Engaging staff, volunteers, and board members in social media marketing efforts offers numerous benefits to nonprofit organizations. Picture your social media platforms thriving with an active audience: likes, shares, comments—all contributing to increased exposure for your mission and even potentially boosting donations!
Generally speaking, the majority of a nonprofit's income, around 80%, comes from individual giving, rather than grants, government funds, or corporate sponsorships.
Building your 80% starts with cultivating trust and an engaged community on social media.
Encouraging Ownership
Nurture a sense of responsibility and ownership among your staff, volunteers, and board members in growing your social media presence. Instill pride in being part of the organization, prompting them to share posts and invite others to follow your cause. This grassroots effort to raise awareness of your mission is more impactful than any paid advertising!
Give More Than You Take
Outside of specific campaigns, maintain an 8:2 ratio of providing value to making requests. For every eight social media posts, dedicate one or two to asking for something from your audience, such as a donation. The remaining posts may offer value through educational content, team member spotlights, event updates, quotes, freebies, mission statements, impact stories, goals, testimonials, or discussions. While giving is crucial for eliciting support for your cause, avoid burnout by ensuring you're not overextending beyond your capacity.
Build Your Lists
Social media is among the most effective ways to engage with your community. In addition to providing value through quality content, freebies, and connections, encourage email sign-ups to develop a robust email and phone list. This is also an opportunity to ensure your CRM is fulfilling its purpose—keeping contacts organized, launching email campaigns and sending text alerts. Ensure thoughtful segmentation, and seamless integration with your website.
Funding with Community
By creating a sense of community within your social media networks, you pave the way for future success. Whether it's launching a crowdfunding campaign or organizing a fundraiser on Giving Tuesday, having a strong community aligned with your cause makes your fundraising efforts more impactful. Don’t expect to launch a successful campaign if your “crowd” doesn’t exist. Put the time and effort into building community and then work to launch a fundraiser down the road. Remember if you “build community”, you can also “fund with community”.
The Law of Prosperity is generosity. Giving more leads to receiving more.
Read our previous article ‘Nonprofit Legal Insights & Best Practices’ to learn more about how much you should be spending on fundraising and what return you should be seeing!
Hiring a Community Builder
Recognize the importance of hiring a community builder—be it a social media content creator supporting development and grant writing teams, or someone focused on outreach, communication, or planning community events. Regardless of titles, ensure there's a role dedicated to community building. An experienced professional understands that it takes a community to build a community! Engage your staff, board, and volunteers on social media. Encourage friends and connections to follow your business pages, and facilitate interactions such as likes, shares, and comments. You also will want to encourage them to come to events, invite a friend or two, and be good ambassadors to your mission.
In conclusion, foster an online environment where your organization collectively supports your digital efforts. Typically, the founder or executive director sets the tone for the entire organization. Even if you decide to hire a community builder, the founder or ED, needs to be a major driving force to building community. The best leaders lead with heart and let their passion and dedication bleed into the online networks, inspiring a following that stands by to support your organization when needed most.
