Nonprofit Video Production Case Study

Between 2008 and 2022, more than one in four on-duty law enforcement fatalities were caused by officer-involved collisions and struck-by incidents. This nonprofit video production series, eight animated episodes for the Institute for Intergovernmental Research, is built on numbers like that one.

Every episode starts from a single hard statistic and cites it on screen. The citation is not decoration. For this client it is the credibility mechanism, and it is the reason an officer who has heard the safety lecture before might sit through it again.

The series runs under the program's own tagline: Drive with care. It's a journey we all share.

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Case Study

Institute for Intergovernmental Research – National roadway safety

We produced eight animated episodes for the Institute for Intergovernmental Research as part of the National Law Enforcement Roadway Safety Program. Each one takes a single data point on officer roadway deaths and builds ninety seconds to two minutes around it. This is nonprofit video production where the audience has to be persuaded rather than informed.

The eight cover fatigue and reaction time, collision and struck-by fatalities, sleep, seat belts, emergency response speed, body armor in crashes, pursuit fatalities, and move-over laws.

ClientInstitute for Intergovernmental Research

TypePublic Safety / Advocacy

Amount8 Episodes

Style2D Animation, Character Driven, Infographic

Animation still showing sleep deprivation stats: 17–19 hrs awake = 10% drop, 24 hrs = 53% drop

Animated split-panel showing a police officer without (✗) and with (✓) a hi-vis vest — a roadway safety do/don't

Animated officer at a vehicle collision scene from a law enforcement roadway safety video

Animated police cars responding to a bank robbery scene — still from a law enforcement roadway safety video

Don’t Let Fatigue Defeat You

Nonprofit video production, one statistic per episode

The method is consistent enough to be a format. Open on the number, hold it long enough to be read and doubted, show what it means in a situation the viewer recognises, and only then arrive at the recommendation.

It keeps the episodes short because there is no room for padding once the structure is that tight. Seat Belt Safety runs on one figure: between 1980 and 2015, 42.6% of officers killed in law enforcement vehicles were not wearing a seat belt, and 161 of them, about 18%, were partially or fully ejected.

Faster Is Not Always Better runs on a 2009 FBI study of 2,123 officers and an estimated 14 million emergency responses, which found a fast response actually helped save a life in about one call in 8,000.

Open on the number, before any recommendation
Cite it on screen where the viewer can check it
Show the consequence in a recognisable situation
Earn the advice last, not first

Have a campaign that has to persuade?

Advocacy, public safety, and mission campaigns for audiences that have already heard the message. Tell us what you are up against and we'll come back with ideas.

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Turning a citation into a visual

The fatigue episode is the clearest example of the method. It builds to a table comparing impairment at 17 to 19 hours awake against 24 hours awake, across reaction time, dual task speed, hand-eye coordination, object tracking, vigilance, spatial memory and tiredness.

The final row is what makes it land. It sets those columns against blood alcohol content: 0.05 BAC at 17 to 19 hours awake, 0.10 BAC at 24. The argument is not that fatigue is like being drunk. The argument is that the measured impairment is equivalent, and the table lets a skeptical viewer check that for themselves.

Feyer, A. M. and Williamson, A. M. (2000). Moderate sleep deprivation produces impairments in cognitive and motor performance equivalent to legally prescribed levels of alcohol intoxication. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 57(10), 649-655.

The citation sits on screen beneath the table for the whole sequence. Character animation carries the situation, the infographic carries the evidence, and neither has to do the other's job.

Source citation visible on screen, not in a description
Data presented so a skeptical viewer can check it
Character animation for the situation, infographic for the evidence
Impairment framed as measured equivalence, not metaphor

Where this approach works best

This model fits any mission where the audience has already dismissed the message. Advocacy, public safety, government and NGO campaigns, public health. The common factor is that information alone will not move anyone, because they believe they already have it.

It also travels into instruction. The same evidence-first structure works for educational animation and for training video production where a workforce has sat through the same briefing several times already.

Nonprofit video production earns its keep when the evidence arrives before the ask, which is the whole structure of this series.