Social media platforms enable you to drive awareness to your cause(s) and they can play a key role in your organization’s fundraising efforts. For instance, the Amora family, detailed in Facebook’s latest Facebook Stories feature, set up their Maven’s Heart Fund Page and surpassed their goal of one million pesos for baby Maven’s heart surgery.  It’s a great story, and was helped along through the family’s social media efforts.

Let’s take a look at ways social media can assist with fundraising for your organization. And use these Tweet buttons to share the tips with others.

1. Tell Your StoryTweet This Line!

Through your organization’s YouTube channel, share a video that gives your audience some context to your fundraising efforts.  Don’t simply ask your community for their hard earned-money, show them who and what will benefit from their donations.  Looking to raise money for a Children’s Hospital (see below)? Let your community have a virtual look at your facility, and some of the people that stand to benefit from your efforts.

Don’t have time for a YouTube video yet? Create your first Vine! Vine has the ability to add geo-location data to your posts so if you’re on location, Vine could be used to draw in people from your local area.

2. Recruit Your Brand InfluencersTweet This Line!

Touch base with your organization’s social media influencers and get them on board.  If you’ve cultivated good relationships with them, ask them to get the word out about your brand’s fundraising initiative. Smart brands make certain to involve those socially well-connected folks that are the most likely to reach – and hopefully influence – their intended audiences. Platforms aren’t necessarily fundraising engines, it’s the people using them at are.

3. Add Your Call to ActionTweet This Line!

Like most campaigns, fundraising usually has specific goals in mind, as well as set time frames. Your call to action is a specific, defined, and measurable action, such as making a donation or sharing your fundraising page on Facebook. Use active language (Click, Share, Donate Now) to get people to take action right away.

Once you’ve created your call to action, make it as easy as you can for people to donate. Ask for only the essentials (name, address, email, payment details) as part of your call.  The easier it is for people to take action, the better.

4. Brand Your InitiativeTweet This Line!

Now it’s time to brand your campaign. Take a look at the #BellLetsTalk campaign from Canadian communications giant Bell last week. They used a hashtag to help raise money to improve mental health initiatives throughout the country. The company pledged to donate five cents for every Tweet, Facebook share, and text message sent on February 12. In the end, the company will donate over $4.8 million dollars for Canadian mental health programs.  And speaking of influencers, the hashtag and campaign both got a boost from Twitter’s top influencer, Canadian pop star, Justin Bieber.

 

5. Thank Your Partners, Volunteers, and DonorsTweet This Line!

Social media also offers a quick way to give public thanks to all those helping to promote your fundraising/charitable efforts.  It only takes a few seconds to recognize those volunteers and donors helping to make your brand’s initiative a success. For instance, Charity Water recently thanked another brand that helped out with their cause.

 

 

Has your brand incorporated social media into its fundraising efforts? Tell us about it in the comments.   Free Ebook: Four Steps to Integrating Social Media Into Successful Campaigns