Tips for Fundraising on Social Media
We all know how influential social media is, which means that these channels should be a critical part of your fundraising strategy. Your social channels can drive giving campaigns and maintain momentum so that the donations can continue to come year round.
Social media is fast-moving and can often feel like we’re in a battle with the algorithms. It’s become more difficult to reach our audiences organically; however, with the right approach (and some nimbleness!) it can definitely be done.
Here are some of our favorite strategies for fundraising on social media.
Focus on the right channels.
We want as many donations as possible, so we should have fundraising content on absolutely every channel, right? Not necessarily. The urgency of securing funds is real, which is why it’s important to focus your efforts on channels where your donors and potential donors are the most active. Don’t spend time and energy putting fundraising content on channels where it won’t get engagement.
If your donors are not using Instagram, but they are on Facebook, then put more effort into your fundraising content on Facebook. This is a chance to think about your audiences and prioritize them. Yes, ideally every audience segment would be making donations, but we have to prioritize target audiences and focus on them for the greatest chance of reaching them and inspiring them to give.
Align your team and invite your network in.
We like to think of this as the low-hanging fruit that’s definitely worth picking. Everyone at an organization—no matter their position—plays a role in fundraising, especially on social media. Align your team to post about giving and to reshare posts from your organization. Align others in your network, such as volunteers, partners, and peers to post and share about a fundraising campaign. These people have already bought into and trust your organization, and with their help, the campaign can cut through the noise of social and reach more people organically.
There are three important things to always do when asking your team and network to help promote your campaign:
- Tell them why it’s important that they participate.
- Make it easy. What can you share with them that will make it easy to share?
- Show appreciation.
Lay the foundation to give on your social channels.
The 70-20-10 rule is helpful guidance for how to break down your social content. The majority of your posts (70%) should be telling your brand story: who are you, what impact are you seeking to make, why is your work necessary and important, how are you making that impact, stories from your community that demonstrate that impact. 20% of posts should be dedicated to amplifying the content of others, and 10% dedicated to hard asks for donations.
This balance allows your audiences to clearly see a case for giving so when they are asked directly for money, they understand what they’re money will support.
Take advantage of built-in features on your social platforms that make it easy for audiences to give.
Facebook and Instagram have made it easier than ever to give to nonprofits with campaign features and donate buttons. Enabling a “Donate” button on your profiles is one of the easiest things you can do to make the giving process more seamless for your donors. This allows your audiences to give without leaving the social platform and enables them to give more quickly without disrupting their social scrolling.
Both platforms also allow you to create nonprofit fundraising campaigns that people can donate to right in the platform. A nonprofit can create one themselves and individuals can create one to raise money for a nonprofit, which is an option to give to your network to help spread the word about a campaign.
Learn more about nonprofit fundraising features on Instagram and Facebook.
Thank your donors collectively and individually.
Sharing gratitude to your donors is important content to share through a campaign or throughout the year. It’s an opportunity to show campaign progress and indicate to your audiences that people are actively giving, which can inspire them to give as well.
Individual thank yous on social channels can deliver an even greater impact. When someone is individually recognized, it is very likely they will share that content on their own channels and enable your campaign to reach more audiences. Also, this kind of personal engagement is memorable for a donor and can convert one-time givers into recurring ones.
When someone gives, ask for their social handle so you can recognize them.
Do not wait until the end of a fundraising campaign to dig into your metrics.
You can always pivot mid-campaign if you need to! What’s most important is meeting your fundraising goal, not sticking to a plan that’s not working or not working as well as you thought. Plan specific times in the duration of your campaign to really dig into how your content is performing and see what optimizations you can make. These could be small changes, such as adjusting the time you’re posting to bigger shifts, such as seeing one type of content get much stronger engagement and working to produce more of that content for the rest of the campaign.
Looking for support with your next fundraising campaign? Get in touch! We develop digital and traditional campaigns to help nonprofits meet their fundraising goals.