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Charities: How to Use Social Media to Attract and Engage New Donors

After the year we’ve all had, charities cannot risk any decline in fundraising. It’s critical that charitable organisations not only retain their current donors, but that they are also actively trying to acquire new ones.

Donor Acquisition Online

Thankfully, the online world offers cost-efficient and effective strategies for reaching new donors and engaging them with your worthy cause. Over the course of the pandemic, we’ve seen charities truly embrace digital technology for fundraising and donations – Now is the time to continue that tenacity with firmer digital infrastructure for donor acquisition, engagement and retention.

Online Fundraising Strategy

Here are some online methods to contemplate using when strategising donor acquisition for your not-for-profit organisation:

  1. Google Analytics

    This is a vital tool when it comes to knowing just how many people are visiting your website. Are there any uncaptured leads lying hidden here? This information is a great source of potential when it comes to targeting and acquiring new donors.

  2. Social Media Advertising

    Obviously it’s important to share regular and consistent social posts on your social media platforms, to engage supporters and share your work with your audience. You can take this a step further and utilise inexpensive Facebook, Instagram and Twitter advertising which offers targeted adverts, as well as Google Ads. In this way you can use your platform to build a relationship with your supporters and potential donors, and drive traffic to your website based on the relationship you have built. Social media isn’t primarily a place where people go to seek out information on a particular cause or make a donation. However, it is a great place to share your mission and reach out to those who are likely to empathise with your cause. Just like we aim to make face-to-face connections and build relationships offline, social media can be a great tool to build these relationships and cultivate a connection before directing them to your website where they can make a donation.  

  3. Website Visitors

    Once you’ve successfully engaged supporters on your social pages, and successfully driven traffic forward to your website, it’s time to capture them so they not only become a donor but are also retained. Generally speaking, people won’t immediately sign up to regular donations or spend time straight away filling in your forms. Your website should include a way to engage donors with your organisation and cause. This could be a relevant petition, or a survey related to your mission or a product launch raising money for your cause. Also remember you should always have a ‘Donate Now’ button – It’s the most important and powerful call to action on your website.

  4. Collect The Data

    Once a potential donor has entered their data as a part of your petition or survey, or indeed the ‘Donate Now’ button, you have their details. Use them! Create an action plan of what to do next. Will you email them to say thank you for their valuable input – Whether it’s a signature supporting your cause or a monetary donation? You should have a strategy in place that keeps communication consistent and open with these people. Keep them engaged with your cause, show them what donations are helping you to achieve, you’re your charity fresh in their mind.

  5. Donor Conversion

    The ultimate aim of this strategy is to convert supporters into donors, and one-off donors into regular gift givers. The communication sent to a potential donor will be different to that sent to someone who has already given a gift. Each type of supporter needs to be engaged in a different way, as the outcome sought – although very similar – is slightly different. You need to group your potential donors and donors so that they can be targeted in the right ways.

  6. Don’t Give Up!

    There will always be those that don’t convert and become donors, or the type of regular donor you would like. Just because they didn’t convert that time and make a donation, doesn’t mean that they won’t. There could be a variety of reasons. Keep reaching out and seeking engagement with them by sending them your news updates and any particular appeals you are making.

  7. Digital Infrastructure

    Do you have the digital infrastructure on your website that makes giving easy? Your website needs to be able to take donations quickly and simply – And be mobile friendly. Donater’s suite of fundraising tools can help you with the digital infrastructure you need to be able to receive digital donations. From a ‘Donate Now’ call-to-action button on your website, to a personalised online donation page, Donater can be the driving force to convert supporters to donors. With mobile-friendly payment methods from Google Pay and Apple Pay, donors can pay quickly with just a couple of taps, making their donation easy and contactless.

Putting the Social in Social Networking

The pandemic has shown us that social media can actually be very social – We’ve relied on it for staying connected with friends, family and colleagues. The clue is in the name – Social networking. It allows you to engage supporters and build relationships in a relaxed, informal way and then use that as a means of directing people to your website where you can do the work to convert them to becoming a donor. Or, at least, capturing their contact details so you can continue the conversation away from social media, keep them engaged and up-to-date with your cause and carry on the work for conversion.

Keep inviting your followers to support your charity. Give them the opportunities to make a donation and make sure you have the digital infrastructure to support it.

How Can Donater Help?

For more information on how Donater can offer your charity a simple, cost effective way to introduce digital infrastructure to your fundraising strategy, get in touch with us today.  

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