Charity Clarity: How Can A Small Charity Turn Their Social Media Attention Into Donations and/or Purchases?

Recently, I had the good fortune of participating in the Digital Storytelling Conference. And I was honoured when asked to facilitate the Charity Luncheon beforehand. There were so many great questions that came up over our sandwiches, that I wanted to share them here. More so, I wanted to harness the power of community to find the answers and so, I went out and asked some colleagues and peers to help add a multidimensional layer to these questions. We’ll be posting the answers one by one over the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

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How can a small charity turn their social media attention into donations and/or purchases?

Joel Bentley (Peer Giving): You have to focus on impact. Start with a small amount — $10, $20, or $30 — and tell your audience what that donation will translate into, then follow up by proving that the impact you promised was real.

Brady Josephson (re:charity): One thing that works great with smaller donors, first time donors and “on the fringes donors” (that are often following in social media) is to offer incentives. The simplest is matching donations. Big donors love giving them and smaller donors, and Millennials, love taking advantage of them. Build a special landing page, offer a match through social media there and track for yourself how useful it is or isn’t with your following.

Crystal Henrickson (Chimp): Partner with larger donors (which doesn’t need to mean national, or international, it could be the coffee shop down the street) and create incentives for participation. Run the same campaigns across both of your channels for maximum effect.