Social media can be an extremely effective way to reach new audiences for your nonprofit and secure more donations for your cause. But what about cultivating relationships with existing donors? Nonprofit outreach should balance donor acquisition with donor engagement, so how do you utilize social media for both efforts?

When used intentionally, social media can work well as an avenue for increasing online donor engagement. Follow these steps to target your social media strategy for stewarding relationships with donors:

1. Encourage donors to follow you on social media.
2. Create connections between your site and social profiles.
3. Use social media for quick updates and fun content.
4. Encourage plenty of interaction.
5. Create ways for donors to help further your mission via social media.
6. Track engagement and follow up.

Prioritizing existing donor relationships is important not only for securing donations for future digital fundraisers, but also for fostering ambassadors who are passionate about your organization and what you stand for. Social media is all about connection, so you should use it to actively connect with your supporters using these tips.

1. Encourage donors to follow you on social media.

It’s likely that your current followers are not all donors, and some of your current donors may not even know about your nonprofit’s social media accounts. The first step to boosting donor engagement with your social media is to ask donors directly to follow you. 

You can make this request in an email, or you can highlight social media accounts in your newsletter. You can even add a QR code to direct mail that leads to your organization’s account. Just like a multi-channel approach to fundraising is best, you should use all of your communication channels to cultivate relationships with donors. 

Incentivize engagement by hosting a giveaway or other fun contest just for new followers on your platform of choice. Make sure to mention the contest in your regular emails and newsletters so your entire mailing list will know about it.

2. Create connections between your site and social profiles.

Connecting all of your online assets is an important part of nonprofit marketing, and it will help your longtime donors easily access all of the information they need. 

Reinforce the connection between your organization and its social media presence by creating posts that direct followers back to your website. This will drive more traffic to your website and make donors feel more involved. Add links on your social media posts that lead back to pages like:

• Fundraising campaign pages
• New blog posts
• Announcements
• Photo galleries
• Volunteer opportunities
• Your annual report

Give your donors the opportunity to get more involved with your nonprofit in addition to email newsletters. Use links to lead them to places where they can take action or learn about important updates. 

3. Use social media for quick updates and fun content.

Create an overall strategy for all the ways you’ll use your social media accounts. The possibilities for engaging with donors on social media are endless! Use these ideas as a jumping-off point:

• Quick updates. Tweets and Instagram stories are best for short-form content, but you can post quick updates anywhere that suits your nonprofit’s audience. For example, post a picture of a campaign fundraising thermometer on your Instagram story when you reach a new milestone, or tweet out reminders on the day of an event.
• Fun challenges. Viral challenges have been gaining popularity as an online fundraising method that engages donors in a unique way and raises a lot of money. These can be run in a lot of creative ways. Just make sure to keep your donor base in mind and come up with a challenge that they would be excited to participate in.
• Urgent requests. Social media often reaches people faster than email, so it’s a good place to make any urgent requests for volunteers or calls for last minute donations at the end of a campaign. Ask your followers to share the post for an even wider reach.
• Photos and videos. Social media isn’t only for fundraising! You can engage with donors just by sharing photos from events or new marketing videos that illustrate your nonprofit’s mission. Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok (for younger supporters) are all platforms that are designed for sharing photos and videos.

The goal is to make sure that donors have a reason to stay engaged on social media by receiving content they don’t get on your website or in your newsletters.

4. Encourage plenty of interaction.

The ability to directly interact with followers is what stands out about social media as a communication platform, so make use of it! Use all your content to start conversations with your supporters, then provide opportunities to continue them. 

To encourage further interaction with your content, try these methods:

• Ask for comments, then reply directly to your followers in the comment section.
• Use Instagram story stickers to start polls or Q&As.
• Create mini contests to gather user-generated content, like photos that supporters took while volunteering.
• Ask for followers to tag you in their posts about your nonprofit, then share those posts on your main accounts.

Social media platforms provide you with plenty of tools to encourage engagement with your followers. Explore different platforms and types of posts to see which ones your donors respond to the most, then build those into your strategy. 

5. Create ways for donors to help further your mission via social media.

Actively use social media as an engagement outlet for your most dedicated supporters by launching a peer-to-peer fundraiser. Peer-to-peer campaigns empower donors to make a difference directly and allow them to share their love for your organization widely. 

In a peer-to-peer fundraiser, participants launch their own DIY-style campaign pages that they share online with friends and family. Then, each volunteer fundraiser collects donations on your nonprofit’s behalf. These campaigns turn your supporters into ambassadors and allow them to take the lead. Just be sure to provide structure and guidance for them so that they feel supported. 

Peer-to-peer fundraisers are a great way for you to engage with your donors and for them to engage with each other. Encourage friendly competition, create community, and raise funds—all using social media.

6. Track engagement and follow up.

Lastly, keep track of your engagement metrics and use them to inform your next steps. Donorly’s fundraising strategy guide emphasizes the importance of tracking KPIs, or key performance indicators, for each campaign. You can track both overall metrics that indicate the results of your entire social media strategy and individual metrics for specific donors. 

To track individual metrics, determine a way to record high social media engagement for individual donors in your CRM. This is invaluable information that you’ll want to know for future outreach and fundraising efforts. Then, you can pinpoint when donors are more engaged and follow up with them. For example, when you see a mid-level donor is highly engaged, you can personally thank them and ask them to consider upping their involvement!

About the Author

Sandra Davis

Founder and President Sandra Davis leads Donorly with 30 years of fundraising experience and leadership. Sandra has consulted on numerous capital campaigns, led strategic planning and feasibility study efforts, and managed board development and recruitment efforts in addition to overseeing planned giving, special events, and annual giving programs. Under her leadership, Donorly has grown to support the fundraising efforts of over 75 clients to date.