How Social Media Can Help Nonprofits Cultivate Donors

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Too many nonprofits aren’t using the social media presence they’ve cultivated to help them connect with supporters and raise more money, say the authors of the book, One Click to Give: Future Proof Your Fundraising.

The Chronicle sat down with the authors, Nick Black and Jeremy Berman, to talk about how nonprofits can better reach everyday donors. The authors contend that donors spend a lot of time on social media, and nonprofits that are there with them stand to make better connections that can, over time, lead to sustained giving.

“One of the powerful aspects of building a strategy in social is that nonprofits have been investing in this community for a decade,” says Berman, co-author of the book and president of the firm GoodUnited. “Let’s leverage the power of the community that you’ve already built.”

One way to do this is to engage in two-way communications on whatever social networks a nonprofit is already using. Many nonprofits just post news and updates, without getting to know the people in their social network communities or asking them questions about what makes them tick.

“We’ve found tremendous success using Facebook groups to be able to ask people questions and have that community start to take a life of its own,” Berman says. “People are proactively sharing their connection to the cause and how they want to stay involved.”

When people are engaged, it helps the nonprofit interact in ways that aren’t just asking for money. “If you’re always focused on getting someone at that initial point in a monetary conversion, then you’re probably losing out on a lifetime value from building a relationship over time,” says Black, who is also the co-founder of Stop Soldier Suicide.

Small Steps Lead to Bigger Investments

Doing something as small as sharing a post can bring a connection for some donors, the authors say. A recent Blackbaud poll of Generation Z found that 25 percent said they had helped a charity by sharing its posts on social media. Berman says he can’t recall any generation that had tons of money to donate in its youth, but charities can’t wait until a generation gets money to reach out and engage. Getting connected now will pay off in the long run, he says — and even something as small as sharing a post is important.

“That is meaningful for them, and they feel like they made an impact,” Berman says. “The more ways that we can connect with people and give them opportunities to take action based on their situation today, the better chance we have to retain them over time to make donations when the time is right.”

Research suggests this is true, with a 2024 report on midlevel donors (those who give between $1,000 and $10,000) finding that 72 percent of longtime donors first got connected with their favorite charity by age 39 (and 40 percent of that number had connected to that nonprofit by age 19).

Messaging features of social media can also help nonprofits connect more deeply and make communication two-way. Black says his organization uses Facebook messaging to ask people if they want to come to an event in the area. If a supporter says no, he suggests, that’s the opportunity to come back and ask, What would you like to do? Examples of possible follow-ups include participating in virtual events or sharing posts.

“It’s not just this one-way, stump the chump of let’s just send as much communication as we can and see what happens,” Black says.

Instead, says Berman, charities can, “with very little effort, start to speak to people based on their terms and give them opportunities to give that are right for them.”

Black and Berman contend social is now a better communication method than email, which has been dominant for some time. “Because people are shifting where they’re spending time and because people have never been more saturated in the email channel, it’s very difficult for nonprofits to maintain the results today that they used to see two, five, certainly ten years ago,” Berman says.

If an organization is first connecting with a donor via social, moving them to an email channel doesn’t typically make sense, Black says. “Let me get this straight: Someone has given on one channel, and you’re going to put him on another, and you’re going to send them a communication that they don’t necessarily want and expect them to give again?”

Embracing people on the platform they are on will keep them connected and give them the opportunity to join your organization on other platforms — including in-person events or volunteer activities.

“There is a path for nonprofits to invest in what they know works, and they should keep doing that,” Berman says. “But it shouldn’t be in competition with exploring other avenues to keep expanding the pie.”