Using social media to raise money for non-profits

Oli Deeks – Camberley Youth for Christ

Did you know that 54% of donors prefer to donate online?[1] This means that individuals like to give to charities from the comfort of their sofa or even on the bus on their mobile. Individuals can give whilst shopping, donate via social media and send a text that takes their giving from their phone bill.

So how can you use this to your best advantage and increase funds for your non-profit? Oli Deeks, from Camberley Youth for Christ, has some helpful insights for us.

1.      Why bother using social media to raise money?

It’s simple really, that’s where people’s attention is. It’s highly likely that your supporters, volunteers and potential financial givers are on social media. Social media boasts having people’s attention, which is the most important commodity for any charity.

Brady Shearer, who is a podcaster, creator and entrepreneur often says “we are living through the biggest communication shift we’ve seen in the last 500 years.” The internet has changed and disrupted every industry. How we buy food (Tesco, Asda, etc. delivery), shop (Amazon, eBay, etc.) order taxis (uber), watch films (Netflix) and consume information (Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, etc.).

As a charity, you will need to learn to embrace this change to make sure you’re not left behind. Starting with social media is a great way to ride the digital revolution wave.

2.      How can you creatively use social media to raise money?

If you’re a registered charity, then you should definitely sign up to Facebooks donate function. It’s relatively easy to set-up and once done you can be very creative using the platform. From October 2018 to April 2019 we’ve managed to raise £1,500 all completely free of charge using Facebook donate.

A local Church was competing in a 5k race, raising money for Camberley Youth for Christ. I asked the runners to use their own FB accounts to set-up a fundraiser under the Camberley Youth for Christ social media page. We doubled the donations and made others aware of our work.

In April 2019 we were given a new classroom in a school we work in. I took to Facebook to raise funds to decorate. I created a simple fundraiser on Facebook and managed to raise £655 in two weeks.

I don’t believe the success of Facebook donations was down to just having it available. I believe it’s down to our social media strategy of building digital relationships.

Our simple strategy is aiming for people to KNOW us, to LIKE us and then TRUST us. Let’s break these down.

The best way to build to a digital relationship is to first of all show-up.

For someone to KNOW you, you need to regularly show up, which means consistently posting about once a day. Your posts will need to be varied using different forms to grab people’s attention and “stop the scroll”. I see many organisations just posting about coming to an event or asking people to give. Social media is meant to be social.

For someone to LIKE you, you’ll need to keep your content relevant and light-hearted. We try to use images of real, smiling people.

Finally, if people KNOW you, LIKE you, then you will increase the probability of building TRUST, which in turn, will increase success for your call to actions i.e. giving to a fundraiser, volunteering, coming to an event, etc.

KNOW, LIKE and TRUST.

3.      What are the pitfalls to be aware of when using social media to raise money?

If that’s all you do on social media, then people will think you’re only in it for the money. Your audience will start to ignore your content and develop something I call a ‘digital disregard’. It’s always good to keep your content varied with different aims i.e. make people laugh, teach about your charity, how-to posts, etc.

4.      What are the tips to increase the amount raised through social media?

Ask others to create fundraisers using their own social media account. It will increase organic reach with new accounts.

Make a video. Videos tend to do better (in regards to organic reach) on social media.

Drive traffic from all your social media platforms to the giving page you’ve set-up.

Don’t forget email! Email is still a brilliant tool for marketing. Although make sure people have consented before you email (GDPR and all that).

If you’re using Instagram add your online giving platform to your ‘link in bio’.

Ask people to share once they have donated. This is a great way to increase your organic reach on a post. This is best done on Twitter and Facebook.

If using Instagram don’t forget to use lots of hashtags as they will help increase your reach of the post.

Self-promote. This can be a scary thing to do but if you’ve spent the time and energy to organise a fundraising campaign, wouldn’t you want people to see it? A simple win is to self-promote with family and friends.

5.      How can you make your social media campaign stand out?

Using video for your campaign will make you stand out, but to make your video even better, add subtitles. Videos with subtitles tend to do better on social media.

I’ve said this before, but asking people to share your campaign on Facebook or Twitter will really help your campaign thrive. The Facebook algorithm loves shares on a post as it tells the algorithm, this is worth showing to lots of other people.

Finally, lead with the ‘why’ behind the campaign. Don’t guilt-trip people to donate. I love what Simon Simek says “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” I feel this applies to fundraising campaigns. Don’t get caught in the emergency mantra of ‘we need to raise money fast’ because we are struggling financially. Always lead with ‘why’ your charity exists.

For example…

We are doing this fundraiser because we [INSERT MISSION]. Could you join us and help make an impact?

6.      Any other comments?

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziegler.

Don’t let perfection stop you. Perfection was one of the biggest barriers I had in starting an online presence. This fear was the issue of starting. But with courage and bravery, we started and now starting to see the fruit.

As Nike famously say “Just do it.”

Start building digital friendships where you aim for people to KNOW you, LIKE you and in turn, TRUST you. This will help you fundraise using social media.

Bio:

Oli Deeks is the Centre Director for Camberley Youth for Christ, who are a Christian Youth Work charity whose mission is to bring the good news relevantly to young people. Oli is passionate about sport, social media, Jesus and his wife. You can find his charities social media accounts @camberley.yfc (Facebook, Instagram and YouTube)

[1] https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/12/13/important-fundraising-stats-from-2018/#.XT37HehKjIU quoting research from 2018 Global NGO Technology Report found at http://techreport.ngo/