When you Google the American Cancer Society (ACS), the second organic listing is for the nonprofit’s Facebook page. When you click on the first listing— American Cancer’s website— and navigate to opportunities to get involved, Facebook fundraisers are placed front-and-center. In fact, these fundraisers are listed as an opportunity to “make the most impact.”

ACS has a well-established Facebook fundraising foundation and because of that, is very successful when engaging supporters through the platform. Can your organization say the same?

We would guess that you probably maintain Facebook profiles, post regularly to market upcoming opportunities, and even have supporters conducting fundraisers on your behalf. But, there’s still something missing from your strategy, and it’s holding you back from the success ACS and other organizations have experienced.

At GoodUnited, we work with nonprofit organizations to raise their relationships with supporters on social media. We’ve researched and reported on Facebook fundraising for nonprofits, and discovered just what’s missing from traditional social media guidance. We’re going to cover this through the following points:

• Examining Traditional Nonprofit Social Media Best Practices
• Here’s What’s Missing: Connecting with Supporters Where They Are
• How To Raise Your Relationships Directly on Facebook
• Why Invest in Social Fundraising Solutions

Before we explore what’s missing from your nonprofit’s social strategy, let’s discuss the best practices that have been commonplace in recent years.

Examining Traditional Nonprofit Social Media Best Practices

Until very recently, the pervading advice surrounding how to use social media for nonprofits went something like this:

1. Post regularly and create valuable content to increase your social media followings.
2. Incorporate social media into your overall multichannel marketing strategy, using the platforms to share your online donation, volunteer, and advocacy opportunities.
3. Make it as easy as possible for users to click on a link in a post, leave your social media page and donate/register to volunteer/complete some other action through your website.

Lather, rinse, repeat. The overarching narrative was that you want to build an audience on social media and then send them elsewhere to take action. That’s no longer the case.

In this GoodUnited guide to Facebook birthday fundraisers, we discuss a narrative that quickly emerged as the platform’s fundraising tools did— the idea that organizations shouldn’t invest time, energy, and resources into Facebook fundraising because it’s a shallow, ineffective way for supporters to give. In our guide, we discuss how that couldn’t be farther from the truth, and in fact, we’ve found that Facebook fundraisers are the first step toward building impactful relationships with the next generation of social supporters.

Here’s What’s Missing: Connecting with Supporters Where They Are

Connecting with supporters where they are— directly in-channel on Facebook— is what’s missing to elevate your nonprofit’s social strategy. Recognizing supporters and donors, having one-on-one communications, and creating a community for your supporters to connect can now all happen directly on the platform.

With tools built directly into Facebook’s platform, you can put a concentrated focus on each individual supporter. You can understand these supporters more comprehensively, create experiences that inspire them to support your organization time and time again, and grow your relationships through regular one-on-one communications.

This is the key to turning a one-off peer-to-peer fundraiser on Facebook into a lifelong supporter of your organization. Rather than a short-term expansion of your audience, gathering a few additional supporters that are willing to conduct a Facebook fundraiser in your next P2P campaign, you can retain these supporters for the long haul.

Let’s explore what this will look like in action.

How To Raise Your Relationships Directly on Facebook

There are two tools built directly into Facebook’s platform that you can use to grow strong relationships with each of your nonprofit’s social supporters. These tools don’t require any additional investments or complicated back-end processes—simply the willingness and efforts of your team.

When building out your digital strategy, look for features like these that allow you to reach more supporters, spread awareness, or improve the quality of your social media content with little to no additional costs. While some tools such as detailed analytics may require registering with a social media site or paying for a premium membership, these tools from Facebook are free for you to use now:

Facebook Groups

Did you know that Facebook groups are now favored over individual posts in the platform’s algorithm? This means that if you make a post through your nonprofit’s main Facebook page, and then make the same post in a group containing your supporters, these individuals are more likely to see the group post than the profile post.

