Enhance Your Nonprofit’s Online Presence with Social Media
Social media platforms have transformed how nonprofits interact with their donors, but many are still unsure about their relationships with social media giants. Even if your nonprofit has profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, it might still be unclear how to turn social media followers into supporters. However, with online fundraisers, engagement opportunities, and high internet traffic, social media has more to offer nonprofits than you might first assume.
Social media provides nonprofits with a variety of opportunities to expand their online fundraising strategy, but these external platforms shouldn’t act as a replacement for your nonprofit’s website. Instead, social media can be used to strengthen your nonprofit’s brand by reaching out to new supporters, raising funds, and solidifying your identity.
Your nonprofit’s brand identity shouldn’t be localized to just your homepage. This article will explore a few ways to rethink your nonprofit’s social media presence and attract supporters by raising brand recognition. Make the most of your social media profiles by:
Understanding Your Nonprofit’s Relationship with Social Media
Using Social Media as an Extension of Your Website
Connecting with Supporters Across Multiple Channels
Linking to Social Media on Your Website
Social media has hard rules your nonprofit will need to follow and less-defined standards for success to earn a high level of engagement. Before optimizing your online presence, you’ll need an intimate understanding of not just your nonprofit’s brand identity but also what social media can (and can’t) offer your nonprofit.
Understanding Your Nonprofit’s Relationship with Social Media
Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms around, and its relationship with nonprofits has been in flux in recent years. While social media, and Facebook in particular, have been popular for nonprofits looking to raise funds online, Facebook has only recently become more nonprofit-friendly.
In 2017, Facebook decided to assume all processing fees for donations made to nonprofits on their website. Most donation platforms have processing fees between 4-5%, making Facebook one of the only donation websites where 100% of donations go straight to nonprofits. This means Facebook has the potential to be the most cost-effective fundraising platform your nonprofit has access to.
Other platforms such as Twitter and Instagram can also be used to raise funds through peer-to-peer campaigns, crowdfunded capital campaign projects, and other fundraisers. However, these platforms are not as supportive of nonprofits.
While you theoretically can collect donations through Twitter, the process for doing so is rarely used and may confuse donors. Instagram has an easier-to-access donation button, but both platforms lack the visibility that makes Facebook fundraisers so lucrative. After all, when everyone’s donations are public (like on Facebook) there is an increased incentive to give to be part of the “in-crowd.”
Of course, Facebook does have some downsides. Despite its potential to generate donations, Facebook:
Limits the ability to collect donor information. Facebook’s transaction reports are full of superfluous information such as transaction ID numbers that can be tedious to wade through. Additional information is either shallow or nonexistent as donors can opt out of sharing emails.
Prevents sending thank you messages to every donor. Donations will be anonymous unless your nonprofit signs up to receive payments directly through Facebook. Even then, deciphering which John Smith donated to your nonprofit is easier said than done.
Has no easy method for tracking fundraisers. Facebook lets its users independently set up fundraisers for nonprofits. Unfortunately, finding these fundraisers to help support them requires keeping an eye on Facebook alerts and getting creative with your transaction spreadsheet to identify your top fundraisers.
While your nonprofit should weigh these pros and cons, Facebook will likely always be worth the investment. With minimal startup costs and approximately 70% of U.S. adults using the platform, figuring out how to maximize Facebook’s benefits and work around its drawbacks will be time well spent.
Using Social Media as an Extension of Your Website
You should have a clear understanding of your nonprofit’s brand before you begin to connect with supporters on social media. Think about your website’s homepage and how it reflects your identity. Key elements like your logo, color scheme, and organizational presentation should be just as present on social media as they are on your website.
However, social media platforms slightly limit your control over your brand identity. Users can talk about your nonprofit however they like, funders don’t receive guidelines before launching their peer-to-peer campaigns, and no one needs permission to act on your nonprofit’s behalf.
Dictating how social media users talk about your nonprofit isn’t possible, but there are steps you can take to get ahead of the conversation on platforms like Facebook:
Choose a high-quality, eye-catching cover photo for your nonprofit’s profile page. You can’t fully customize the design of your social media page, but you should still treat it as a representation of your nonprofit—because it is. Decorate your profile with the same quality of photos you would use on your organization’s website.
Create a short, straightforward version of your mission statement for your page description. Your mission statement needs to be compact and compelling to attract attention on social media. Be as clear as you can about what your organization does, while keeping it concise and to the point. If you need assistance with your digital messaging, consider reaching out to a fundraising consultant for an outside opinion.
Pre-populate user-created fundraisers with relevant, brand-conscious content. Anyone can fundraise for you, and they can choose whatever image, title, and description they want to represent your nonprofit. Facebook allows your nonprofit the option to pre-populate these fields, so take advantage of it to steer your supporters in the right direction.
