LinkedIn Fundraising for Non-profits

Pro Tips on Fundraising and Marketing for Non-profits with the Most Trusted Social Media Platform, LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is the most trusted social media platform. Historically, LinkedIn has been an excellent tool for business-to-business and business-to-customer marketing. For non-profits is a perfect platform for charity-to-donor and charity-to-volunteer!

More and more charities are beginning to utilize the platform. This article will walk you through everything you need to know so that your organization doesn't miss out on this fundraising and awareness opportunity.

Think of it this way, who are your dream corporate donors? Those corporate donors have dream individual employees that you can also tap into. Additionally, LinkedIn is a great way to do prospect research!

STEP 1: OPTIMIZE YOUR CHANNEL

As with everything, we want our images to be consistent and on-brand between all our platforms and print materials.

You want a great profile image and cover photo, but make sure you have the correct aspect ratio and test it on all devices.

Check out our Elevator Pitch article for tips on crafting the perfect bio. Your goal is to hook your reader, build interest in what you do, and create a desire to take action.

Make sure to fill out all the fields because filling everything out increases your discoverability by 30%!

 You also want to associate your page with three hashtags.

Under admin tools, you can invite connections, post jobs, create an event, create a showcase page, etc.

Finally, link employees and allow content recommendations. When we talk strategy, we will be talking about employee sharing and engagement.

PRO TIP: Google indexes your bio, so include rich keywords.

STEP 2: CONTENT STRATEGY

Think about what your goals are for LinkedIn. Are you recruiting volunteers, looking for staff, fundraising, or spreading awareness? Use your goals to determine your audience and who you will be speaking to with your content.

We can do so much with the platform, such as posts, polls, live streams, PDFs, slideshows, videos, and articles, which we will talk about more! We can post news, behind scenes, events, newsletters, announcements, blog links, and infographics.

Here are some basic tips:

• You want to create compelling content using rich media like videos, infographics, polls, etc.;
• Post consistently and use your analytics to find the best days/times to post;
• Include 2 to 3 hashtags;
• Leverage employee networks (have them post, tag, and share your organization's posts). Employees are 14% more likely to share a LinkedIn post than any other social media platform. Employees can also invite their contacts to like your page;
• Finally, engage, engage, engage - Like, share posts, comment, and comment back.

PRO TIP: engage with your dream donors, supporters, or volunteers!

STEP 3: FUNDRAISING WITH LINKEDIN

Let's chat about fundraising on LinkedIn and use a real-world example.

I worked with a non-profit that was small but mighty. I started connecting with a few key community investment professionals at companies with the linkage and ability, but maybe not the interest.

I engaged with their posts. I would comment on the company news they shared in a meaningful way.

I also 'creeped' profiles and created personas for the key decision-makers at the company.

I was then able to craft a case for support targeted to those personas.

At the same time, I created content for our page that was educational and motivational.

Because I built the relationships on LinkedIn, did my prospect research using LinkedIn, and created awareness for our work along with the impact we were making, we secured some pretty significant support.

ARTICLES & NEWSLETTERS

Articles and Newsletters were a big part of my strategy for the LinkedIn corporate campaign above. Both are like a blog, but I find they often get better views than a website post.

Here are some tips for articles:

·       Your headline should be impactful at around 40 -49 characters

·       Text content should be at least 1500 to 2000 words

·       Use subheads and bullets to break up your copy

·       Add compelling images (744x400)

·       Share on other networks

·       Engage with comments

STEP 4: ANALYTICS

Finally, as always, check your analytics for metrics on growth, engagement, and reach.

If you have patients, consistency, great content, and a good strategy, you cannot fail with LinkedIn.