As a nonprofit, you understand the importance of fundraising. And in today’s economy, raising money may be harder than ever. So should you use social media primarily as a means to bring in the bucks?
In my opinion, that’s a recipe for disaster and before long no one will be following your blog, your Facebook page, or your YouTube account. Imagine if you saw a friend at a party. How would you feel if every time you talked, he was always saying the same thing (or hitting you up for cash). Before long, you’d be trying to get away from that person.
Think of social media as less of a way to bring in donations and more of a way to build the relationship between you and your agency. The stronger ties are what can lead to first time gifts and larger donations. Mostly you want to pass on information about your nonprofit, in bite sized chunks, to your supporters. Tell them about your successes, your goals, and how they can become more involved with your agency. Train your readers to expect to learn something new about you every time you post something new. This trust will assure them that you’re not just after their wallets.
You can do things like make a case for funding for a specific need and then end the message asking for cash. So at least the message is still informative. But I would say out of every 12 messages you post, only have one of them asking for money.
If you’re sharing good information and engaging your supporters, you may find that you’ll need to do less asking for gifts than you ever imagined.
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Posted by Ken Okel 
