The way nonprofits do business has changed a lot over the years. It is easy enough to think back to a time when NFPs operated purely offline. They maintained their publicity and fundraising campaigns through television ads, newspaper advertorials and radio promos. Fast-forward to 2017, and you can find websites, social media accounts and mentions of charities all over the Internet. This has helped boost the profile of charities of all shapes and sizes spread their message and raise the necessary funds to get their projects off the ground.

Social media, in particular, has altered the way a non-profit can carry out their fundraising. Referred to as social media capital, organisations have the ability to fundraise using their social media networks. From Facebook to Twitter – charities can plan their marketing efforts around their projects to maximise strategic organisational outcomes.

Step 1: Understand your audience

Once your accounts are operational – you need to know who you are targeting. This is necessary for any marketing campaign whether online or offline; you need to understand who your audience is. There must be some form of strategy in place to connect with your target audience. Think about who your audience is and what your outcomes are. This will determine the necessary strategy to reach out to your desired audience.

Step 2: Nurture your connections

It is not enough to simply put a couple of fundraising ads on your social media pages. You need to nurture your relationships and create a real connection with your followers. It is important that you engage with others. When someone is invested emotionally in something, then they are more likely to give. Again, a fair amount of strategy will need to come into play to make the most of your online relationships. Cultivate your messages well so they achieve maximum reach on YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook.

3. Convert from fan to customer

Once key connections are created on social media, you can use your efforts to connect individually with members and cultivate relationships with community members. It is through these relationships that you can expand your fundraising opportunities. At some point in the relationship, your followers will ideally convert to customers based on your well-honed messages and calls for fundraising capital. Social media capital is created solely through your social media connections via the sharing of and a connection to a particular topic which interests both parties.

Social media engagement can be an extremely useful tool for NFPs if used efficiently and correctly. There is no better way to find a direct line to your target audience than to connect through their social media accounts and turn those relationships into capital.