Building a Community in Your Organization
On our blog, we’ve recognized that nonprofits need a consistent group of donors in order to maintain their funds. To track and encourage these donors, it is wise to invest in community building. In an era where social activism is becoming more accessible, creating an online community around your nonprofit can readily attract more people to your work.
Many of the steps we’ll cover are relevant to other posts in our blog. We encourage you to check out the rest of our work to learn more about social media outreach, attracting young donors, and online fundraising.
Communicate
People are reluctant to put their trust in your organization if you don’t give them a reason to support your work. Post about your work, with specific examples of what you’re doing, on social media at least once a week. Pictures from donor events, contests, and polls will also show that you care about your followers.
Once you have a large enough base, you should move to create groups where members can post about your cause and work. Joining other groups for nonprofits can help you connect with people who are already committed to discussing nonprofit work.
Influence
Within social media networks, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. So rather than starting from the ground up, you can take a shortcut to the top by talking to influencers. We’re not talking about the fashionistas looking to dip their toes into activism; there are plenty of influential people in the nonprofit world to connect with.
You should also work on building engagement and excitement yourself. Make people return to your page by constantly giving them the next steps after they complete one action. For example, after hosting an event, encourage people to post about it on social media.
Adapt
While it’s important to communicate and influence to not lose sight of your mission, you must also be able to adapt to the needs of your donors. Don’t take on new members and ignore your current ones. Keep working with the ones who matter and you’ll soon see that quality can be more important than quantity.
