About the Center

Dated: Mar 12, 2012 12:00 AM

Jeff Stanger, who teaches “Using Social Media in Fundraising” at The Fund Raising School, tells us he hears one question more than any other from nonprofits: “Why don’t our social media results match our expectations?”

Those expectations usually involve increasing giving or the number of donors.

About 45 percent of nonprofits now use social media to solicit gifts, and nearly 65 percent use the Internet, according to a recent survey by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative. The 2010 Next Generation of American Giving report by three nonprofit consulting firms found, however, that many established donors still prefer traditional forms of solicitation; the most popular is a peer-to-peer request.

What appears to be a dichotomy is actually an opportunity. Peer-to-peer solicitations are successful because they’re built on relationships. So is social media.

Stanger believes nonprofits are doing the basics of social media well. For many, he says, it’s now time to step back and develop a strategy that directly ties their social media outreach to their already-established goals.

“First, you have to define what ‘success’ means for your organization,” Stanger, who is director of development for the Salvation Army in Indianapolis, says. “Simply counting the number of people who ‘like’ your Facebook page or follow you on Twitter doesn’t give you a true picture of their impact.”

Nonprofits need what Stanger calls “Megaphones”–people who will tell others about them.

“Fifty Megaphones are far more valuable to your organization than 5,000 ‘likes’ from people who never visit your website or otherwise engage with you,” he says.

The key to meaningful engagement is to remember that social media, unlike other forms of fundraising, is social and frequent.

“You have to be conversational and entertaining, and your message has to be compelling,” Stanger says. “You can’t simply post about events or your own news. You have to invite people to share their comments and their own stories, photos and videos about their interaction with your cause, and you have to respond to them.”

Your organization doesn’t have to be large to make effective use of social media. The 2011 Nonprofit Social Networking Benchmark Report released by NTEN, Common Knowledge and Blackbaud identified 27 “master social fundraisers”–nonprofits raising more than $100,000 on Facebook last year. A full 30% of those organizations had annual budgets of under $5 million.

Nonprofits of every size can do things such as publicly thank their supporters via social media. Stanger’s organization posts about what its corporate sponsors are doing not just when they make a gift, but any time the sponsor does something that benefits the community–whether it helps his organization directly or not.

The secret to success is consistency over time. Organizations that post to Facebook and Twitter every day over a number a years, with posts that are truly engaging, see the most return on their time investment.

If you’ve been wondering how to create a plan for social media outreach that supports your organization’s strategic objectives, consider taking The Fund Raising School’s “Using Social Media in Fundraising” class.

You’ll “like” the results.

Register for Using Social Media in Fundraising

Patrick M. Rooney, Ph.D.
Executive Director
The Center on Philanthropy
at Indiana University
Email: rooney@iupui.edu
Phone: 317-278-8917

A list of prior activity reports can be found here.

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