Hootsuite Inbox is a great example — not only does it pull all of your DMs and comments into one place, but you can also assign each message to other teammates or volunteers. These barriers and disruptions to visibility, access, privacy, and safety impact people’s online experiences—and have offline consequences. Such issues make it difficult for nonprofit communicators to ensure that digital campaigns and other content created on these platforms are truly inclusive, accessible, and safe. Creating a social media strategy for a nonprofit organization is actually no different than creating one for a business. And we’ve made that process super easy with our social media strategy template for nonprofits.
Social media offers an easy way for nonprofits to team up with ambassadors, collaborators, influencers or even other nonprofits to spread the word about their cause. Learn more about pulling off the perfect social media collaboration. Whether you’re communicating with potential donors, eager volunteers, or the very people or communities that your organization is trying to help, being responsive to messages is vital.
- For example, Digital Defense Fund provides digital security and privacy training to abortion-access organizations, clinics, and workers and develops software solutions designed to protect the privacy of clients and volunteers.
- It’s hard to replicate the success of a fundraiser if you can’t see where and when engagement was popping off.
- Nowadays, the world’s most prestigious media outlets, who once would have relied
solely on “expert sources” drawn from a pre-approved pool of contacts, are quoting bloggers and tweeters on a daily basis. - A good rule of thumb is the 80/20 split—80% of posts should provide interesting or educational content for your readers, while the final 20% can ask for donations or promote events.
- Follow these steps and you’ll be on your way to nonprofit social media strategy success.
Whether you’re posting about your organization’s work or events, or sharing interesting information related to your field, there are plenty of topics to post about. Use your policy to narrow your focus to fit with your core values or organizational goals. By finding your niche and creating or sharing mission-related content, you’re more likely to draw people in and entice them to return, and more likely to find the right audience for your nonprofit. For some nonprofits, a policy should spell out what staff can and cannot do on different social media channels by creating strategically defined roles governed by hard-and-fast rules. For others, a policy is a vision statement that guides staff, but empowers them to make decisions for themselves.
A Values-Centered Future for Social Media
Similarly, your social media policy is your opportunity to guide staff toward a better fit you’re your organization’s brand and values presence on social media. In addition to dealing with the inequitable application of content-moderation policies, women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ users have faced organized right-wing campaigns to have them removed from the platforms. Until a 2020 overhaul of its algorithms, Meta’s content policies for Facebook and Instagram made no distinction between hate content targeting marginalized groups and comments criticizing racist White people. A 2017 study conducted by Amnesty International showed that Black women are 84 percent more likely than White women to be mentioned in abusive tweets.
Many of those people have their own social media presences on Twitter or Facebook or blogs. The goal was to embrace the nature of volunteerism and empower people rather than restricting them. The organization could not guide what its volunteers said online, but it could ask them to think about what the organization would do and make suggestions.
Start by identifying your team, and make sure all the right stakeholder groups are represented. Ask and answer the questions identified here to help get the conversation started, but don’t hesitate to ask other questions specific to your organization’s work nonprofit social media policy and goals. Your policy should ultimately fit your own use of social media, and your own needs. Start by examining your existing policies for relevant information. When can you use photos of children or names of clients, and do you need their permission?
Nonprofit organizations use social media to raise awareness about their cause, raise funds, recruit donors and volunteers, build community around their mission, and communicate important information to many people quickly. Nonprofit organizations often don’t have the resources for one dedicated social media person. If you’re sharing the load of social media management as a team, it’s a good idea to create a social media policy to make sure the expectations are clear for anyone who is tweeting on the organization’s behalf.
Top Nonprofit Social Media Examples
Time-limited content, like Instagram and Facebook stories and Snapchat snaps, is very popular. A short video or photo storytelling series is quickly digestible, with the added benefit of implying urgency—it’s going away soon, so you’d better watch it now. Consider posting content that either entertains, informs, or inspires and then make sure to include a powerful call to action. Dog rescue Furbae, for instance, has an audience that skews towards millennials and women, so Instagram is a great fit for spreading the word about new dogs and fundraising campaigns. It’s exciting and engaging to watch the magic happen — live, unfiltered, uncut! As social platforms improve their keyword search capabilities, our opportunity to discover new accounts increases.
But the truth is, social media is still one of the best ways to connect with your audience and grow your base. You have your content strategy dialed, but does it work on TikTok? Fundraising on social media can be a strategic way to connect with supporters and bring in donations. Bring all of your social media fundraising ideas to life with these tried-and-true tactics. Now that you know how to get set up and are abreast of some of the major trends, let’s get inspired with a few stellar examples of nonprofits that excel at social media. Your nonprofit story will change form from email to direct mail to social media but remain the same in essence.
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If you’re looking to get the word out to as wide of a group as possible, social media is here to help. They’re there to learn about the world, to be informed, or to be entertained. Smart organizations recognize that people are going to talk about them in any case, and that the best they can do is try to manage the effect. On the other hand, nonprofits are fast becoming as concerned as businesses by the creeping loss of control over their “brand” and message.
Inclusive digital strategy and digital equity are important to me personally. As an “extremely online” nonprofit communications professional, I’ve experienced the power that social media holds for spotlighting inequality and connecting people with the communities they need to thrive. But as a Black woman speaking out about racial justice online, I’ve also experienced online harassment and abuse, and as someone with a visual impairment, I’ve experienced the barriers created by inaccessible social media platforms. Nonprofit communications and tech professionals must decide whether to stay with legacy social media platforms, leave for emerging platforms, or attempt to balance both.
Realistically, anyone with Internet access is empowered to say pretty much anything (within the loose bounds of international libel law), and more and more people are finding their voice in social media with every day that passes. By following a few best practices and utilizing some creative volunteer engagement strategies, you can use social media to reach new heights. Some users are migrating to new platforms, like Post, or to decentralized, open-source services, like Mastodon.
With limited budgets and small teams, nonprofit organizations already fight an uphill battle to raise awareness, engage with their supporters and generate donations. And when you consider the changing algorithms and oversaturation of social platforms, those goals can seem even further out of reach. The best social media platform for your nonprofit might be different from another nonprofit. You’ll achieve the most success by choosing a platform that reaches your target audience—whether you want to communicate with donors, volunteers, or the very community your organization is helping. If you’re operating multiple social media accounts, it can be helpful for nonprofits to have a tool that helps you monitor incoming messages across all social channels in one place.
Keep your desired outcomes in mind and you’ll create a social media strategy that is sure to convert your audience to supporters. Bad posts can include typographical errors, factual errors, false representations, bad jokes, controversial opinions, or any other comment made in poor taste. Take steps to ensure everyone that works in or with your organization understands that anything they post on behalf of or about your nonprofit could cause problems that reflect badly on your organization.
The Nonprofit Social Media Policy Workbook
Make these channels work together to tell a cohesive story and engage your supporters. For example, you could aim to gain 100 new members over three months from a specific campaign. Or maybe your goal is to gain enough donations in a single, month-long campaign to complete some badly needed office renovations. By taking advantage of these in-app payment features, you’re making it easier for donors to support your cause.
Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. For example, in 2022, actor Elliot Page’s deadname was allowed to trend on Twitter for 45 minutes https://simple-accounting.org/ before being removed. Negative, rude, and unsolicited feedback comes with having a social media presence. Your team needs to decide how you handle negative comments online, and where you draw the line between constructive and unproductive feedback.
