If your nonprofit has a social media presence (and we know not all do), are you using any of the social platforms to fundraise? If yes, how are you doing so? If no, what’s stopping you?

In response to a call for future chat topics, community member Jennifer Charney suggested that we chat about using social media to fundraise. Though the #NPMC chat focus is typically on communications, this fundraising topic is very relevant (and sometimes, scary) to our community.

To investigate further, I went back out to the #NPMC community via Twitter and email to ask for additional questions and insights. The response was fantastic and we have much to discuss in our October chat – taking place on Halloween!

Nonprofit communicators’ perspectives on using social media to fundraise

Some nonprofit communicators are concerned about how fundraising can appropriately fit into the social media messaging mix:

  • “How do you integrate your social media messages with your other fundraising communication (ex. direct mail)?”
  • “How do you deal with donor fatigue, and balance fundraising with your other messaging/content?”

Some communicators see social media as a stewardship tool:

  • “Always looking for new original ideas to use social media to steward donors.”
  • “I’d want to look at social media as 1-to-1 donor engagement tool”
  • “Communicating impact of donations via social media. Examples: ‘your donations at work’ stories, etc”

Some have run campaigns and want to compare notes with others:

  • “What platforms have worked for you? Razoo? Causes? Blackbaud? How did your campaign go? Did you raise what you expected? Pros and cons? Will you rely more on fundraising through social?”
  • “Curious about how people have been effective with Facebook Cause campaigns, and/or Facebook ads.”

Some communicators report their nonprofits are not yet on social media at all:

  • “My challenge is trying to convince my organization of the value of social media, esp when engaging youth, newcomers to community. It’s actually not a part of our strategy in our org right now. We do a lot of traditional stuff like direct mail. So… how do you pitch/get buy in for a project like that, esp when your org is so old school it can’t see past direct mail.”

And some nonprofit communicators aren’t sure of the social-media-for-fundraising fit:

  • “Social media is effective for relationships, stories, not necessarily the ask.”
  • “Topic is scary & good for me. Jumping into story and e-friendship space with $ ask feels awkward.”

Finding the communications fit

In her article for the Association of Fundraising Professionals, How Does Your Organization Define “Success” in Social Media Fundraising?, Claire Kerr highlights a number of points worth considering in our discussion:

  • “Recent social fundraising research at Artez Interactive found that 14 percent of online donations in client campaigns were referred directly from Facebook!”
  • “There’s a significant return on investment when using social media to recruit supporters that you eventually convert to fundraisers.”
  • “Social platforms help you effectively segment and reach different audiences online.”

We have many points to address and questions to answer together. Let’s see just how many we can address in October’s chat!

Join the conversation

Selecting a scary topic is fitting as our October #NPMC chat falls on Halloween! Mark your calendars for Thursday, October 31 at 1:00 p.m. E.T. and join the chat. Maybe together we can ease your fears and help you move toward including fundraising in your social media messaging.

Click to tweet >> Next #NPMC Chat is on using social media to fundraise: Join us on Thursday, October 31 1:00 p.m. ET

 

Marlene Oliveira

Marlene Oliveira

Communications advisor and copywriter at moflow
Marlene Oliveira is communications consultant and copywriter at moflow and founder of the Nonprofit MarCommunity blog. Having worked in the nonprofit sector since 1999, Marlene specializes in working with capacity building and grant-making organizations, advising on communications strategy, and writing stories and other content.
Marlene Oliveira

@mo_flow

Marlene Oliveira