Non-profits all over the world are doing amazing things for noble and important causes – but regardless of the cause, fundraising is always a tough pursuit.
However, social media has presented non-profits with a unique opportunity to seek out and connect with supporters, create awareness around campaigns, and of course – raise money.
Here are a few examples of not-for-profit organizations striving to make the world a better place, and using social media in creative and engaging ways to get there.
Non-Profits Frequently Share Engaging Content
Get the word out on important issues and drive people back to your website by frequently updating your blog with relevant information to create awareness about your organization and campaigns.
Operation Write Home is a non-profit organization that sends care packages to soldiers every week, including supplies to make cards with stamps, and letters of encouragement from people around the country. In their Stars and Stamps blog, they publish new content every day around different topics: featured cards from community members, OWHtv episodes, card tutorials, weekly card creation challenges, and stories of families who receive the handmade cards from soldiers.
Find Innovative Ways to Fundraise Through Social
Epic Change’s campaign, Tweetsgiving, took to Twitter to encourage people to share their gratitude, with the hashtag #tweetsgiving and a link to TweetsGiving.org. There you could view the tagged gratitude tweets, photos, videos, songs, and blog posts on the TweetsGiving site. You could also retweet to spread the word, donate to the cause, meet the TwitterKids of Tanzania (the kid’s tweet and blog), or select from the city/state drop-down menu to find and attend one of the local parties or events held across the world.
Epic Change raised over $11,000 in just 48 hours to help build a classroom in Tanzania. The campaign attracted 98% of new donors that had never donated to Epic Change before.
Use Imagery to Tell Your Charity’s Story
Share behind-the-scenes pictures of your organization, events, people that you’re helping, projects you’re working on, and your goals. Pinterest boards are a great way to organize and share these images. You can also pin donation opportunities with a recommended dollar amount and link your images back to your website to help drive traffic and donations.
Charity: water has over 5,000 followers on Pinterest from creating relevant and useful boards, with an inside, behind the scenes look at their organization. They share pictures of the people being helped by their work, fundraising ideas, and interactive videos.
Use Social Listening to Reach Out to Supporters
At the Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) in San Francisco, Beverly Robertson of March of Dimes discussed the importance of “stalking” your supporters. She explained that, by using a monitoring tool, you can see when your organization is mentioned – and reach out and connect with supporters who are already talking about you.
Encourage Your Supporters to Share Their Stories
March of Dimes “Share Your Story” encourages parents to become involved by sharing their own experiences about having a premature baby, while fostering a real connection to the organization, and providing real-life examples of the driving force behind the organization’s cause and fundraising efforts.
Rally the Troops
For Greenpeace’s campaign, the Great Whale Trail, they partnered with scientists to track whales using GPS while they migrated south through dangerous waters where the whales are hunted. They encouraged supporters to become involved by making personal fundraising pages in support of the cause. Over 5,000 personal fundraising pages were created raising over $120,000.
