Donors Are Vetting You on LinkedIn. Here’s How to Win Them Over.

A new six-figure gift came to our organization last year from someone who had never attended a gala, received an appeal, or signed up for our newsletter. The donor had found us online. They searched by their giving interests, found our website, and then continued their research on LinkedIn. Our company page and our leadership presence helped seal the deal.

Too often, nonprofits treat LinkedIn as merely a place for job seeking without understanding its value in donor cultivation. According to data from Hootsuite, more than half of LinkedIn users in the United States are in high-income brackets, and many of them are senior-level decision makers.

Why does LinkedIn matter for growing your donor pipeline? Because your future funders are already there — reading articles from thought leaders to gauge the depth of their expertise, sharing insights with colleagues, and searching for opportunities to develop their own partnerships. Your leaders have an excellent opportunity to make a strong first impression and position your organization well.

More than any other social-media platform, LinkedIn offers a crucial opportunity to build your reputation and engage with prospects right where they are. Follow these four essential steps to make LinkedIn a powerful tool for cultivating donor relationships.

Integrate LinkedIn into your donor-outreach strategy.

At Making Waves Education Foundation, we include LinkedIn growth metrics in our yearly organizational goals. We received free advertising credits through a LinkedIn Ad Grant last year, which we used to maintain a consistent content plan for nearly daily posts and weekly ad campaigns. We schedule monthly meetings with our CEO to focus on developing their thought leadership on LinkedIn, and hold quarterly workshops for the organization to get more comfortable using the platform.

Last fiscal year, our LinkedIn company page saw more than 5 million impressions and nearly 60,000 engagements or actions. These aren’t just vanity metrics, they have direct and measurable outcomes: more followers, more website visits, deeper connections, and even new gifts.

After leaning into this strategy in our last fiscal year, new donations went up 88 percent.

We gained nearly 1,000 new followers on LinkedIn — a 45 percent increase. LinkedIn is now a top referrer to our website, tripling our goal by increasing traffic by 60 percent last year. We heard from several funders that they enjoyed reading about new programs and perspectives from our CEO in their LinkedIn feeds.

The impact on our philanthropy goals was undeniable: After leaning into this strategy in our last fiscal year, new donations went up 88 percent, upgraded gifts doubled, and we gained multiple new grants and partnerships.

Ensure that your executive, fundraising, and marketing teams sing from the same songbook.

When it comes to your brand and your story, donors care about your organization’s credibility, leadership, and relevance. This means your teams need to be on the same page — from senior leaders to fundraisers to marketers — to make it easy for donors to understand and feel compelled by what you do.

While each team brings their unique perspective and insights, you’re all working toward shared goals. On LinkedIn, this likely means brand awareness (funders know you exist), engagement (they’re staying connected with your work), and expertise (they’re sharing and recommending your work with their networks). Here’s how to break down silos:

• Create one shared content calendar to coordinate strategy and timing for fundraising campaigns, leadership communications, email marketing, website content, and LinkedIn posts. This saves you time and creates a more positive donor journey.
• Be transparent across teams about goals and your target audiences — whether it’s individuals, foundations, or corporations — and about your organization’s progress. Are your LinkedIn ads resonating with the corporations you’re prioritizing for partnerships? Can you peg relevant topics to your CEO’s conference and meeting schedule? Are there opportunities to use LinkedIn ads ahead of big grant submissions?
• Set up an accountability structure. Your CEO and your heads of development and marketing should meet at least once a month to share best practices, keep the content calendar on track, and follow through on leads.

Encourage senior leaders to become active posters.

A recent APCO survey found that 77 percent of Americans say a CEO’s reputation impacts donors’ willingness to invest in an organization, and 70 percent say thought leaders positively influence their perception. For nonprofit leaders, your credibility, leadership, and relevancy are all amplified when your C-suite is active and intentional on LinkedIn.

This doesn’t mean your CEO or senior leaders need to become influencers overnight. It does mean they need to be intentional about their presence. Start with simple steps: Observe and draw inspiration from the leaders identified as top voices on LinkedIn. Begin to share stories that connect to your mission, highlight key takeaways from conferences, or offer your perspective on issues in your field.

Intentional brand-building leads to your leaders and organization being seen as a trusted, knowledgeable voice — which makes it easier for donors and partners to see your organization as a natural investment.

Once you’re comfortable, align your LinkedIn activity with your organization’s goals. Consider whom you want to reach and what you want to achieve. Partner with your in-house experts or invest in external guidance to make those goals come to life through a regular content calendar that includes a mix of zero-click content, thought leadership articles, and short-form video.

At Making Waves, we leverage thought-leadership tactics through articles and emails from our CEO every other month and through panels each quarter. Over all, our efforts last year led to 300,000 impressions on LinkedIn, more than 4,000 engagements on LinkedIn, and more than 300 new subscribers to our newsletters. 

Intentional brand-building leads to your leaders and organization being seen as a trusted, knowledgeable voice — which makes it easier for donors and partners to see your organization as a natural investment.

Stay consistent and trustworthy in sharing content.

It takes time to grow your presence and audience on LinkedIn – whether for your organization’s page, your personal account, or both. Here are a few ways to stay on track:

• Define three to five content pillars. These are the relevant themes or topics you’ll focus on — areas in which you have unique expertise and your audience has a vested interest.
• Stay consistent. Commit to posting at a rate that is sustainable for you. Maintain a consistent tone while also trying out different messaging and different formats to meet donors where they are.
• Engage with your network. Carve out time, even 30 minutes during your week, to connect with colleagues on LinkedIn by liking, commenting, and celebrating people in your network.
• Be authentic. Especially in a world saturated with AI content, people are drawn to personal stories and connections over generic ones.

Philanthropy thrives on trust, and LinkedIn has become one of the best places to build your reputation and cultivate relationships. Donors are already vetting you there — make sure when they come, they find a story that inspires them to give.