Seven tips on leveraging social media for fundraising campaigns

Social media giant Facebook has just announced that charities have now raised a total of £1.6bn through the platform, with £803m raised through Facebook birthday fundraising. And according the 2019 CAF giving report, one in seven people who donate using a website or app do so through social media, such as Facebook’s ‘donate’ button.

There isn’t always a strong connection between charities’ social media efforts and their fundraising, but the stats we just cited show that social media can be a powerful tool for those that get it right.

Whether or not supporters give directly through a charity’s social media channels, these platforms represent a cheap or even free opportunity for charities to build valuable relationships, raise awareness, get people involved in their cause and build an engaged community of fans.

So how do you make sure you’re getting the most out of social media for your charity’s fundraising campaign?

1. Create a campaign plan

As with any fundraising campaign, it’s important to make a clear plan and timeline with your team so you can keep all the moving parts organised. Here are some steps to think about:

1. Create a title for your campaign.
2. Create a hashtag to use across your social platforms.
3. Decide how long the campaign will run, and which aspects will happen when.
4. Draft a content plan, deciding what will be posted and on which platforms (You might want to use a project management system like Trello or Asana, which charities can get as a donated product on the Charity Digital Exchange).
5. Design a unique landing page for the campaign.
6. Set up a plan to track benchmarks along the way.
7. Decide which team member will be responsible for each aspect of the campaign.
8. Consider using a social media management tool like HubSpot or Hootsuite to schedule posts in advance.

2. Decide which social platforms are the most relevant

Before launching your fundraising campaign, it’s important to assess which platforms will be best for your target audience. It’s no good designing a strategy based around Instagram, for instance, when it turns out your most engaged audience is not there.

Use analytics tools on each platform to decide where to focus your efforts, and research into the audience types for each. Facebook may have a billion users, but you will be competing with many other charities and brands, so it’s a good idea to think beyond the biggest platforms if you want to find the people who are truly relevant to your cause.

You may want to explore niche social media platforms with more targeted audiences based around specific interest groups.  

3. Reach out to influencers

Sometimes, especially as a smaller organisation, it can be difficult to get the word out about your fundraising campaign. This is where social media influencers can help. Social media influencers are people with a large following on social media who can use their influence to get more people engaged with your cause.

Identify the people who are most active in the community or industry that you’re trying to target, and get in contact. For example, baby charity Tommy’s reached out to parents in Facebook groups who were active in conversations about baby swimming lessons, as part of their Splashathon campaign. It helped to facilitate conversations in an organic way and spread the word.