Social Media Fundraising: 6 Strategies That Actually Work

Social media has become a powerhouse of communication, bringing organizations closer to their supporters and enabling more ways to spread awareness of their causes. However, social media’s role in the success of a nonprofit or school group need not stop there. Fundraising on social media is a great strategy to integrate into any organization’s fundraising goals. Read on to learn about six proven tactics for successful social media fundraising.

6 Social Media Fundraising Strategies

Here are six ideas to spark your group’s social media fundraising strategy and raise more money online.

Create Engaging Social Posts

This one is a no-brainer. Getting your constituents to engage with you is key to social media success. Each time someone engages with your posts, your post receives a boost and is sent out again. On the other hand, posts that show no engagement are not republished.

Here are some ways to get supporters to engage with your social media posts:

• Polls and Contests: Whether it’s a poll to get your followers to contribute their thoughts, a contest, such as asking supporters to contribute artwork relating to your cause, or a question of the day to get supporters to share with your organization, any engagement is good engagement. These posts can finish with announcing the winners and a reminder to donate to the cause.
• Infographics and Photos: Whether the post is an informative infographic to share statistics relevant to your mission or a heartfelt photo of someone receiving help from your organization, visuals can be great ways to draw attention and remind your social media followers to donate to your cause.
• Facebook Live: Live video streaming is a fun, engaging way to connect with your constituents. It can provide a convenient way to brief donors on the progress of a specific program or campaign. Facebook Live videos go straight to the top of your constituents’ news feeds.

Retweet on Twitter or Re-Post Facebook or Instagram Posts

People like it when you acknowledge and re-post their content and are more likely to do the same with your content in return.

If someone is hosting a memorial tribute campaign, reach out to them to ask them if they can tell you why they participated in the social media fundraising campaign and if you can share their story on your feed. Another way to integrate your followers into your social media feed is to promote and search for hashtags specific to your cause. Retweet or re-post their posts while mentioning or tagging the original poster, then end your posts with a link to donate. Gear users towards fundraising on social media, but begin with a personal story or post to translate the importance to your supporters.

Make Your Social Media Fundraising Personal

While many nonprofit organizations use social media as a one-way means of communication, social media is about interaction with your supporters. Stand out among organizations by personalizing responses to your posts as a strategy for fundraising on social media. If a crowdfunding campaign is being promoted on social media and someone responds to the post, respond quickly and directly to what they are saying and end it with a link to start a crowdfunding campaign. If someone shares the story of how the cause impacted them, share your appreciation for how they’ve shared their personal stories and how your cause can support more success stories like theirs. Turning posts into a conversation is one way to build relationships with your supporters, which can also pique their interest in supporting your cause or getting involved with your organization.

Use Brand Ambassadors as the Face of Your Cause

Partnering with a brand ambassador or ambassadors is another powerful idea to implement with your social media fundraising strategy. Local celebrities, famous faces, and social media personalities come with ample social media followers, which is a great opportunity to build your following. When your brand ambassadors share why they support and volunteer with your organization, it serves as a reminder to encourage others to donate or volunteer with your organization. If your organization sells branded merchandise, simply posting a picture of your ambassador wearing one of your t-shirts and linking to your eCommerce store can bring in sales.

Strategize Signature Social Media Fundraising Campaigns

Some of the most successful fundraising events have been because of a signature social media fundraising campaign. Some examples you may recognize include the Movember Foundation, which asks supporters to grow a mustache or beard in November to raise awareness for men’s health issues, and the Ice Bucket Challenge, hosted by the ALS Foundation, to bring awareness to ALS. Both succeeded because they used a strong social media presence and nonprofit crowdfunding campaigns.

Here are some tips for creating a signature social media fundraising campaign:

• Coin a hashtag: During your posts, consistently use a hashtag specific to your cause or campaign. Coupling your hashtag with more popular hashtags, such as #charity, #donate, #dogood, #philanthropy, or others that are trending.
• Dedicate a month or day for awareness: Utilize a pun or a play on words with the date to make it easy to go viral. People like to share fun things.
• Create a social media challenge: Like the Ice Bucket Challenge, consider simple things that supporters can record themselves doing to promote awareness while also showing support by hosting a crowdfunding campaign for performing the challenge. Make sure the idea is safe and appropriate.
• Design a temporary profile picture: Many tragedies trigger a temporary profile picture on social media, but social media fundraising campaigns can do the same. For example, use a filter to add pet ears to your profile picture on Facebook to promote an animal adoption awareness month (with a banner at the bottom noting the hashtag of the social media fundraising campaign).

Dedicate an Active Marketing Team for Social Media Fundraising Campaigns

Implementing a strong social media fundraising strategy requires a dedicated marketing individual or team. The role includes consistently building relationships and interacting with your followers through the various social media channels where your organization has a presence. Here are some helpful tips for having an all-star marketing team:

• Plan a Social Media Calendar: Plan the posts that will go through each social media channel by the week or month so that there is consistent material for your followers.
• Take Advantage of World Holidays: Apart from well-known holidays, plenty of world holidays can be added to your calendar to spark interesting posts. For nonprofits, these include World Humanitarian Day, International Women’s Day, International Day of Charity, International Volunteer Day, and more. Research the holidays that best fit your cause’s social media fundraising campaign and prepare a post or campaign around them. Use a video marketing calendar to make executing your holiday campaigns easy.
• Use a Social Media Management Platform: Consider using a social media management platform like HootSuite or Sprout Social to schedule your posts. These platforms allow you to schedule your posts ahead of time (on all of the social media channels) to save time throughout the day and keep your team focused on engaging with your supporters.

With our social media fundraising strategy, converting your social media followers into donors will happen organically. While receiving donations right away would be great for any organization, utilizing social media for fundraising is a gradual process that requires time and patience. However, with enough consistency, having a strong social media following can bring great returns when your online presence focuses on strong engagement and growing brand awareness.

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