As the end of the year draws near, many nonprofits are turning their focus to their year-end fundraising strategy. The Holidays are a crucial time for fundraisers, as giving levels tend to rise as donors are more likely to contribute. If you're a nonprofit organization looking at your year-end campaign planning, consider making social media one of your top priorities.
Research shows that people tend to donate more when exposed to fundraising appeals on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. That's why we've put together our top ten tips for using social media for fundraising during this critical time of year.
In this article, we are going to go through my top 10 tips for creating social media success for your year-end fundraising.
1. Get a Social Media Plan
Before you start tweeting and posting away, take a step back and create a dedicated social media strategy for your year-end fundraising campaign. Your year-end social media strategy should naturally line up with your other year-end campaigns like direct mail, Giving Tuesday, email campaigns, corporate events and the like.
Some critical questions to ask when creating your social media plan include:
What are your social media goals
Who is your target audience on social media
What will resonate with this audience
Who will be doing the posting & engaging
What is the posting schedule
What is the call to action
Answering these questions will help you focus your efforts and ensure that your campaign is successful.
2. Get the Social Media Fundraising Tools
The social media landscape has changed dramatically in the past few years, with platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and even YouTube all offering various fundraising tools. Tools like donate buttons and peer-to-peer campaigns make it easy for anyone to raise money for a cause that is important to them.
See our YouTube video on Facebook Fundraising for more details!
3. Get a Campaign Landing Page
Creating a compelling landing page with an easy-to-use donation form is essential for any nonprofit organization that wants to raise funds online. By providing potential donors with a simple and streamlined donation process, you make it easier for them to contribute to your cause.
4. Get the Right Messaging & Graphics
Create content that stands out and resonates with your target audience by ensuring it is educational, inspirational, or entertaining. Create algorithm-friendly content by using keywords in your descriptions and using relevant hashtags.
Bonus: Year-end is a great time to do a social media audit. Review your past posts and see what resonated with your audience. You can also dive into your insights to see what hashtags are working and update your hashtag bank.
5. Get into Social Media Features
Most social media platforms have valuable features that can help nonprofits get donations and engage with followers. One of the most popular is the use of stories, which allow you to link directly to your landing page. Another powerful feature is live streaming, enabling you to share real-time updates with your audience and encourage them to donate in the moment.
One of the most popular features on social media today is the Facebook Fundraiser. This feature allows users to raise funds for charitable organizations directly through their Facebook accounts. With just a few clicks, anyone can create an online fundraiser that will help to support some of the world's most important causes.
6. Get Some Influencers
Influencer marketing is a powerful tool that can help you reach a wider audience and encourage people to support your cause. Identify influencers who align with your mission and values and see if they're willing to promote your campaign on their social media channels.
7. Get Consistent and get Engaging
When it comes to social media fundraising, consistency is vital. If you aren't consistent with your messaging, posting and engagement, you won't achieve the desired results. At the most basic level, this means posting regularly on social media and engaging with others in your community. More importantly, regular engagement helps to keep your audience interested in what you have to offer. And since online audiences tend to be highly fickle, it's crucial that they are wowed by something new every time they log in.
8. Get an Donation Ad Budget
Social media donation ads are effective because they allow nonprofits to reach out to potential donors with tailored messaging that appeals directly to their interests and passions. These ads often contain videos or images that tell compelling stories about the cause - stories that demonstrate how even the most minor contributions can make a big difference in people's lives.
9. Get Grateful
Be sure always to send a personal thank you message after someone donates. There are countless ways charities can express gratitude to those who support them financially. No matter how a nonprofit chooses to show appreciation for its supporters, one thing is clear: nothing says thank you quite like action.
10. Get Geeky
Finally, measure your campaign's success so you can adjust your strategy as needed in future years. Track metrics like reach, engagement, website traffic, conversion rates, and total amount raised to get an idea of what's working well and what could be improved upon.
There's no question that social media has become a powerful tool for nonprofits and charitable organizations. So why wait? Start crafting your year-end social media campaigns today.
Prefer to watch, check out our YouTube video on Social Media Fundraising
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