Everyone is feeling the affects of COVID-19. People are working from home or with a reduced staff and students are learning from home. Nonprofit organizations are in full swing as they are needed now more than ever. Companies, like people, are facing these challenges every day. This has caused us all to conform and adapt. One thing for certain is that safety is of the utmost importance for both the employees and for the clients/customers.

When it comes to ways to effectively use photography and video during this pandemic, we will save that for an upcoming blog post. Today we wanted to share with you the ways we at Shape are safely conducting business during the pandemic and how we still believe that now is a great time to promote your business.

Whether you're live streaming, hosting virtual events, or still wanting content for your website or social media, the need for photo and video is present. People want to still shop where they used to shop and support who they used to support. The desire for some normalcy is very strong. If a business is able to remind their clients that they are still here during these difficult time they have a greater chance of doing their business together. The same holds true for nonprofits. Nonprofits are still trying to raise money as well as provide the services that they are used to providing.

Shape is no different. We love that we are here to help everyone during this time. This is why we've spent a great deal of time making sure that we are able to be here for anyone who needs us. We have working tirelessly with health professionals and members of the film and media industry to make sure that we can work with our clients in a safe manner.

We have worked hard to put together a system that allows us to work with our clients and provide our services while still practicing a safe environment for our employees and clients. There are several layers of protections that we have put in place. These measures keep us, and your team safe.

Safety measures we have in place:

• Daily healthy screening and temperature checks
• Proper social distancing is practiced and actively monitored
• Face coverings are required and provided for everyone, except whoever's on camera
• Crews are limited based on the size and space available
• Spaces are regularly cleaned and hand sanitizer is onsite

It is our priority that we are putting no one in any danger. Experts around the globe have put together these safety measures to keep everyone safe. Whether you are trying to show your own customers all the ways that you are keeping them safe, or perhaps you want to create something that will hold up long after this pandemic is behind us, Shape is here to help you tell the story that you want to tell. We are ready and able to keep you safe as we work together.

Welcome everyone to the new home for everything Shape Cleveland! We are so thrilled to be launching our new website and this blog to go along with it. While a lot has changed from our previous website, we are still the same organization we always have been. One notable change is that we are no longer using our Shapewithus.org domain. Instead we have relaunched with ShapeCleveland.org as our new domain. This provides us the connection to our hometown that we've had since the beginning.

Before we dive into the depths of this website transformation, we first need to shout out the amazing designer behind this website. Alex Cantenese from Each + Every worked tirelessly with us to bring this new site to life and we can’t thank him enough for all his work. This website would not have been possible without his hard work. 

The idea for Shape’s new website started over a year ago. Our original website was an effective tool at the time of our organizations launch, but as we grew we realized our website needed to grow as well. Our original website provided basic information on who we are and what we do, but is wasn't as effective in communicating all that Shape has to offer. We realized we needed a site that better informed people about the various services we offer, showcased a portfolio of our work and our clients, and allowed people to support future projects. This new website provides all that and more! 

One of the new features we are most excited about is that we are now able to provide a space for individuals and companies to fund a project on behalf of a nonprofit organization. We’ve met a lot of nonprofits that have a need for photo or video services, but do not have the funds to afford them. Shape can only volunteer on a limited number of projects per year. This led to us creating an opportunity on our website where companies have the opportunity to sponsor a project for a nonprofit organization. Our “Support Shape” page of our website provides a space for a sponsoring company to “Fund a Project” for other nonprofits. For those that wish to support Shape directly we finally have our own Donation page 🙂  

In addition to the “Support Shape” page, a key feature of the new website is the “Our Work” section. The previous website had our reel from 2018, which we were very proud of at the time, but since then we have had the opportunity to work with so many other organizations that we wanted to share with all of you some of what we've been up to since then! Our updated reel, as well as the videos from past clients, showcases the wide range of video services Shape can offer and how videos can accomplish a myriad of different goals. Go take a look (did you notice we have drone capabilities now?!) and let us know your thoughts! You will also notice that Shape has worked with both for-profit and nonprofit organization. People often believe that since we are a nonprofit, we only work with other nonprofits, but that isn't the case at all! We want to work with every type of organization, big or small, and we feel this new site truly showcases that. 

The last area we want to highlight is the one you’re looking at right now : the blog! We’ve never had a space where we can share experiences and things we’ve learned and that is what this space is for! Shape has grown a lot over the last 3 years and as we learn new things we want to shares those with you. We want to share the successes as well as the challenges of running a nonprofit, the latest in new equipment we're working with, behind the scenes, more about our wonderful clients and everything everything in between! We are so excited to have a space we can share updates and give a deeper look behind the scenes. It will be our goal to keep this updated 1-2 times per month.

Will a new website skyrocket our organization into becoming the biggest and best nonprofit in Cleveland? Probably! 🙂 In all seriousness this site is a big step forward for us and will hopefully help us reach more people and grow as an organization. We are so excited for this new chapter and thank you for being here with us for it!

If you haven't already, take a look at our near 2020 reel!