Social Media Marketing for Nonprofits: A How-To Guide

It might sound corny—like a throwback to the late aughts before we all got a little bitter about it—but social media can be a realm where creativity meets purpose: a place where posts, tweets, and shares can spark a wave of awareness and action.

After all, 55% of people who engage with nonprofits on social media end up taking some other sort of action (most often donating), and 69% of next-gen donors (i.e. millennials or younger) prefer to use social media when interacting with nonprofits.

For these reasons alone, social media is still an essential tool for organizations to amplify their mission. Outreach can range from light-hearted but impactful viral campaigns like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge or Movember, to direct, informative video content that shows the value of what you do, like the way Direct Relief used Instagram Reels to highlight their work responding to wildfires in Southern California.

This guide explains how a well-crafted social media strategy can help your organization harness the best social media platforms to enhance your visibility, build community connections, and elevate your fundraising efforts.

Understanding the Role of Social Media in Nonprofit Marketing

Social media plays an essential role in supporting most nonprofits’ goals. It’s a cost-effective vehicle to raise awareness about your cause, build community, recruit volunteers, and bring in donations.

Nonprofits prioritize storytelling, education, and advocacy. Your audience isn’t just looking for something to buy—they want to connect with a purpose, see the impact of their support, and feel like they’re a part of something bigger.

This means your social media strategy should focus on authenticity, relationship-building, and mobilization, rather than pure conversion metrics. Understanding this distinction is key to leveraging social media as a powerful tool for growth, engagement, and long-term sustainability.

Key Differences Between Nonprofit and For-Profit Social Media Strategies

Nonprofits and for-profits operate with different priorities. You’re not just selling a product—you’re rallying people around a cause, cultivating trust, and encouraging engagement that goes beyond transactions.

Here are some key differences in social strategies:

• Mission-Driven vs. Profit-Driven: Nonprofit organizations communicate their mission and impact, while for-profits focus on products and services.
• Audience Engagement: Nonprofits build deeper connections with their supporters, encouraging them to become advocates and volunteers.
• Content Focus: Nonprofits often share more story- and emotionally-driven content that highlights their cause and mission.

Tip: Set Key Performance Goals for Social Media Strategy

Set SMART goals to measure your impact. SMART stands for:

• Specific: Clearly define what you aim to achieve.
• Measurable: Establish metrics to track your progress.
• Achievable: Set realistic targets based on your resources.
• Relevant: Ensure your goals align with your overall mission.
• Time-bound: Set a deadline for achieving your goals.

The SMART goals paradigm is an established approach to clarify success and guide your endeavors. This framework is useful for social media marketing, ensuring your objectives are structured and achievable.

How to Choose the Best Social Media Platforms for Your Nonprofit

Choosing the right social media platform for your nonprofit is about more than just reaching the most people—it’s about finding a space where your values resonate and your message can thrive. Think of each platform as a different kind of community, each with its own culture, priorities, and ways of engaging. To make the most impact, it’s essential to align your nonprofit’s mission with the platforms that best support your goals and values.

Facebook: Community & Fundraising Powerhouse

As one of the largest social media networks, Facebook remains a vital tool for nonprofits focused on community-building, storytelling, and fundraising. With nonprofit fundraising tools, private groups, and targeted ads, it offers a way to deeply engage supporters and mobilize giving.

• Mission Alignment: Best for nonprofits that prioritize storytelling, community engagement, and grassroots fundraising.
• Impact: 88% of donors who have given through Facebook Charitable Giving Tools say they are likely to donate again.
• Popular Topics: Users frequently engage with community events, personal updates, and news articles.

Instagram: Visual Storytelling for Social Good

Instagram’s visual nature makes it an excellent choice for organizations that rely on compelling imagery and video to communicate their impact. With features like Stories, Reels, and fundraising stickers, it’s a great way to reach younger, visually engaged audiences.

• Mission Alignment: Ideal for nonprofits that emphasize visual impact, advocacy, and youth engagement.
• Impact: Engaging, behind-the-scenes content fosters deeper connections with supporters.
• Popular Topics: Visual content dominates, with trends in fashion, lifestyle, travel, and advocacy campaigns.