Beyond the enhanced visibility, groups offer the benefit of an in-channel community for your supporters to connect. For example, here are a few unique ways you can use groups to unite your social community:

• Hosting fundraising events. You can create a closed Facebook group, charge a small donation fee for admission, and livestream an engaging virtual fundraising event from within the group. Further, with Facebook Live, you can make live appeals and receive donations throughout the event.
• Creating communities for supporters with similar interests. Whether ambassadors, advocates, volunteers, or even those who enjoy conducting Facebook fundraisers on your behalf, create groups for these supporters to connect and bond over their shared interests. In these groups, tailor the information you share to be interesting to each particular audience— such as information about upcoming P2P events in a group for users who are interested in Facebook fundraisers.
• Uniting participants in peer-to-peer challenges. Let’s say you’re hosting a virtual walk-a-thon, which is an engaging virtual peer-to-peer fundraising idea. Invite participants to connect within a Facebook group, donate to one another’s fundraisers, and share training tips to meet their walking goals.

Once you’ve created communities for your social fundraisers, the fun begins. Share tips to help users reach their fundraising goals, present discussion topics, provide updates on the work of your organization, and even share educational resources. But remember— it should be a two-way conversation. Encourage users to add their own unique voices by posting in your groups as well.

Facebook Messenger

Just like you can use Messenger to connect with your Facebook friends, you can do the same with your nonprofit’s supporters on the platform.

Similarly to sending a thank-you letter to donors, you should also thank each user that creates a fundraiser on your behalf on Facebook. The easiest way to do this is to comment on the fundraisers that users create and post a personalized, genuine thank-you note.

With that note, invite users to connect with your organization via Messenger. You can then tailor this one-on-one conversational messaging to each individual supporter, building unique relationships with your social supporters. For example, you can:

• Share updates about your organization. You can share upcoming fundraising events, volunteer opportunities, and any new developments within your organization. This information can be tailored to be interesting to the user you’re connecting with.
• Answer questions and provide tips. If a user is encountering a fundraising challenge, provide tips to overcome those challenges. This will result in fewer unsuccessful fundraisers and set users up for success.
• Connect during big milestones. If a user has a birthday coming up, you can send them well-wishes and encourage them to start a fundraiser aligning with the effort. Users will notice you went above-and-beyond to acknowledge their special day and feel encouraged to give back.
• Learn more about your supporters. You can share surveys and ask one-off questions. From contact information to longer answers, such as why they support your mission and how they want to engage going forward, you can learn a good amount about your supporters.

With Messenger, you don’t just connect with users when they’re raising funds for your organization— you can stay in touch year-round and show supporters that you appreciate them for their contributions.

Wrapping Up: Why Invest in Social Fundraising Solutions?

When organizations stumbled across Double the Donation’s matching gift statistics and realized that anywhere from $4-7 billion in matching gifts goes unclaimed each year, did these organizations accept that their matches would never be realized?

No, they invested in technology and processes that would help them secure the unclaimed funds.

Similarly, if your organization doesn’t have an impactful Facebook fundraising foundation comparable to that of the American Cancer Society, you don’t just have to accept that your social efforts are subpar. You can optimize your Facebook efforts by investing in social fundraising solutions.

We’ve presented a variety of ways that you can engage with supporters directly on Facebook to improve your efforts. However, not every organization can dedicate the time and resources internally to connect with each and every Facebook supporter— especially if you have hundreds or thousands of supporters on the platform.

There are now turnkey social fundraising solutions— such as those offered by GoodUnited— that will empower your team to grow these relationships at scale. This provides your team with the people, processes, and technology needed to foster relationships with the next generation of supporters, including thank-you notes sent to every user that starts a fundraiser and custom automated messaging sequences via Messenger.

With these tips, and perhaps managed services for Facebook fundraising, you can take your social media efforts to the next level. Good luck!

About the Author:

Nick Black is the Founder and CEO of GoodUnited, a venture backed Software as a Service (SaaS) startup that helps nonprofits like Wounded Warrior Project, American Cancer Society, World Wildlife Fund create 1:1 relationships with their donors through the combination of data science and human judgement delivered in conversational messaging platforms. Nick’s work with GoodUnited resulted in being named The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s 2017 Distinguished Young Alumnus. 

Nick has been an innovator and leader at the intersection of business and social impact for over ten years. The concept for GoodUnited came through Nick’s work co-founding and leading Stop Soldier Suicide, a 501c3 that grew from startup to national leader in reducing veteran suicide to the national average in ten years. Stop Soldier Suicide’s growth and impact resulted in Nick being selected as a Presidential Leadership Scholar and a Leadership North Carolina Fellow. 

