10 Low-Cost Social Media Ideas for Nonprofits That Deliver High Value

Social media ideas for nonprofits work best and deliver the highest ROI when they leverage hashtags, video and the most popular social platforms.

As a non-profit, your goal is to raise as much money and find as many new donors as possible, while rewarding your current donors. Social networks like Facebook have indeed made it easier to reach the masses—75% of male internet users are on Facebook as well as 83% of female internet users, according to Pew Research Center. The social media ideas for nonprofits below offer plans for attracting, engaging, and satisfying donors in-person and online.

10 Social media ideas for nonprofits you can start using right away

1. Create an evergreen hashtag and use it often.

Successful social media ideas for nonprofits on Twitter often incorporate a hashtag. Consider DoSomething.org, an organization for social change, and their #DoSomething hashtag which has been used almost 500,000 times on Instagram alone, and averages about 150 Tweets per day.

2. Lean into an existing hashtag.

For example, #GivingTuesday is a popular one for non-profits. One good way to leverage it is to come up with a challenge and offer a reward. For example, if you raise $5,000 this Tuesday before 5 pm, your social media person will get a bucket of ice water poured on them at the end of the day, and you’ll live stream it.

3. Explore ways to use video.

According to a study by Newswhip, TED is the most successful nonprofit on social media. Not only do they earn the most inbound links, but they also have the largest following in social media, although the World Economic Forum has the most engagement. Video is the driving factor for success in both cases, in fact, about 10% of their posts are videos, and those videos receive 65-85% of the engagement. For Big Brothers Big Sisters, their very successful Start Something Web Series garnered attention across social media for featuring the stories of “bigs” and their “littles.”

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4. Create a social media wall.

One of the latest and greatest new ways to engage donors and attendees at nonprofit events, is by creating a social wall, where the social posts of people who use the hashtag, appear on a screen at the event. By using social media, the fundraiser gets publicity outside the walls of the event in a big way, and may encourage people to mark their calendars and attend the following year.

5. Place a “Donate Now” button on your Facebook page.

When thinking about social media ideas for nonprofits, consider the tools right in front of you. Facebook makes it easy to donate to a cause, so definitely take advantage of their tools for nonprofits.

6. Write search-optimized blog posts.

One good example is Cameron’s Crusaders, a non-profit who throws fundraisers for individual families struggling to make ends meet while their child is hospitalized. On their blog, they write search-optimized articles using keyword phrases like “charities that help with medical bills” and “charities for children.” By writing search-optimized content on your blog, you can promote it in social media, but also receive the benefit of targeted search traffic to your website.

7. Create a socially attractive event.

Have you ever seen a photo or video of an event on social media, and then set a reminder to attend it the next year? For example, consider the Empty Bowls events, hosted by community food banks across the country. For this event, local potters create small bowls for donors who attend, and local restaurants come and serve food, often soup and bowl-friendly foods. Each year, the event is well socialized not only through the food bank, but even more so through the attendees who tweet like crazy, and share photos and video of their bowls and copious amounts of local food on Instagram and Facebook.

Another example is the Color Run, the famous 5k where runners are doused in bright colors as they run and complete the race. While they’re for-profit, they do give proceeds to charities and encourage participants to raise money for charity. If it’s a photo op, it’ll be a successful fundraising event, thanks to social media.

8. Use social media ads.

It’s no secret that most social platforms are limiting your visibility. The beautiful thing about ads, though, is that you can do a lot of specific targeting, which can improve the ROI of your efforts if you are using the platforms to collect donations.

9. Use live streaming to raise money.

Think about the old-days of telethons on the TV and try to recreate this through live streaming. On Facebook, you can add a “donate” button to live feeds, and on Instagram, the great bonus of live-streaming is that when you do it, your fans get an alert that you’re “live” which can increase viewership. Facebook even has a guide to Fundraising with Facebook Live, but you must be a US-based 501(c)(3) charity with a verified page, and you need to apply first.

10. Choose the right social sites.

Currently, the best sites for fundraising efforts, and sharing your goals in social media, are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, in that order. If your charity is more business-focused, you may have more luck on Twitter, but when it comes to sharing photos and videos and building hype around fundraising events, Facebook is best not only because it has event and donations features built in, but because people are most engaged on that platform.

Visual content is a whopping 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other content, according to Hubspot, so the more photos and videos you can share, the better. And the more strategic you are with hashtags, the better!