Twitter/X: Real-Time Conversations & Advocacy

While Twitter (now X) has seen changes, it remains a key platform for nonprofits engaged in advocacy, rapid response, and public discourse. Hashtags and trending topics allow organizations to amplify their message in real time.

• Mission Alignment: Best for organizations focused on policy, activism, and real-time engagement with current events.
• Impact: A go-to platform for networking with journalists, influencers, and policymakers.
• Popular Topics: Real-time discussions on news, politics, technology, and social justice are prevalent.

Bluesky: Decentralized & Value-Driven Engagement

Bluesky is a growing, decentralized platform that prioritizes user control and algorithm-free content. Its culture leans toward progressive, tech-savvy audiences, making it a potential future space for nonprofits with similar values.

• Mission Alignment: A fit for nonprofits focused on transparency, innovation, and engaging progressive digital communities.
• Impact: Still in early stages but may offer a values-driven alternative for mission-driven organizations.
• Popular Topics: Digital rights & decentralization in nonprofit work, progressive advocacy campaigns, open discussions & Q&As on impact-driven projects.

LinkedIn: Professional Networking & Partnerships

For nonprofits looking to establish credibility, recruit talent, and connect with corporate partners, LinkedIn is unmatched. Thought leadership content and professional networking can elevate your organization’s presence among potential donors and sponsors.

• Mission Alignment: Best for nonprofits that rely on corporate partnerships, professional advocacy, and leadership positioning.
• Impact: A powerful tool for fundraising, networking, and attracting high-value donors.
• Popular Topics: Impact reports and annual updates, job openings and volunteer recruiting, accomplishments, corporate sponsorship and partnerships, and thought leadership from executives.

TikTok: Short-Form Video for Engagement

TikTok has rapidly become a powerhouse for nonprofits that want to reach younger, highly engaged audiences with creative and compelling storytelling. Its algorithm favors authenticity, making it an excellent tool for viral advocacy campaigns and cause-driven content.

• • Mission Alignment: Perfect for nonprofits focused on youth engagement, advocacy, and education.
  • Impact: The best platform for organic reach, with viral potential for well-crafted storytelling.
  • Popular Topics: Viral challenges, educational content, activism, and entertainment.

Making the Right Choice

Selecting the right platform is about ensuring your nonprofit’s mission and values align with the culture and capabilities of the social media space. Ask yourself:

• Does this platform foster the kind of engagement our mission needs?
• Do its policies and audience demographics align with our values?
• Will our content be effective and well-received in this space?

By choosing platforms that align with your values, you ensure that your nonprofit’s voice is heard in the right places, strengthening your impact and deepening connections with supporters.

Creating a Nonprofit Social Media Strategy

A social media strategy defines your goals, target audience, content plan, and methods of analysis. This clarity helps you avoid random posting and align platform use with your nonprofit’s mission. Reflect on your objectives—whether increasing brand awareness, recruiting volunteers, raising funds, or educating the public—as these will guide your strategy.

Defining Your Target Audience

The more you know about your audience, the better you can tailor messaging to their needs. Who are your supporters? What are their interests? Conduct audience research to identify demographics, preferences, and behaviors. Create audience personas to guide your content creation and messaging.

Understanding your audience will also help you determine the best platforms to reach them. Knowing where they spend their time online, and thus where they’re most likely to encounter your messages, will help you prioritize social media channels.

Best Practices for Social Media Content Creation

Once you’ve established your goals and identified your audience, it’s time to create a content strategy. This plan should outline the types of content you’ll produce, the platforms you’ll use, and how often you’ll post. Content should be informative, engaging, and visually appealing. Here are some winning content themes for nonprofits:

• Educational Posts: Information about your cause, statistics, success stories, and educational resources.
• Impact Stories and Testimonials: Real-life stories of how your nonprofit is making a difference. Use visuals to bring these stories to life.
• Behind-the-Scenes Content: Glimpses into the daily operations of your nonprofit that humanize your organization and build trust.
• User-Generated Content: Encourage supporters to share their stories and experiences related to your cause to build community and amplify your message.
• Live Streaming Videos and Webinars: Host live videos on Facebook or Instagram to connect with your audience in real-time, answer their questions, and share updates.