Nick co-founded Stop Soldier Suicide stemming from his experiences leading Paratroopers as a Ranger qualified Army Officer with the 173rd Airborne during 27 months deployed to combat zones in Afghanistan. During Nick’s six years of service he was awarded two Bronze Stars, an Army Commendation Medal for Valor and as a Field Artillery Officer, was repeatedly ranked 1st among 50 peer Officers in a premier Infantry Battalion.

Nick received a BA from The Johns Hopkins University. At Johns Hopkins, Nick was a four-year member of the Varsity football team, the first two-time President of Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity and a four-year scholarship winner of the Army ROTC program. Nick received an MBA from Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina. At Kenan-Flagler, Nick was awarded the Rollie Tillman Award for Leadership, selected as a Kenan Institute Leadership Fellow, was President of the Veterans Club and awarded the 2018 Distinguished Young Alumnus

Nick lives in Charleston South Carolina with his wife Amanda. Amanda and Nick have a five-year-old daughter and four-year-old son.

Volunteers are extremely valuable partners for nonprofit organizations. They donate their time and expertise to help drive your mission forward, making them essential to your mission. When fully engaged, volunteers can become excellent advocates for your organization, spreading word to their friends, family, colleagues, and the rest of their personal networks.

Because volunteers are so essential, it’s vital that their experiences with your organization are positive. After all, their experience volunteering with your nonprofit influences not only the retention of that individual, but whether or not they promote your fundraising campaigns on social media, recruit their friends to help out at your next virtual event, or become donors in the future.

If you don’t communicate effectively with your volunteers throughout their journeys—from recruitment to engagement to follow up—then you won’t be able to maximize volunteer satisfaction and retention. To improve your nonprofit’s volunteer program, we’ve put together the following these best practices for communicating with your volunteers:

1. Create an easy online experience.
2. Reach out before, during, and after events.
3. Recognize volunteers for their support.
4. Make the most of your time apart.
5. Make sure they know how to get more involved.

Effective volunteer management can be tricky, but if you follow these best practices, we’re confident you’ll be able to establish long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with a loyal group of volunteers who are passionate about your cause. Let’s get started.

1. Create an easy online experience

The volunteer experience often begins when someone encounters your nonprofit’s website, making it one of the first places your nonprofit should look when improving your communication strategy. To convert prospective volunteers, prioritize clarity and straightforward navigation so visitors can find your volunteer information quickly. 

To create a well-designed, intuitive website, your website should contain the following elements:

• Logical navigation. Put yourself in a prospective volunteer’s shoes when they first click on your homepage. What steps do they need to take to find your volunteer information? Is any key information buried in a submenu or under an only semi-related heading? Walk through the process of signing up to volunteer and ask yourself these questions to help create a more logical navigation. 
• Visually appealing layout. Modern websites have eye-catching, sleek designs that strategically draw the eye to key information. Even organizations that don’t have web design experience can create eye-catching designs with help from modern website builders and templates.
• Clear mission statement. Your prospective volunteers will want to gather as much information about your nonprofit as possible before signing up to work with you. Ensure that your mission statement is easy to find and clearly states what your nonprofit strives to accomplish. 
• Clear calls to action. Consider the placement of calls to action (CTAs) for volunteers. If the “Get Involved” button is tucked away on a rarely-visited page on your site, you might be losing valuable potential supporters. Instead, your CTAs should be prominent, recurring, and smartly placed near emotional appeals and attention-grabbing photos.

Once your volunteer has clicked on a CTA, they’ll be taken to your registration page. You’ll likely create your registration form using your volunteer management software solution, so when choosing which one to invest in, consider ease of use of the registration forms and whether or not the registration data will integrate with your other tools. 

The registration form itself should be as concise as possible; excessively detailed or complicated forms will discourage supporters from completing the form, potentially leading to page abandonment. Stick to essential information for your required fields, and make less-vital questions (like interests and past volunteer experience) optional. Alternatively, follow up with volunteers later to collect that information after they’ve been approved. Remember, you’ll always be able to learn more about your volunteers as they become involved with your organization.

2. Reach out before, during, and after events

Whether a volunteer signed up to help with a virtual fundraising event, a three-day restoration project, or a training session, the event is not the only thing on their mind. Your volunteers will need and appreciate clear communication prior to coming in. 

