How to Successfully Use Social Media for Donations

I think the companies struggling the most to use social correctly are charities and and NGOs. With over a million followers on Twitter, the amount of people who hit me up for charity every day is absolutely insane.

“Can you donate?” “Can you retweet this?”

And a lot of the time they do it without even saying hello. Can you romance a girl a little!?It makes no sense. The way you do it is through heavy storytelling and content. I hold up as the gold standard here. Look at what they’re doing, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. It’s about putting out content, it’s about engaging with people on Twitter who are talking about relevant subject matter, it’s about effort.

There is an entitlement in the non-profit space that needs to be broken in a world where they can’t just guilt you anymore, or rely on the idea that “you have to give.”

I had dinner the other night with the CEO of a major charity, and I said to him “you know, it just feels good to give back.”

He cut me off and said “No, stop that. It’s not giving back. It’s just giving. By saying that you’re ‘giving back’ you make it sound like you’ve already taken something from us.” That was really powerful to me. I think we need to get to a place where it’s not about what’s expected, but what’s appreciated. Coincidentally that is the kind of thing that is absolutely perfect for social. It’s transparent, it’s open, it allows you to get into conversations with potential donors and show the effort. Romance a girl a little…

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