How to Develop a Content Calendar for Your Posts

A content calendar is essential for planning and organizing social media posts. It helps maintain a consistent posting schedule, aligns content with key dates like Giving Tuesday, and ensures a mix of formats. Plan posts in advance with details like date, time, platform, topic, and visuals. Utilize tools such as Google Sheets and native social media management features to organize and schedule content. Tools like HubSpot or Canva allow you to plan out your posts in advance and manage them all from a single dashboard without having to sign into multiple social media accounts and post them separately.

How to Choose the Best Hashtags for Your Cause

Hashtags can significantly increase the visibility of your content, making it easier for people to discover you. Think of them like SEO keywords but for social media: when users search for specific topics or causes, hashtags help categorize related posts, allowing them to appear in relevant searches.

The Right Mix: Broad vs. Niche Hashtags

One of the most effective strategies for hashtag usage is to strike a balance between broad and niche hashtags.

• Broad hashtags like #Nonprofit and #Charity have high search volume but face stiff competition, risking content visibility.
• Niche hashtags such as #SaveTheDogs and #AdoptDontShop attract smaller but more engaged audiences.

Best Practices for Posting

• Formatting: Use eye-catching visuals, short paragraphs, and bullet points to make content skimmable. Sprinkle in some emojis to catch the eye of your reader. Too many can feel obtrusive but one or two here and there can draw just the right amount of attention to your text, especially when it’s competing with everything else on their news feed.
• Engaging Language: Use a conversational tone and avoid jargon. Address your reader in the second person when it makes sense to create a stronger sense of direct appeal.
• Best Times to Post: Experiment with different posting times and use social media analytics to track engagement and identify peak hours. Business hours on workdays are usually the best times for engagement, weekends are typically the worst. Your mileage may vary, though, based on who you’re trying to reach and the idiosyncrasies of their online usage.

Engagement Tips:

• Ask questions in posts and Stories to encourage comments and discussions.
• Run polls and quizzes to make your content interactive.
• Respond to comments and messages promptly.

Using Storytelling to Drive Engagement

There’s a slogan that’s been making the rounds lately: “No data without stories, no stories without data.” Stories forge emotional connections that facts and statistics can’t on their own, especially in the nonprofit sector. Ideally, the stats and the stories should work hand-in-hand: one provides scope, the other provides focus.

Share personal narratives so audiences understand the challenges faced by the people you serve. For example, instead of merely stating you provided food to 500 families, tell Maria’s story, a single mother who benefited from your program. Then segue from the story to ways readers can help. (If you’re concerned about revealing personal or sensitive information, draw on common experiences to create a story about the typical person you serve.)

>>>Learn storytelling tactics for your nonprofit

Setting a Social Media Policy for Your Nonprofit

A social media policy sets guidelines for your organization’s social media use, ensuring alignment and protecting its reputation. Best practices include defining roles and responsibilities, establishing content guidelines for tone and branding, and outlining engagement protocols for responding to comments and criticism.

How to Use Social Media for Nonprofit Fundraising

Social media is a powerful fundraising tool. Use it to develop focused fundraising campaigns around specific goals, such as funding a project or supporting a particular initiative.

Using Donation Tools on Facebook and Instagram

A crucial aspect of fundraising on social media is ensuring the donation process is seamless. Facebook and Instagram offer built-in donation tools that make it easy for people to donate. Here’s how to make the most of these tools:

• Create Fundraising Posts: Use the “Fundraiser” feature on Facebook to create posts specifically for fundraising. Set a financial goal and share it with your followers, encouraging them to contribute.
• Instagram Donation Stickers: Utilize Instagram Stories by adding donation stickers, a feature that allows users to donate directly from your Story.
• Promote Your Fundraising Events: Whether you’re hosting a virtual event or a physical gathering, use social media to promote it. Share links to your donation page and encourage attendees to contribute before, during, and after the event. Use clear, direct eye-catching donation buttons to direct your audience.