Volunteer management software with automated communication features can handle many routine messages for you. Some automated communications you should implement are:

• Signup confirmations. Immediately after registration, volunteers should receive an automated email or text confirming the date, time, and location of the event they signed up for. Additionally, include other helpful information, like specific directions for accessing the event and parking information for in-person events.
• Reminders leading up to the event or training. Sending reminder texts or emails to your volunteers communicates that you care about their service, demonstrates understanding about their busy schedules, and lowers no-show rates.
• Post-event follow-up survey. After a volunteer has generously donated their time and effort to your organization, show them that you value their thoughts and opinions by sending a follow-up survey about their experience. This will not only encourage engagement but will also help you better optimize your volunteer program.

Additionally, encourage volunteers to reach out to each other to help create a community around your volunteer program. Mobilize’s guide to volunteer engagement specifically references how open communication with both your organization and other volunteers can improve your program: 

“Creating a successful volunteer engagement strategy requires giving your volunteers the space to connect with your organization and with each other… send text reminders about volunteer shifts, automate email reminders for your events to reduce no-shows, and embrace communication channels that create community.”

3. Recognize your volunteers for their support

Expressing your gratitude for your volunteers’ hard work is an essential step for building a future relationship with them. As generous as your volunteers are for donating their time, it’s only natural that they’ll appreciate some recognition, and your nonprofit should celebrate everything they helped you accomplish. 

Beginning with a thank-you email, your volunteer appreciation efforts should be customized to fit your organization and the experience your volunteers had. Here are a few appreciation methods that allow for nonprofits to put their own special twist on them:

• Special events like dinners, shows, and movie nights
• Perks like raffles and awards (or even just coffee and doughnuts at a morning event!)
• Thank-you gifts like t-shirts, keychains, and mugs
• Thank-you letters that feel genuine and personal

Engaging, meaningful volunteer recognition not only makes it more likely that each volunteer will return to help your nonprofit, but also that they may become advocates for your organization. Positive word-of-mouth recommendations can help your volunteer recruiting efforts for your next campaign, as many of your trusted volunteers may encourage their friends and family to work alongside them.

4. Make the most of your time apart

It can be easy to fall into the habit of only contacting your volunteers when you need them to come in and work on something. While you should certainly share news about your next initiative or campaign, be sure to vary your communication to make them feel like a real part of your organization. 

Consider creating a dedicated email stream for your volunteers. In addition to requests for support, include messages that keep them in the loop about your nonprofit’s operations, such as: 

• Recent accomplishments. Your volunteers support your nonprofit because they believe in your mission. Let them know what progress you’ve made to further your cause since they last volunteered. 
• The long-term impact of a given project. If a volunteer helped out with a fundraiser or program initiative, let them know what became of it, especially if there was a major accomplishment.
• Internal strategic updates. If your nonprofit is rolling out new strategies or changing up any internal processes related to your volunteer program, let your volunteers know so they’ll be up-to-date the next time they help out.

You can also create a dedicated volunteer newsletter to share news from your organization, provide information about upcoming volunteer opportunities, and offer other ways for your volunteers to get engaged with your nonprofit. Ideally, the newsletter would serve part of a broader marketing campaign that drives engagement to your website, blog, and social media. 

5. Make sure they know how to get more involved

Because you have a specific mission, you will likely need volunteers to come in and perform the same types of jobs repeatedly. However, if you provide your volunteers very little variation in their opportunities, they may feel unfulfilled and seek opportunities at other organizations. You can avoid this problem by providing your volunteers with a variety of ways to get involved. 

Offering additional engagement opportunities empowers your volunteers, builds their investment, and helps them stay engaged long-term. For example, here are a few ways you can make your volunteer program more valuable to volunteers:

• Create skill-learning opportunities. There might be opportunities at your nonprofit to help your volunteers gain skills while helping out at your organization. These can be both hard and soft skills, such as teaching sustainable gardening techniques or better communication skills. 
• Encourage volunteers to network with one another. Volunteering can be a social experience, and getting to know and work with others can become a major highlight of your program. Find opportunities where multiple volunteers can work together and get to know each other while helping your nonprofit.
• Ask volunteers for feedback. If you aren’t sure what your volunteers would like to see from your volunteer program, ask them. While you may not be able to implement every suggestion you get, simply asking them may help some of your volunteers feel heard.
• Ask to apply for a volunteer grant. For volunteers who enjoy your program and have worked with you for a significant amount of time, consider asking them to apply for a volunteer grant. Crowd101’s guide to volunteer grants explains that many volunteers have no idea if they’re eligible for one through their employer. Help them look up their company and fill out any necessary forms to complete their grant application, earning your nonprofit a bit of extra revenue and increasing their impact on your work. 

