Author: Ann Fellman
Chief Marketing Officer at Bloomerang
As Chief Marketing Officer at Bloomerang, Ann Fellman champions the company’s mission to empower For-Purpose organisations through innovative fundraising technology. With over 25 years in technology marketing, including spearheading memberships at the Minnesota High Tech Association and being recognised as one of the “Top Women Leaders in SaaS of 2018,” Ann’s expertise lies in connecting nonprofits with the essential fundraising software they need to grow a robust nonprofit culture and achieve next-level impact. Her strategic thought leadership ensures Bloomerang’s Giving Platform remains at the forefront, helping nonprofits raise more, build culture, and retain supporters for sustained growth.
Social media is constantly changing—and fast. According to Hootsuite’s 2026 Social Media Trends Report, 22% of marketers feel pressure to respond to trending topics or viral moments on social media daily or a few times per week, and 39% say they’ve had social media content perform poorly due to rushing to keep up with trends.
For charities, you can’t afford to participate in every viral trend and waste resources on pushing out content that may quickly become outdated, while you could be focusing more intently on your mission. To navigate the social media marketing and fundraising landscape, charities need to solidify their strategies on these platforms. While participating in a trend once in a while won’t hurt, your focus should be on building relationships and providing a positive supporter experience.
This guide will help steer you in the right direction, offering tips to make the most of social media’s fundraising potential.
1. Use social media as a lead generation tool.
Think about the brands and organisations you follow on social media. Chances are, you haven’t directly supported each and every one of them, but you likely have at least a slight interest in doing so.
If you always ask directly for donations on social media, you may be missing out on an untapped opportunity: growing support among interested followers who might not be ready to give just yet.
To appeal to this audience and invite them to join your community, mix in donation appeals with lower lift asks like:
- Completing a survey
- Signing up for your email list
- Downloading an educational resource
By taking this approach, you can still collect potential supporters’ contact information and add them to your nonprofit CRM. From there, you can segment them into a group for individuals who engaged with your charity on social media and start communicating with them more regularly across channels. Over time, you’ll build relationships with these once anonymous followers, giving you a better chance of obtaining their monetary support.
2. Prioritise authenticity.
Social media was once a place for individuals and individuals alone. Even though organisations are now integrated into the social media landscape, retaining a human touch will help you truly forge connections on these platforms.
Authenticity goes a long way on social media—especially in the age of AI. 63% of marketers say that to stand out in this day and age, they need to produce more unique, human-centered content. Your charity can follow suit by:
- Sharing raw, short-form video content. Short-form videos are among the fastest-growing ways to deliver value to your audience, with 104% more marketers naming these videos their most valuable channel in 2025 than in 2024. This format naturally gives way to authentic content because it often features real people discussing a topic. For example, you might produce a short-form video of your executive director recapping the main takeaways from a recent conference your team attended.
- Replacing polished graphic design with images of real people. Similarly, consider transitioning your social media feed from designed graphics to images. While you can use stock photos, featuring images of your real staff, supporters, and beneficiaries will give your followers a closer look at your cause. For instance, instead of simply posting a graphic of how your upcoming silent auction will work, accompany it with photos of last year’s event so your followers can see exactly what to expect.
- Letting the people behind your mission shine through. Although you may typically post on behalf of your charity as a whole, having specific staff members contribute to your social media presence lets the human side of your organisation stand out. Consider letting different staff members author their own social media posts and film social media takeovers to give your audience a view into a day in their lives.
In addition to making your content itself human-focused, don’t forget to interact with the people following your accounts. It can be easy to forget that those hundreds or thousands of Instagram followers are real people, too, but by engaging with their comments and interacting with any content they post about your cause, you can collectively bring more humanity to social media.
3. Let your supporters take charge.
While your organisation can explain its cause online, your supporters are the ones with the best stories to tell about how they found your charity, why they care so deeply about it, and what they do to show their support.
Empower them to share their passion for your charity on social media by transforming them into brand ambassadors. Think of this like peer-to-peer fundraising, but instead of creating their own personal fundraising pages, their existing social media profiles are the canvas.
Provide a fundraising toolkit to guide the content they post with elements like:
- Pre-written captions that they can fill in with their own personal information
- Photos and videos that they can incorporate into their posts
- Brand guidelines for how they should speak about your mission
Additionally, if you’d like to add a traditional peer-to-peer fundraising element, have them set up their own personal fundraising pages. Then, they can link to these pages in their social media bios and direct their friends and family to show their support.
4. Leverage social proof.
As the name suggests, social media is inherently social. It’s a place made for people to interact with each other—and thus, the principles of social psychology apply.
One such psychological principle at the core of social media is social proof. It relies on the concept that people are heavily influenced by others. In this case, if someone sees that other people are actively supporting your cause, they may feel compelled to do the same.
Leverage social proof on your social media accounts by:
- Giving updates on how many people have contributed to your campaign so far
- Letting your audience know how much you’ve raised so far and how much you have left to raise to reach your goal
- Reposting donors’ proof of donation
- Providing donor spotlights and shoutouts
Rather than contributing to your cause as individuals, your social media followers should feel like they’re joining a movement of like-minded people who have rallied together to make a positive impact on your community.
5. Optimise your donation page for mobile devices.
If users are navigating to your website from social media, you’ll need to optimise it for mobile devices—especially your donation page. Have a team member test your page on their phone as if they were a prospective supporter.
Then, ask the following questions as recommended by Bloomerang’s donation page guide:
- Are the images clear and fully visible on the page?
- Is the text large enough to be read on mobile devices?
- Are the form fields easy to click on in the mobile view?
- Does the page load quickly (in three seconds or less)?
Based on your staff member’s feedback, make changes to the page as needed. You may also consider testing your page with a small focus group of current supporters to collect honest feedback from external stakeholders.
It can be difficult for any organisation to capture and retain people’s attention on social media, and charities are no different. However, by creating a social media marketing and fundraising strategy that prioritises the supporter experience, you can transform passive followers into active supporters and cause advocates.