How to Build Social Media Campaigns for Your Nonprofit

Align your social media efforts with your nonprofit’s broader marketing strategy. Ensure messaging, branding, and goals are consistent across all channels to create a cohesive experience and enhance your organization’s credibility. Use the following questions to guide the creation of your social media campaign:

• Define Your Goal: What do you want to achieve with your campaign?
• Identify Your Target Audience: Who are you trying to reach?
• Craft a Compelling Message: What do you want people to know?
• Choose the Right Platforms: Where is your target audience spending their time?
• Create a Social Media Plan: What are the key messages? What types of content will convey these messages? When will you share your fundraising goals?
• Track Your Results: How successful was your campaign?

How Your Nonprofit Can Increase Your Social Media Presence

Leverage your existing donor base and fan community to increase your nonprofit’s social media presence. Use personalized outreach like segmented email marketing newsletters, donation receipts, and in-person events to encourage supporters to connect online. Emphasize that their participation will amplify your mission and grow your community.

Social Media Analytics for Nonprofits

Social media analytics provide valuable insights into your audience, content performance, and overall strategy. Possible metrics to consider include:

• Brand Awareness: Track followers, reach, impressions, and mentions.
• Fundraising: Analyze link clicks, the demographics of your donors, conversion rates, and total funds raised.
• Advocacy: Measure petition signatures, shares of advocacy posts, and engagement with policy-related content.
• Volunteer Recruitment: Count applications received and the number of volunteers recruited through social media.

How Nonprofits Can Measure Their Social Media ROI

Measuring social media ROI is crucial for nonprofits to justify investments. Key metrics include:

• Increased Donations: Use unique links or codes to track funding from social platforms.
• Volunteer Recruitment: Monitor new volunteer sign-ups from social media engagement.
• Website Traffic: Utilize Google Analytics to assess traffic from social media channels, focusing on page views and conversion rates.
• Brand Awareness: Track follower growth, post reach, and engagement rates to evaluate brand resonance.

Increase Your Engagement on Social Media with Big Sea

Nonprofits face a world of challenges. At Big Sea, we understand those unique hurdles: we specialize in helping you cut through the noise with winning social media strategy. From engaging content to laser-focused analytics, we’ll help you amplify your impact and reach a community eager to support your cause. Ready to ignite your mission? Let’s talk.

FAQs about Social Media Marketing for Nonprofits

Which Social Media Platform Is Best for Nonprofits?

It depends on your target audience and goals! Facebook is great for community building, Instagram for visual storytelling, Twitter/X for advocacy, and LinkedIn for professional and social networking. The more you get to know your typical donors, the better a sense you’ll get of where they’re spending their time online.

How Often Should Nonprofits Post on Social Media?

A healthy post cadence is 3-5 times a week on Facebook and Instagram and 1-3 times a day on X. You want to stay visible, but not obtrusive. The frequency may vary based on your audience’s engagement levels. Use analytics to identify the best times to post.

Should Nonprofits Work with Influencers?

Influencer marketing can be effective, but it comes with risks and costs. Choose influencers who are genuinely passionate about your cause and have relevant audiences. Partnership rates can be expensive, so conduct thorough research, negotiate costs, and understand exactly what you’ll receive for your investment.

How Often Should Nonprofits Ask for Donations?

As with deciding how often to post, striking the right cadence is important here. Ask for donations at strategic intervals, such as quarterly or biannually, based on donor preferences. Key moments for requests include major campaigns, annual giving days like Giving Tuesday, and seasonal appeals during the year-end or holidays to highlight donor impact.

How Do I Deal with Negative Comments on Social Media?

First off, always stay professional. Start by acknowledging the commenter’s feelings. Be sure to clarify misunderstandings and share accurate information to demonstrate that your organization is transparent and responsive.

How Can My Nonprofit Use Social Media to Recruit Volunteers?

Highlight volunteer opportunities, share stories from current volunteers, and make it easy for people to sign up. Use dedicated posts promoting your volunteer program with direct calls-to-action and links to sign-up forms.

How Can My Nonprofit Use Social Media for Advocacy?

Share information about policy issues, mobilize supporters to take specific action like sign a petition or contact elected officials, and use hashtags to amplify your message.