5 Social Media Tools for Savvy Nonprofits [with Examples]

It’s no surprise: in 2018, there isn't a better place to make your mark online as a nonprofit than through social media channels. Whether you’re growing your constituency, sharing your fundraising pages, or otherwise boosting the digital profile of your cause, social media is where the bulk of your interactions with constituents will happen.

However, just because social media is the new frontier of nonprofit fundraising, that doesn’t mean that all nonprofits have the right tools in place to maximize their social media presence.

Your nonprofit's social media marketing strategy shouldn't begin and end with TweetDeck. This year, why not revitalize the way your nonprofit leverages social media tools as part of a comprehensive online engagement strategy?

In this article, we’ll go over our favorite strategies to make the most of your social media efforts and boost the impact of your nonprofit's social media tools:

1. Mobile-optimized giving
2. Peer-to-peer fundraising
3. Marketing automation tools
4. Donor management software
5. Dashboard analytics

Making your mark on social media is absolutely essential if your nonprofit wants to reach your fundraising goals and grow your community. Let’s dive into these awesome ways your team can get more out of your social media strategy!

1. Best Nonprofit Social Media Tool for Fundraising: Mobile-Optimized Giving

When it comes to online fundraising, there’s no question that social media has played a huge role in helping digital donations outpace traditional giving methods at a rate of 10 to 1.

In large part this can be attributed to the advent of smartphones. Now that nearly everyone has a computer in their pocket 24/7, your supporters are likely to be engaging with their friends, family, and your nonprofit on social media quite often.

This is why your social media strategy should be built upon an understanding of how to mobile-optimize the giving process. Standout mobile giving tools should give your nonprofit the power to:

• Preview the design of your giving forms to see how they appear on tablets and smartphones before you send them to supporters.
• Add intuitive buttons that suggest gift amounts, solicit recurring gifts, or allow supporters to share the form on social media channels.
• Customize the forms to collect important donor information you can use to target social media engagement (like their social media handles and preferred sites).

Take a look at how Salsa optimizes the mobile giving process with comprehensive online fundraising tools.

When your team shares intuitive mobile giving forms your nonprofit will build a reputation among social media users as an organization that takes their user experience seriously, boosting your chances of having those givers return again and again to contribute to your cause (and spread the word to their friends, too).

Bonus! Perfecting the art of your social media outreach is just one part of developing a smart digital strategy for your nonprofit. Check out our top 7 Tips for Creating an Awesome Nonprofit Website so you can create a beautiful online home for your organization!

2. Best Nonprofit Social Media Tool for Growth: Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

If your nonprofit has spent any time at all developing your social media strategy, peer-to-peer fundraising has certainly been a topic of discussion.

Peer-to-peer fundraising is one of the fastest growing online fundraising methods, and it’s no surprise that it thrives on social media channels.

Because peer-to-peer fundraising functions by being shared across personal networks, your team needs to have robust tools in place to stand out on social media.

If your nonprofit has ever held peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns, you’ll know that they typically aren’t standalone online fundraisers, but are often anchored by an in-person fundraising event.

Choose a tool that prioritizes both your peer-to-peer fundraising efforts and the events they’re associated with, including:

• Event registration tools that your team can share across social sites to excite supporters, drive giving, and get an accurate headcount to anticipate attendance.
• Individual and team fundraising pages that give your volunteers the power to fundraise however they like. Make sure these are mobile optimized!
• Coaching messaging so you can cheer your supporters on while they raise money, get the word out about your event, and offer tips on how to boost their success.

Check out Salsa’s robust peer-to-peer fundraising software that’s uniquely designed with social media engagement in mind.

Optimizing your peer-to-peer fundraising efforts should be a core part of revitalizing your social media strategy. Without strong peer-to-peer fundraising tools in place, your team risks losing out on key supporters you can rely on from campaign to campaign.

Bonus! Ready to promote your peer-to-peer fundraising efforts on social media channels? Check out our guide to social media marketing strategies for peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns for some expert advice!

3. Best Nonprofit Social Media Tool for Marketing: Marketing Automation Tools

Not only is social media an excellent platform on which to share your fundraising campaigns and engage with supporters, but it’s also a necessary component of your digital marketing strategy. You might have put together important materials like fundraising letter templates, but how will you put together an effective process for sharing them with your supporters?

Since social media sites are often where your team interacts with supporters the most, it’s absolutely essential to invest in smart marketing automation software.

