Companies often throw money at social causes, but GoPro is doing something a bit different. It’s providing nonprofits with GoPro cameras, financial support, video producers and content distribution. Founder and CEO Nick Woodman announced the program today at TechCrunch Disrupt SF.
Called GoPro for a Cause, the program allows nonprofits to leverage GoPro’s deep understanding of brand engagement. As Woodman explained to me during an onstage interview, GoPro is much more than an action camera company. It has grown into a media content monster and knows how to get consumers to watch a video.
“From the beginning we’ve had a vision to scale GoPro as a platform to inspire. Our goal with GoPro for a Cause is to help social causes inspire a global audience with their stories,” he said in a released statement. “The world has given so much to GoPro and we’re excited to give back.”
It’s fairly easy to capture wild content, strap a GoPro onto a surfboard and hit the sea. But turning an hour of video captured into a 90-second video is hard, which is why GoPro is lending its producers to help make a video that will get attention.
Allowing GoPro camera owners to more easily cut a highlight video is something GoPro is attempting to remedy. Woodman said today that a GoPro camera is currently like an iPod without iTunes. He laid out the details of a cloud-editing solution that will let consumers throw together a highlight video from a smartphone within a few minutes.
The company isn’t ready to announce when this solution will hit the market. Woodman also would not comment on data storage partners for this cloud service.
Yet sometime soon, users and nonprofits alike should be able to more easily produce GoPro videos with a rocking soundtrack matched to the best bits of the videos.