How One Nonprofit Developed a Social Media Strategy That Raised $57,000 in 2 Weeks

Your organization may post to various social media platforms, but can you articulate your social media objectives and target audience? If not, it’s probably not time well spent. Yes, you’re posting, but there is no underlying plan. 

“If there’s not an objective behind it, if there’s not a purpose to it all, if there’s not something that is calling people back to your website, to your fundraising objectives, to attend an event, to engage in some particular way, then it’s time wasted,” Jennifer Rubin, director of client services at 360 Philanthropy Group, said. 

Rubin and Terry Pearl, founder and CEO at 360 Philanthropy Group, discussed social media strategy in their session, “Turning Posts Into Dollars: Leveraging Social Media as Fundraising Strategy” at AFP-NYC’s Fundraising Day in New York City on Friday. The duo also shared an anonymous nonprofit case study that relied on storytelling via social media and email to raise $57,000 in unrestricted funds in two weeks. Here’s a look at their recommended social media strategy.

1. Identify How to Connect With Donors 

The first step is to find something unique about your organization that you can use to connect with donors. As for the case study, the founder of the organization was about to celebrate her 50th birthday, so it seemed like a great opportunity to personify the organization’s leader.

“Let’s make this a really cool birthday campaign,” Rubin said. “We’re going to aim to raise $50,000. They were like, ‘You guys are nuts. No one’s raising $50,000.’”

2. Inspire Your Donors

The next move is to develop a narrative that not only articulates the mission but links to the specific campaign, which, in this case, could be why the founder created the nonprofit, what it accomplished under the founder’s leadership, and how to support the organization now. The team also created a new fund for unrestricted donations to fill in any funding gaps, as needed. It was named the Lift Up Village Fund since the organization served villages in Ethiopia, and it was affectionately called the LUV Fund for short. 

To keep campaign content flowing, create a content bank to help you tell your organization’s story. That should include quotes, photos and videos from different perspectives that will resonate with the various communities your organization serves. Also, utilize appropriate calls to action with hashtags and phrases, like “join us,” “support us,” “tag us,” “share,” “sign up” and “donate.” 

“Everything, again, is very intentional,” Pearl said. “A post is going to connect to the next day or to the next week, which will connect to the next call to action and hopefully close that loop with actually getting the [follower] to do that call to action. You want to be very specific and thoughtful with where you’re going and how to get there.”

Another way to get your followers’ attention is to, before an event, offer top-tier donors special access to an in-person behind-the-scenes tour or Instagram Live Q&A with an event performer or host. Directing people to provide their information outside of social media, like signing a petition or signing up for something exclusive, also allows you to further engage prospects outside of social media.

“You’re going to start small,” Pearl said of the amount of typical social media donations. “It’s unlikely that someone is going to come in through this channel and start giving you $5,000 gifts, but if they give you a $100 gift without you asking for it, you know that they are engaged.” 

3. Incorporate the Campaign Into Your Desired Channels

Prior to the case-study organization launching its social media efforts on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, it created dedicated landing pages and pre-launch, personalized emails to alert current donors of the campaign. Rubin recommended teasing about four weeks in advance of the campaign launch.

“It’s very anticlimactic when there’s a big campaign launch and then — zero dollars,” she said of the potential dollar amount on the campaign page without advance planning. “So, if you, again, work backwards and take a couple weeks before your official launch, connect with donors, find somebody that will do a match, [then] use that as leverage to encourage people to give and support online. So that way, when people see [the campaign] for the first time, you already have somewhere ideally between 30% to 50% of the money seeded.”

But also make sure you come across authentic and engaged online. And don’t forget to share progress with your followers. 

“Let your audience celebrate these milestone moments with you because it’ll make them feel really good, and they’ll want to see what happens next,” Rubin said. 

4. Involve Stakeholders

Provide key stakeholders, such as board members, volunteers, supporters, friends and community partners, with a short list of action items they can do to support your campaign, Rubin said. 

“Ask them to like this,” she said. “Ask them to share that. Ask them to repost from time to time. It’s a very easy lift and brings them closer to the work you’re doing.” 

When it comes to monetary support, many nonprofits struggle to get board members to participate, but setting clear, obtainable goals can help here, too. In the nonprofit case study, it wasn’t easy either but 360 Philanthropy Group expressed that how much they gave wasn’t important. It was only important that they gave something. 

“We pushed,” Rubin said. “It took a little bit of nudging, but we got 100% board participation, and we were able to say in our e-blast when we reached out to donors, ‘We already have 100% board participation in pursuit of this fund. Would you please join us?’”

5. Innovate With Technology

Technology can automate your tasks and even help make a donor more inclined to give to your organization. 

Initiating content creation for press releases, emails, social media posts and donation page copy with ChatGPT can be a huge timesaver. However, careful editing is necessary, especially as Rubin noted that artificial intelligence cannot distinguish what is and is not a reliable source. However. she has discovered a way to prevent it from filling in gaps with made-up details. 

“If you say, ‘do not hallucinate,’ it will only work with the information that you provide for it,” she said. “It will not fill in details that do not exist.”

Rubin also recommended testing different content types, checking analytics monthly and utilizing ad spend on social media.

“You can put as little as $5 toward a post and target very specific demographics — geographically, age-wise, special interests,” she said. “The more you spend, as with everything, the more results you’re going to get back and the more, I think, impact you'll see.”

6. Integrate the Campaign Into Your Annual Calendar

Don’t put so much effort into your campaign and move on to the next idea to raise funds for your organization. Determine how this campaign fits into your annual plan, and how you can amplify it again and again. Since the case-study organization tapped into “LUV,” it will promote this fund three times throughout the year — Valentine’s Day in February, the founder’s birthday in April and Ethiopia’s New Year in September.

“It’s spaced out now every three to four months,” Rubin said. “We have the opportunity to go on social, familiarize people with it. And this can become a stabilizing part of their campaign and their identity and help build some brand awareness.”

Brand awareness is key. This structured approach also allows a nonprofit to shine, which is not always easy when planning around a shared giving day, like Giving Tuesday. 

“If you just utilize GivingTuesday, then it’s harder to stand out amongst the noise,” Pearl said. “Also, if you do create your own giving day, you’re hitting them before GivingTuesday, and hopefully that will be a benefit to you.”