The Social Media Charity Toolbox: 10 Tools to Attract Donors and Increase Engagement Online

To do the job right, you need the right tools. What’s in your social media charity toolbox?

You are undoubtedly familiar with the ice bucket challenge, even though it’s been a few years since celebrities like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Katy Perry dumped buckets of ice water on their heads. This viral sensation wasn’t limited to stars, though. Before long, the campaign had videos of wedding parties to video artists to kids taking on the challenge.

One family made a silent movie, and in drought-stricken California, the challenge took on a new form as the dirt bucket challenge. This wasn’t just some stunt that the crazy kids were doing. The ice bucket challenge was cast as a fundraiser for the ALS Association.

Some people argue, however, that you can’t expect to do real social media charity fundraising. Charity organizations like the ALS Association beg to differ. Their ice bucket challenge campaign raised more than $100 million in just 30 days, and helped fund research that led to breakthroughs in the treatment of ALS, according to The Guardian.

The ice bucket challenge shows that you can clearly attract donors and engage an audience through social media. Charity organization just need the right tools.

Are you looking for new ways to leverage social media at your fundraisers? Create an event hashtag and increase the number of people adopting it, by using Everwall to moderate and display all the posts on the wall of your event. Start building your social wall today!

Your social media charity toolbox: What you need to do the job

The right social media tools can make your job easier, but they can also improve your visibility. Let’s start with the basics and move into more specific tools.

If you aren’t sure which social media channel to post on, Sprout Social has a few stats that might help you make that decision. Instagram is growing fast, with 72% of teens and 35% of U.S. adults using the platform. Meanwhile, Instagram profiles saw an average “follower growth rate of 17-33% during 2018.”

Twitter recently dumped 70 million fake profiles, so the authenticity of the site is potentially increasing. It’s also an excellent platform for conversations and customer service. And if that’s not enough, customers spend 20-40% more with businesses they can engage on social media. While that’s geared toward for-profit companies, it makes sense to apply the same logic to nonprofits.

Certainly, you can use Facebook and other social media platforms, but unless you’re willing to pay for ads on Facebook, you might have a limited chance of being seen. That said, Facebook can be useful for specific, targeted ads.

Once you have your platform, it’s time to use the tools to make your work effective.

1. Buffer

Buffer is an all-in-one social media management tool. You can schedule posts, analyze your performance, and manage your accounts all from one dashboard. They also offer a browser extension that lets you add content to your queue while you’re on the go. They do provide a limited, free plan, but the paid plans are very affordable, too.

2. CoSchedule

CoSchedule offers a variety of marketing solutions from project management to automating your social media posting schedule. Where CoSchedule stands out, however, is their integration into your WordPress blog. You can schedule social posts right from your blog, and CoSchedule automatically pulls in links and images.

3. Mention

Mention is, among other things, a tool for tracking mentions of your nonprofit across social media. Charities can reply to social media mentions right from the mobile or desktop dashboard. They offer a free trial, too.

4. Everwall

Yes, we’re adding a little self-promotion in here, but using a social wall at your next event can help spread the word about your good deeds. And we offer a discount to nonprofit organizations.

5. MeetEdgar

One of MeetEdgar’s big selling points is that it will automatically repost for you. And if you have a blog, it will write social media posts for you by pulling quote-worthy text from your article. Another very similar option is SocialBee.

6. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is an all-purpose social media monitoring, scheduling tool, and analytics tool. They offer a Canva integration and also have a built-in image editor; they allow you to work with multiple team members; and work with just about every social network out there. It’s perfect for doing your social media charity posts.

7. Canva

Speaking of Canva, this design tool makes it easy to create visual social media posts and infographics, as well as hard copy products like cards, letterhead, and brochures.

8. TweetDeck

TweetDeck, as you may imagine, is designed for Twitter (and owned by Twitter now). You can schedule posts, read and reply to messages, follow trends, and check notifications all from one webpage. TweetDeck is especially helpful if you have more than one account, as you can monitor several at the same time. Oh, and it’s free!

9. Your audience

No, we aren’t saying your audience is a bunch of tools. They are, however, giving you a perfect tool for your next post on social media. Charity organizations get tagged pretty regularly. When you repost or retweet their pictures and comments, you accomplish three things: you engage your supporters, you reach a wider audience, and you provide social proof of your appeal to people who may not be donors yet, but could be. Use a tool like Everwall to pull in and amplify those posts that your organization gets tagged in.

10. Your smartphone

Don’t overlook the power of your phone. Sure, you can use it to get on Twitter or Instagram or other social networks, but it offers you another ability. Use your phone to take pictures and short videos that you can post to social media. This doesn’t need to be a major production, or even anything scripted (unless you want to). This is a behind-the-scenes look at how your charity functions on a daily basis. It’s a picture of the volunteer taking a donation call or a video of the fundraising coordinator learning some new dance moves.

Do you have any other suggestions for tools in your social media charity toolbox?

If so, let us know on Twitter.  We’re @everwall.