Three Ways to Use Animation in Your Nonprofit Training
Why do we let our kids watch cartoons like Cocomelon or Bluey? Because they are teaching our kids valuable lessons through animation.
We can do the exact same thing in our nonprofit trainings. We can use animation to impart valuable lessons to our learners. That’s why I’ve invited Calvin Dantley to join me and share his experience with animation and training.
Calvin is a nonprofit L&D leader and an experienced animator, so he has so much good stuff to share with us today.
Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓
Key Points:
03:10 Get to know Calvin Dantley: From sales to L&D animation
06:32 The value animation can add to your nonprofit training
10:26 Three ways your nonprofit can use animation in training
13:14 Barriers to using animation in training and how to overcome them
16:40 One thing you can do now to get started with animation
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Three Ways to Use Animation in Your Nonprofit Training
If you have young kids, you may have spent some quality time with Cocomelon or Bluey recently.
If your kids are a bit older, you may remember the Mickey Mouse cartoons from their childhood.
Why am I talking about cartoons?
What do these shows have in common?
They are using animation to teach valuable lessons to our kids. Sometimes it's shapes and colors. Sometimes it's letters and numbers. Sometimes it's problem-solving skills. Maybe it's sharing or getting along with others. But no matter the show, they are embedding the lesson into the cartoon.
But then we grow up. And our shows aren't so much educational as they are entertaining. And we forget about the benefits of animation in learning. That's why I invited Calvin Dantley to share his experience with animation and training.
Calvin is a nonprofit L&D leader and an experienced animator, so he has so much good stuff to share with us.
In this blog post, we’re covering the following:
Three Ways Your Nonprofit Can Use Animation in Training
Barriers to Using Animation in Training and How to Overcome Them
Calvin has worked in business development roles for 15 years as a sales rep manager and trainer. Over the past five years, he has focused on applying his knowledge of business operations to help organizations improve the quality of their training, making training more accessible for staff at all levels, and using data to show the impact ongoing training has on organizational effectiveness.
1) The Value Animation Can Add to Your Nonprofit Training
Why would a nonprofit use animation in their training? What is that value that it's adding? Clavin shares three reasons.
1. Through animation, learners focus on the content rather than the instructor
“Sometimes our biases create barriers to learning. And what I've found is that with animation, you're not so much worried about who's delivering the information because you're looking at a cartoon and we all have [...] very fond memories of cartoons.” - Calvin Dantley
Calvin explains that we’re not thinking:
Is the cartoon blue or yellow?
Rather, we're thinking:
Is the cartoon funny?
Is it saying something that relates to me?
“Depending on the topic, we don't want them focusing on the person delivering the information, we want them focusing on the content itself.” - Calvin Dantley
2. Animation makes learning accessible
“Instructor-led training is not always accessible. It makes it very challenging for staff and more entry-level or frontline roles to get access to ongoing training.” - Calvin Dantley
Calvin explains that with animation, you don't need to set up a specific day and time for your learners to show up and get the information, you can put it into a video format and have them watch it whenever works for them.
3. Animation shortens the time necessary for content delivery
Calvin explains that this also allows for more discussion among participants.
He shares an example of training he’s done in the past where they started with an animated video around a controversial topic or something that they wanted people to think about and consider. And then during the actual workshop, instead of talking about the content, they just talked about the learner’s thoughts and had them reflect on the training.
So instead of spending 30 minutes delivering content and 30 minutes discussing, they watched a short five minute video and then had a really robust conversation for about 45 to 50 minutes.
“And so we were able to allow more voices into the conversation, dive deeper into the topics, really pull out some of those really good nuggets that you want from that kind of learning experience.” - Calvin Dantley
Calvin explains that this is a way to jumpstart everybody's mind, get them thinking differently or thinking outside the box about a particular topic, and then create space for more conversation once they have those thoughts.
2) Three Ways Your Nonprofit Can Use Animation in Training
Calvin explains that a concern when it comes to animation is that it may trivialize a message.
“Animation is much more than just cartoons and a bunch of colorful characters running around the screen. It's really about just creating movement, visual movement, to keep people engaged.” - Calvin Dantley
Calvin explains that there are five different types of animation.
