End-of-year fundraising doesn’t start in the fall. It’s already begun with the relationships you’re—hopefully—cultivating right now.
If you aren’t looking to social media to attract and retain donors, you’re missing out. Developing a loyal audience with regular and meaningful communication underpins donor strategy, and social media is perhaps your most essential tool.
Individual donors are more important than ever to nonprofit sustainability as federal funding is being eliminated across the board. With more than a third of nonprofits relying on government grants for more than 50% of their funding, countless organizations have been hit with a wave of uncertainty and frustration. As a result, nonprofits will need to rely more on private foundations and of course, individual donors. With the threat of a looming recession and budget tightening, it will be even more critical to foster individual donors invested in your cause.
Feeling overwhelmed? We’re here to help. When it comes to building lasting relationships and trust with donors, social media is your secret weapon through every step of the donor journey, especially in this shifting landscape. So, let’s get into it!
Trends—and even platforms—come and go, but social media’s grasp on our attention is firm.
We know it’s only April and the social media landscape has already shifted dramatically in 2025. Bye-bye TikTok. Oh, never mind… Should we delete X? Wait, what’s Bluesky? We’ve heard it all. Amid this shifting landscape, it’s more important than ever to understand where your goals and your audience’s interests overlap. You’ll run ragged chasing every emerging platform. Focus on where and how your efforts will be most impactful. The good thing is that most individuals are active across multiple platforms, so you don’t have to be everywhere all at once.
Understanding the strengths of each platform is the first step to determining which are best for you.
Facebook: Great for paid media targeting. Terrible for organic reach.
Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube: Tried and true, mainstream platforms. Great for both paid media targeting and organic reach.
Reddit, Threads, Bluesky, Twitch, Discord, and Mastodon: Excellent for niche partnerships and community activation. With the exception of Reddit, paid media is not yet available.
X: Risky and low organic reach given the mass exodus of audiences.
The Facts:
- On average, Americans spend 2-3 hours per day on social media, nearly as much time as they spend watching TV per day.
- If your organization had the chance to run a TV commercial, you would jump on it! Don’t sleep on the reach of social.
- The largest age group on TikTok is now 25-34. Gen Z may have fueled the platform initially, but now, Millennials are just as invested.
- With Millennials more likely than Gen Z to donate financially, TikTok has become a promising place to reach them.
- Since 2022, X has lost roughly 32.7 million users as misogynistic, anti-trans, racist, and downright hateful content overruns the platform, not to mention bots and misinformation.
- Inevitably, brand risk arises when your content shows up alongside this content.
Social media has a role in every part of the donor journey.
So, you’ve reached your audience on all the right platforms, leveraging the strengths of each. That’s fantastic, but you can’t stop there. Maintaining those relationships year-round, throughout the donor journey, is what will encourage end-of-year giving. Whether you’re reaching new donors, engaging deeper with existing donors, or convincing lapsed donors to give again, social media can play a huge role.
While it’s important to be part of the conversation during key moments, crises, or holidays, it’s equally important to stay top of mind for your audience outside of those moments too, showing up in ways that ignite lasting relationships. Here’s how you can do it:
Build awareness among potential new donors with social content that demonstrates your values and impact. Get in front of new donors by showing them what your organization stands for and all you can accomplish together. Go beyond standard impact report numbers and show them how it feels to make a tangible difference for their community.
Share helpful resources and encourage conversation to build familiarity and become a trusted source. Own the narrative. Donors are encountering a constant stream of information about your cause – help them make sense of it all!
Invite users into your inner circle. With a strong call to action, drive potential donors to your email list, where you can dive deeper with fewer distractions, provide them with additional context, and have 1:1 communication that actually drives action.
The Facts:
- 55% of people who engage with nonprofits on social media end up taking some sort of action.
- 33% of online donors say that email is the communication method most likely to inspire them to make a donation, closely followed by social media (29%).
- It’s imperative to use social media to drive people to your email list, where you’ll ultimately convert them into donors.
Now it’s time to get planning! Think about how you’re going to leverage social media in 2025 to strengthen relationships with your audience. Need some support? We got you!
