How Nonprofits Can Make New Friends

by Sarah Engel on 08/03/2009 at 12:47 pm in Performance Marketing, Social Media

One in two nonprofits says its funding has fallen in the current economy, according to “The Quiet Crisis,” a recent report by Civic Enterprises, a social-issues think tank. This is at a time when nonprofits’ services are needed more than ever. The same report indicates that the United Way saw a 68 percent increase during the past year in the number of calls for basic needs such as securing food, shelter and warm clothing.

This is cause for concern. As the nation’s needs soar and charitable donations plunge, how do nonprofits draw more attention to their needs during this “quiet crisis?” I know that nonprofits’ organizational health is directly correlated to the health of the economy and decreased unemployment, and I also know that what I’m about to propose will likely be a drop in the empty pool of aid these organizations desperately need. Nevertheless, I see some unique opportunities with social marketing for nonprofits to capitalize on. If the nonprofits can appeal to users’ desire for personal uniqueness online and learn from retailers, they can find new ways to reach volunteers and contributors through sources like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.

Take, for example, Facebook’s Causes and Fan pages as a way to get started:

1. Clarify your voice and your positions: The way you present your organization in social media needs to reflect your brand identity, but also the contributors and volunteers you are trying to attract. You have a brief opportunity at the top of your page to clearly (and stridently) proclaim your positions. Don’t muddy the waters with too much information. Narrow down your major position to 3-4 points, and then use the “description” field to elaborate more. Here is an example from the Stop Human Trafficking organization.
2. Utilize Facebook’s Causes page to the fullest extent: In the Causes template, you can customize your look and feel, share announcements with your members and enable a donations feature on the site. Many nonprofits also set up a fan page to make it easy for members to “become fans” and share this information with friends. Keep in mind, however, thta users can’t make donations from a fan page.
3. Create customization and friendly competition: Social media users typically like to share their causes and concerns with their group of online friends. Make that as simple as possible by using the welcome message when a new member joins to ask them to invite friends to join, share with them dollar-matching programs you have set up or even offer “flair” buttons for your members to place on their personal page. Also, utilize the Hall of Fame function to highlight your top recruiters, donors and fundraisers in the Facebook sphere. This recognition in a social forum goes a long way.
4. Encourage users to download the Causes Bar: By installing the Causes bar, every search a user makes donates a penny to the cause of their choice – including yours. This is currently available for the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers.
5. Update often: Utilize the media board and announcement board functions to post not just your own organization’s news but also news that your members may be interested in. Each of these updates displays to your members and the “share” button allows your members to exponentially increase the visibility of your posts – viral marketing at its best. You can also upload petitions and pledge drive information to keep your page fresh.
6. Most importantly, continually integrate your channels: At the simplest level, this means placing the Facebook “Join” button on your website. You can also do more:

• Tag your PSA spots with a mention to join your cause online at Facebook/Twitter/etc.
• As long as you are taking donations in both places, update your search copy to mention your Facebook page.
• The UN Refugee Agency is using display ads on Facebook to drive people to join their cause and then utilizing their cause page to encourage cell phone text-to-donate.
• The Nature Conservancy and their sponsor Audi have found multiple ways to continually integrate, including an Audi program that matched dollar-for-member the first 25,000 members of the Facebook cause.

Will Facebook, Twitter or YouTube be the change the nonprofits wish to see in the world? Probably not on their own, but if for-profit marketers are learning during lean times, so can their non-profit counterparts. Now is the time to put the fear of change and the comfort of the old ways aside and test new media methods. For non-profit organizations, now is also the time to let your passionate volunteers, contributors and fans spread the word, attach your cause to their online identity and, most importantly, raise awareness and even funds on your behalf.