Social Media

What does it look like?

For larger nonprofit organizations with well-staffed marketing departments, building the perfect social giving campaign is straightforward. But what about smaller nonprofits that only have a handful of people running the entire organization? 

How do they create effective social giving campaigns that trend on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms? Often, with the help of a social media toolkit. 

What is a social media toolkit?

A social media toolkit contains resources that you can use to streamline your social giving campaigns on social media platforms. It’s similar to a media kit, but instead of elements for reporters like press releases and press mentions, it contains information for social media marketing.

What goes inside a social media toolkit?

A good toolkit should contain a checklist of five essential elements:

  1. A video about your campaign or donation drive
  2. Stories and data
  3. A few good hashtags
  4. Attention-grabbing photos
  5. Written content

These elements will help you maximize a donation campaign, increase event registration, or anything else that pushes your social sharing initiatives forward. Let’s look at how each asset can be used. 

1. Put video to work

Videos are an extremely effective way to spread awareness about your campaign or donation drive on social media. In 2020, 92% of marketers say that video is an important part of their marketing strategy.  86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, increasing slightly from 85%. In 2020 88% said the same for Instagram videos.

Try creating an informational video around your initiatives, explaining your cause and broadly outlining your organization’s goals and objectives. Then, upload the video clip to your preferred social media platform. In the video, be sure to ask your followers to share the clip to spread awareness.

If you’re looking for a simple tool that can help you create engaging videos for social media, check out Animoto. It’s a drag-and-drop video maker designed to help organizations create shareable, visually-stunning videos on their top social media platforms.

2. Leverage stories and data

Use stories to connect with followers on an emotional level. 

If your campaign is directed at solving a problem, give the people affected by the issue a chance to share their stories. When possible, let the people whose lives have been improved share their own stories. Package these elements into your social media toolkit via videos, copy, and images.

If you can, include data and statistics as well. You can use this information to shed light on the problem you’re addressing, or represent your success rates with statistics, charts, and graphs. 

3. Hashtags 

Hashtags are an essential part of the social media toolkit template, as they can help build interest and unite user-generated content around your efforts. You can use hashtags to interact with people over social media, and make your campaign or donation drive more recognizable.

As you build and tweak your social media toolkit, spend some time coming up with catchy hashtags to include in your content. Think of words and phrases that are closely aligned with your organization’s image, and add them to your toolkit. You can also come up with a list of campaign-specific hashtags for different initiatives you have in place.

As more people become aware of your efforts, they can look up the progress of your campaigns by following the relevant hashtags.

4. Attention-grabbing photos

It should come as no surprise that visual storytelling is one of the most effective ways to promote content over social media. 

Enhance your nonprofit social media campaigns by adding relevant photos and infographics:

  • Create branded logos, banners, and profile pictures for your social media accounts.
  • Compile campaign data into easy-to-read infographics.
  • Take various photos for each campaign that help generate awareness.

Looking for a quick and effective way to create attention-grabbing photos that are optimized for specific social media platforms? Check out Canva. It’s a drag-and-drop builder for photos, posters, infographics, and anything else related to pictures. You can also use it to come up with various visual assets that you can add to your social media toolkit for others to share.

5. Written content

Simplify the writing process by coming up with templates for your content. This should include a brief message about your campaign, any relevant hashtags, and a date if needed. 

Here’s an example of a template you could add to your social media toolkit:

“Join us in supporting (name of cause) on (date of event). Together, we can make a difference by (goal of campaign). For more info, visit (link to website/fundraising page) (hashtag)”

If you’re posting on Twitter, be sure to limit your content to 280 characters. Don’t forget to add a call-to-action to your toolkit that urges followers to complete your desired action, like registering for an upcoming event.

While the five elements outlined above are important for running effective nonprofit social media campaigns, you’re welcome to add more to your toolkit when needed. Other useful components include:

  • Links to your website, blog, landing pages, and social media profiles
  • Contact information like email addresses, phone numbers, and physical addresses
  • An opt-in to receive an email when the toolkit is updated
  • A list of your sponsors and partners that includes their branded logos and links to their websites

You might also consider adding a content calendar of sorts so your followers always know when to expect new content. Suggested timelines are commonly featured in social media toolkits. Deadlines will help you plan your content a few months ahead which makes it easier to maintain the same tone and brand image as you promote your nonprofit social media campaigns across various platforms. 

Want to see an example of an effective social media toolkit template? Have a look at Light the Night by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. There you will find:

  • A relevant hashtag (#lightthenight) related to the campaign
  • A call-to-action asking the visitor to share a story on why they’re participating in the event
  • Attention-grabbing pictures that incorporate storytelling, statistics, and status updates
  • Shareable videos that offer deeper insight into the Light the Night campaign

The end result is a comprehensive social media toolkit that promotes social giving by encouraging supporters to share their own stories.

Here is an example of an effective social media toolkit template: https://www.globalgiving.org/learn/social-media-toolkit

It contains an extensive collection of resources and tools to drive social sharing campaigns across multiple platforms as well as strategies, worksheets, and detailed instructions on how to promote effectively over social media. 

Toolkits are a force multiplier  

Just because you don’t have a large marketing team doesn’t mean you can’t get the most out of social media. A toolkit makes it possible for small organizations and their avid supporters to promote social giving campaigns and drive donations on multiple platforms. 

Ready to get started? Follow these tips above as you build your own toolkit for your organization’s non-profit social media campaigns.

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