Additionally, be sure to show your appreciation every step of the way. If a volunteer fills out a survey or applies for a volunteer grant, thank them! Whether a volunteer has responsibilities that are vital to your program’s success or is working on something with lower stakes, let them know that it matters and you appreciate their effort. 

Volunteers provide vital services to nonprofits, from planting trees to running events and delivering meals. Don’t miss out on any volunteer support due to lack of communication. Instead, follow these best practices to reach, engage, and retain as many volunteers as possible. From signup confirmations to volunteer newsletters and additional engagement, it’s important to communicate well with your volunteers at every step of their supporter journey.

Marketing is still a bad word in a lot of nonprofit circles. It’s easy to see why. 

Unfortunately, the whole field of marketing, especially for businesses, is stained with bad example after bad example. For those of us of a certain age, it can be summed up in a series of very popular 1980s Isuzu car advertisement series where actor David Leisure blatantly told over-the-top lies about the benefits of the product. Everyone felt that they met a “Joe Isuzu” at some time in their lives. He checked all of the stereotype “marketing man” boxes that still linger, reinforced by much more sophisticated “Mad Man” characters who would do anything to sell a product.

Added to the negative image, the concept of good marketing remains unknown to most people. And let’s face it, most people came to the nonprofit sector to do good work through their mission—not put precious time and money into slick advertising campaigns. After all, shouldn’t just doing a great job be enough for anyone to see?

Unfortunately, no. 

But that’s okay. You’d be surprised at how many things you never considered are actually forms of marketing, and how, when done right, they can really boost your income and visibility.

It starts with keeping one thing in mind: everything is marketing. Take a look at these examples:

• Marketing is whether your receptionist smiles at everyone coming in the door, and sounds cheerful answering every call.
• Marketing is whether you have fresh paint on your walls and clean furniture for your clients.
• Marketing is being transparent with your financials, so you build trust with your donors, clients, staff, and volunteers.
• Marketing is building pride in your staff so that they treat every client like they’re special.

These examples of solid, baseline marketing actions aren’t expensive. They show that every part of your organization has a hand in marketing, whether it’s in their title or not. It changes the role of a Marketing Director to a coordinator of the entire organization’s look, feel and image—and not just one who creates the website or places advertisements in the local newspaper. 

Perhaps the biggest mistake anyone makes when considering marketing in a nonprofit context is to first focus on the tools of marketing, rather than on the purpose and message. Consider that you can have an award-winning website, but if you’re focusing it on people who will never use or support your services, then it’s no good. 

So, before jumping in with training your nonprofit team to be exceptional marketing professionals, be sure to ask yourself these questions:

What are your goals? 

Before you get started, however, you need to know why you are marketing. Are you looking to take on new constituents who will be served by your organization? Or are you seeking to secure generous donations from individuals who support your mission and want to help fund your programming.

It’s critical to avoid the Cheshire Cat, “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there,” problem. (Which, by the way, can be very expensive in marketing). Answering the following questions can help as you craft the rest of your plan. 

Who do you need to speak to?

This goes right back to your mission. Who you need to reach will make a major impact on what you will say (your message), and how you will say it (the tools and channels you will use).

Do you need more money (of course)? Where does your money come from? Donors? Government? Paying clients? Insurance companies? Are you facing a particular issue, like a zoning fight, where you need community and government support?

Are you getting the right clients for your mission? Are you focused on a specific geographic area, or a larger demographic? It should give you pause, for example, if you’re an HIV/AIDS clinic that targets a young Latino market, and you get more baby-boomers than anyone else. 

Just remember, good marketing starts at home. Perhaps the biggest, most overlooked audience for your marketing are the people who live and work with it daily: your employees and volunteers. Missing them is a major blunder. These are exactly the people who can validate everything you say, and carry your message far and wide—if they hear and see a message tailored specifically to them.

