in the Coming Month.
- Our other demonstration-year expenses include graphic design help (a logo, improved website), and Mailchimp.
- If we don’t reach our goal, the campaign will still begin in March of 2015 but may not find long-term sponsors before the funds run out.
- If more than $25,000 is raised, we can do more, as ideas arise. E.g. a Public Gardens Day, help garden writers to D.C. to spread the word, etc.
- Indiegogo will keep 4% if we meet our goal, 9% if we don’t.
Impacts
- More harried visitors and residents will discover and enjoy the benefits of visiting our fabulous gardens. Did we mention that most of them are FREE? (We’re so lucky!)
- More visitors will learn to garden – in their own yard or in the neighborhood.
- More plants will be grown that provide for pollinators and birds. Stormwater runoff will be reduced and the Chesapeake Bay will be healthier.
- More food will be grown locally in back yards and community gardens.
- With our Deep Resources packed with local clubs, email groups, ways to volunteer, etc, gardeners will learn more, find more plants, become Master Gardeners, etc.
- Visitors to DC will stay longer to see our gardens. More business visitors will bring their gardening spouse with them. With new garden tours being developed with the help of DC Gardens, more people will come to Washington, D.C.
- The Public Garden Association and the Garden Tourism Conference will be spreading the word about what DC is doing to promote gardens and gardening. Thus, other cities will learn from what works well and cost-efficiently in DC to increase garden visitorship and turn residents into gardeners.
- Garden writers and digital communicators in other cities will be hired to replicate locally what DC Gardens is doing cost-efficiently for that city’s gardens and other green amenities.
Other Ways You Can Help
- If you can’t contribute, please help get the word out by sharing the link to this campaign. Indiegogo share tools are available to make that easy.
- If you’re local to DC and enjoy photography or videography, we need you!