Marketing automation tools make it easier for your team to craft a consistent message behind the scenes as well as easier on your supporters to engage with your nonprofit on social media.

Because the pace of social media can sometimes be tough to keep up with, this software is essential if you want to stay on top of your constituency and remain relevant on these competitive sites.

Consider implementing social media marketing automations that enable your team to:

• Publish posts on all of your supporters’ favorite social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Tumblr.
• Implement targeted actions that empower your supporters to take action for your cause, whether that’s Tweeting a message to their legislator or sharing your giving form.
• Capture new supporters through Facebook Ads so that your nonprofit spreads the reach of your latest campaign and builds brand recognition.

Discover the many ways your nonprofit can leverage Salsa’s social media marketing software to optimize your digital marketing operations:

With smart digital marketing tools in place, your team can engage with your supporters over social media channels without losing time so you can focus on other arms of your nonprofit like fundraising, events, and more.

4. Best Nonprofit Social Media Tool for Engagement: Donor Management Software

Figuring out the best way to engage with your supporters on social media can sometimes seem like a guessing game.

Take the guesswork out of your social media strategy by implementing data-driven donor management tools.

These include solutions like rich donor profiles that tell your team who your supporters really are, as well as engagement and donation tracking tools.

When put together, these all add up to an ecosystem that gives your team an informed bird’s-eye view of your constituency. When the time comes to build your social media strategy, having this data on hand can make a real difference!

Select donor management software that empowers your nonprofit with:

• Donor profiles to keep track of identifying information about constituents, as well as collect important data you’ve gathered from your customized donation forms.
• Deduplication features that keep your database clean so your team can trust it’s working with accurate information.
• Engagement history tools that allow your team to review every time you’ve engaged with constituents, where, and what actions they took as a result of the engagement.

Salsa CRM is a powerful solution for nonprofits looking to improve not only their social media engagement strategy, but optimize their entire operations.

Once you’ve started applying data-driven insights into your social media outreach, there’s nothing stopping your team from getting more from these important channels and seeing your success trickle down into all other arms of your organization.

Bonus! Did you know that comprehensive donor management software can be your biggest asset when optimizing your email marketing strategy? Find out ways to improve your email marketing process with our helpful guide.

5. Best Nonprofit Social Media Tool for Strategy: Dashboard Analytics

When your nonprofit gets a better hold of your data, another way to optimize your social media strategy is by leveraging dashboard analytics.

With the right software, you can gain important insight into the effectiveness of your strategy with dashboard analytics applied to your fundraising and engagement efforts.

Dashboard analytics are a form of reporting tools that are seamlessly integrated into your software’s internal interface.

Your team can customize reports, create targeted filters, share reports among staff, and put the results of the reports into positive action. Because social media channels are constantly evolving, having tools on hand to learn from your data is key.

Some helpful dashboard analytics features include:

• Software integration with all of your other online fundraising solutions so that your team can seamlessly collect comprehensive data to inform your analytics.
• Report scheduling tools that automatically create customized reports for your team and send them out on a set schedule.
• Prescriptive analytics generated from your nonprofit’s data that show your team exactly where your strategies need to be improved and how to do so.

Discover how Salsa CRM’s extensive performance tools track and analyze important fundraising data your nonprofit needs to build your social media strategy:

Understanding the factors that drive success at your nonprofit should be at the heart of strengthening your social media efforts. With informative dashboard analytics, you’ll have the intelligent tools you need to learn from your community and implement smarter social media engagement strategy.

When it comes to strengthening your social media strategy, it’s important to address your needs with an ecosystem of effective tools. With these solutions in mind, your team is ready to start engaging on social media more intelligently!

If you want to unlock more online marketing and supporter engagement, check out these additional resources:

• Free Download: Digital Fundraising Checklist. 50 online engagement best practices to build long-lasting, authentic constituent relationships.

• Free Guide: Quick Guide to Facebook Ads for Nonprofits. Learn 13 simple steps for setting up Facebook Ads, 3 use cases, and 4 nonprofit success stories.

• Free Guide: Clear and Complete Guide to Fundraising Software. Learn 34 features and 5 integrations you need plus the 4 best ways to sell your boss and board on new software.

• Free Demo: Salsa's Online Marketing and Fundraising Software. See how your nonprofit, campaign or 501c3 organization can leverage our online marketing and fundraising tools!