Traditional animation
2D animation
3D animation
Stop motion
Motion graphics
“So when you think about matching the tone with the type of animation, you have a ton of options.” - Calvin Dantley
Calvin shares three ways you can use animation in your nonprofit training.
1. Onboarding
Calvin explains that onboarding is a great place for animation.
“I've seen it used as introduction videos, where you're explaining a complex topic really quickly. And then the learner goes through and does more of a deep dive with either a facilitator or more resources that they learn from.” - Calvin Dantley
2. Reoccurring videos as reminders to staff about best practices
Calvin explains that there is a lot of new technology and some animators even incorporate AI into their platforms.
“Instead of having to create completely from scratch, you have the ability to say, I want to do a reminder video for staff on how to avoid slips, trips, and falls. And because it's such a common topic, the AI generator can pull that together for you really quick, and you could send out a five minute video or a two minute video to all your team members.” - Calvin Dantley
3. Sharing community impact with donors
Rather than sending your donors a spreadsheet, send them an animated video.
“An animated video is a great way to engage those individuals and show them the impact versus just telling them about the impact.” - Calvin Dantley
These are great examples of ways to start to imagine how we might use animation in training, but with anything new, we often face challenges. That’s what we’re looking at next.
3) Barriers to Using Animation in Training and How to Overcome Them
Besides the perception of animation, Calvin explains that cost and skill set are often the barriers he sees to animation, especially in a nonprofit.
1. Cost
“If there's limited resources, that's something that may limit a person's ability to jump in and either start learning the tool or make the commitment to get that next-level subscription and try it out.” - Calvin Dantley
2. Skill Set
“It takes time and patience to learn how to use the tools. And often we’re really short on time or competing priorities pull in a bunch of different directions.” - Calvin Dantley
Calvin explains that if you don’t have time to learn the skill, then outsourcing is another option. However, this does limit your ability to use animation to take your learning experiences to the next level.
Calvin recommends a great solution to this.
Look at the young people your organization serves who are interested in creative professions like music, writing, photography, or videography. Those are all skill sets that translate well to animation because those individuals are good at visualizing something before it's on the page.
“We're tapping into your younger demographics in your nonprofit, if you've got a membership base, or if you run programs, that's a great way to engage folks and allow them to get some part-time or project experience with some animation.” - Calvin Dantley
Calvin explains that by identifying a couple of individuals who have a strong interest in animation and want to develop their skills,
You give a young person a meaningful career experience very early on
You get some of the younger voices involved in the conversation around how to best connect with your audience
Calvin has had experiences where an animation doesn’t land because it doesn’t represent all of the demographic.
“Depending on the topic, animation does open you up to being able to have that kind of representation. And a lot of times it’s the young people that point it out and so getting their eyes and their voices involved in that will absolutely add value to the learning experiences that you can create with animation.” - Calvin Dantley
I love this. Your nonprofit benefits but the young people are benefiting and learning a lifelong skill as well.
4) Get Started with Animation in Your Nonprofit
I know it can be a little bit overwhelming to try to figure out where to start. That’s why I asked Calvin for one thing that you (as nonprofit L&D) can do now to get started with animation.
Calvin recommends setting up a free animation tool account and to start tinkering.
Two platforms that Calvin recommends that have free account options are PowToon and Vyond.
“Start messing around with the animation, push all the buttons, pull the levers, and see what you can create. Give it a shot. Ask somebody on your marketing team if they have experience with it because that is also a place where folks are familiar with it.” - Calvin Dantley
So step one is to go find a free trial, play around, and start practicing.
To hear the full conversation I had with Calvin Dantley on the Learning for Good Podcast, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 74.
The Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective
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I know what it feels like to want someone to bounce ideas off of and to learn from, someone who really understands you and your work. Imagine if you could have a simple way to meet people in the field, ask questions, and share information.
That's why I created the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective – so nonprofit L&D, talent management, and DEI leaders can connect with each other quickly and easily in a virtual space.
When you join this community, you will walk away with a new, diverse, and powerful network – and a sounding board for your staff development needs.
So if you're ready to exchange ideas and collaborate with your peers, come join the Nonprofit L&D Collective.