This advice relies on your nonprofit already having a strong and consistent website design and branding scheme. Look to nonprofit websites of organizations that are already doing well on social media for inspiration. Anyone can use social media, but displaying a certain level of online savviness through a captivating profile will inspire more confidence in your organization.
Additionally, as you design your profiles, think about how you want to engage with page visitors. Are you trying to convert donors? Advertise an upcoming event? Recruit volunteers? These goals are all compatible with social media, but they benefit from different strategies. For example, if you’re looking to recruit volunteers, it would make sense to spotlight current volunteers by giving them a shoutout or making a post about the work they’ve done for your nonprofit.
Connecting with Supporters Across Multiple Channels
Social media platforms encourage peer-to-peer fundraising as your supporters look to their personal connections for donations. This also makes social media, especially Facebook, a prime location for recruiting volunteers. However, you can’t operate on social media sites, alone.
As you start investing more attention and strategy in social media, don’t neglect your website. Your homepage is the face of your nonprofit, even if it might not get as much traffic as social media. Keep your website functional, updated, and consistent so visitors who discovered your nonprofit through your social media profiles will be impressed with what they find when they seek to learn more about your organization.
CharityEngine’s guide to multichannel fundraising lists relevancy, navigability, and accessibility as the three key elements of a successful website. Here’s a more in-depth look at each:
Relevancy. Your nonprofit’s website needs to reflect the campaign you’re attracting support for on social media. Create a newsfeed or dedicated campaign pages that your social media supporters can use to find more information.
Navigability. Make sure your website design isn’t an obstacle once people click through to a landing page. Have your campaign and information pages clearly displayed. Don’t forget to link to them on your profiles, either!
Accessibility. Your supporters should be able to view your website whether they’re on desktop, mobile, or using assistive technology such as screen readers. Make sure you’re compliant with accessibility guidelines.
After connecting with donors, don’t forget to thank them. Unfortunately, many social media platforms make saying thanks tricky, especially Facebook. For example, if you discover a user-created fundraiser, visiting the pages of everyone who donated to send a thank you will look like spammy behavior to Facebook and might get your profile removed.
However, you can figure out who started the fundraiser and ask them to thank donors on your behalf. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s far better than radio silence in the face of generosity.
Linking to Social Media on Your Website
Although this tip sounds straightforward, many nonprofits neglect to link their social media accounts to their website. Use social media to attract traffic to your website, but don’t forget to also use your website to attract attention to your social media page. Each follower you gain is another person who might interact with your posts and your website, bringing their friends’ attention to them.
As with your major informational pages, your social media links should be obvious and easy to find. Don’t bury your social media in your “About” page, either. While you may be cautious about navigating people off of your website, directing them to your social media accounts should also direct them to highly-relevant news about your nonprofit and ongoing fundraisers, assuming you’re using social media profiles to their fullest extent.
Also, don’t forget to regularly check your links for functionality every time you or one of your social media platforms make a major website update. Cornershop Creative has a checklist of items to go over when performing website maintenance:
Menus and links. Practice navigating to all of your most important pages. Broken links look bad to search engines as well, as they signal that your website isn’t being maintained.
Donation forms. Make sure the form displays correctly on both desktop and mobile. Fill in test information to ensure forms are submittable. Ensure the data is also flowing to your CRM, helping you to collect information on donors and potential prospects.
Videos and interactive media. Videos, animations, and images are the usual suspects for broken content. Check on them regularly, and if you’re using a third-party hosting website like YouTube, keep an eye on your video to make sure it doesn’t get taken down without your knowledge.
You should focus your attention on creating the best content you can for your website. Link your content and perform regular maintenance to ensure your supporters will always see your content without running into any 404 error pages. Take a holistic approach to maintaining your website to ensure you make the most of cross-traffic between your website and social media accounts.
Your website is the face of your nonprofit. Your social media accounts shouldn’t be competing with your site but rather are a way to show it off. While social media does limit your control over your brand image, it also gives your nonprofit the opportunity to raise funds in a socially motivated environment with zero processing fees.
However, before you start pouring all your time and energy into your social media pages, don’t forget that your profiles work best when they align with the identity you’ve already established on your organization’s website. Follow best practices for web design, branding, and user experience on your website, then carry them over to your social media efforts.
Author: Ira Horowitz
With 15 years’ experience, Ira is an expert in nonprofit online communications and online fundraising. His work has resulted in increased funds and resounding supporter engagement for hundreds of organizations.
Ira oversees the Cornershop Creative project management team and works with clients to provide our clients with the best possible final product. He also manages all of our strategic engagements and helps guide nonprofits to determine their long-term strategic goals for online communications.