What do you want to say to them? 

What specific information do they need, and what emotions do you want them to feel? This is a good place to remind yourself that good marketing is not manipulative, and it is definitely not counterfactual. But you can tell people what’s important in ways that resonate, like stories backed with solid facts.

So how do you get this information? Interview previous constituents for stories. Collect and analyze data. Take some good pictures. It might take a bit of time, but it’ll be worth it when you see the dynamic impact that your carefully crafted messaging has on its intended audience.

What do you want them to do?

In marketing-ese, it’s called a call-to-action. It’s the action or next step you want the consumer of your message to take. Do you want them to show up for services? Volunteer? Work for you? Vote? Give? Always market with an action in mind, and don’t be afraid to ask for that action, directly. 

What tools do you want to use?

Of course, you’ll think of the traditional strategies, like print or online advertising, social media, email, direct mail, and much more. But what about the less obvious, subtle marketing means, such as consistent email signature lines, new blinds and updated bathroom fixtures? 

Blinds? Bathroom fixtures? Yes, think of the inexpensive ways you update your home. When you do, doesn’t that make you feel better about where you are? You’ve marketed the comfort and safety of your home—to yourself! 

It’s the same thing with your nonprofit’s marketing. Let’s say potential clients are an important group to your nonprofit. They come in and find mismatched or outdated handles on all the bathroom sinks and blinds with missing slats in a grimy conference room. When pointed out, you think “we’re being thrifty and focused on the important things.” They’re thinking, “if they don’t have enough to keep their facilities in order, do they have enough to give me quality service?”  

And that leads to the biggest lesson of them all: Always look at marketing from the point-of-view of the people you want to speak to. 

We can all think of times when we said something innocently that ended up offending someone. It happens, and you are never going to be perfect. It’s not that you need to tip-toe around everything and water down your message—not at all! But when you want support for your mission, you need to know your audience and speak to their concerns with empathy, understanding, and strength. Basically, keep in mind what’s in it for them when they support your cause with their presence, money, votes or whatever else you are asking them for. 

How can you train your team to be good marketers?

Now that you have an idea of what marketing is and how it can improve your overall operations, here are some powerful training resources that can give you ideas on how you can be marketing aware, and marketing effective, affordably:

1. Marketing for Nonprofits: Get an overview of what makes effective marketing with the video, Marketing for Nonprofits. This free online webinar gives you 10 steps that every nonprofit staff member, board member, and volunteer needs to know about marketing—so you can get more money, and clients, for your important mission.
2. CX University: An essential, but largely forgotten group when it comes to nonprofit marketing are your clients! Clients are who you serve, yes, but their experience has the power to bring you more clients or keep others away!
3. Your Daily Dose of Nonprofit Newsletter: Think of it as a “drip marketing” course to your nonprofit brain. You’ll find content on communications, management, email, SEO, copywriting, marketing, video, storytelling, design, HR, events, social media, data security, public speaking, and more. 
4. Smart Marketing for Small Nonprofits: How about one of the most popular podcasts on the web for nonprofit marketing: the Smart Marketing for Small Nonprofits Podcast? Each week nonprofit marketing expert Cindy May gives you marketing tips, tools, resources, and ideas that help you generate greater awareness and fundraising support for your cause. Each episode is designed to help you take immediate action on the most important marketing strategies that will move your mission forward. 
5. Mission-Based Marketing: Let’s not forget books! This book from Peter Brinckerhoff is in its third edition, and deservedly so. It’s a great handbook on how to get your program off to the right start through strategic, mission-based marketing tactics.

Most of marketing isn’t crafting clever advertisements, designing impressive billboards, or even sending fundraising letters. It’s deciding what you want to accomplish, who you need to talk to, and what you want to say. Then, beginning with the small, barely noticed, and relatively inexpensive things. Start there, train your team effectively, and grow significantly!

This was a guest post contributed by Matt Hugg of Nonprofit.Courses.

Matt Hugg is an author and instructor in nonprofit management in the US and abroad. He is president and founder of Nonprofit.Courses, an on-demand, eLearning educational resource for nonprofit leaders, staff, board members, and volunteers, with thousands of courses in nearly every aspect of nonprofit work.