Empower your cause through social media
Social media can be hard work, but the rewards can be great. With 49% of the world’s population possessing a social media account, on at least one platform*, social media is one of the simplest ways to raise awareness of your cause, connect with supporters and help raise those all-important funds.
Designed to help you navigate your way to social media success our guides cover all aspects, from growing your presence to engaging new audiences, using social media to fundraise and of course how to measure success.
* Source: www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users
Empower Your Cause Through Social Media: A Practical Guide for Charities
Social media can feel overwhelming. New platforms emerge regularly, algorithms change constantly and creating engaging content often ends up competing with countless other priorities.
Yet for charities, social media remains one of the most powerful and cost-effective ways to build awareness, connect with supporters and generate donations.
Benefact Group’s social media guide series explores how charities can strengthen their online presence, engage new audiences and turn social media activity into meaningful fundraising results. Together, the guides provide a practical framework that organisations of all sizes can use to improve their digital communications.
Why Social Media Matters for Charities
Social media offers far more than a place to post updates.
Used strategically, it can help charities:
- Increase awareness of their cause
- Reach new audiences
- Build supporter communities
- Strengthen donor relationships
- Recruit volunteers
- Drive website traffic
- Generate fundraising opportunities
One of the greatest advantages of social media is its accessibility. Unlike many traditional marketing channels, it allows charities to engage directly with supporters, often with little or no financial investment.
Start With a Clear Social Media Strategy
Many organisations make the mistake of posting content without a clear purpose.
The guides recommend starting with a simple growth strategy built around three key questions:
Who Are You Trying to Reach?
Understanding your audience is essential.
Consider:
- Existing supporters
- Potential donors
- Volunteers
- Corporate partners
- Beneficiaries
- Community stakeholders
Each audience may require different content and communication styles.
Which Channels Should You Use?
Not every platform is right for every charity.
Focus on the channels your audience already uses rather than trying to be everywhere at once.
What Action Do You Want People to Take?
Every piece of content should have a purpose.
This could include:
- Increasing awareness
- Encouraging donations
- Recruiting volunteers
- Driving website visits
- Promoting events
- Building advocacy
Without clear objectives, it becomes difficult to measure success.
How to Create Content People Want to Engage With
One of the strongest themes throughout the guides is the importance of creating useful, relevant content.
The most effective social media posts often:
- Answer questions
- Share insights
- Tell stories
- Highlight impact
- Provide useful information
- Showcase success
Supporters are far more likely to engage when content focuses on their interests rather than simply promoting the organisation.
Use Stories to Bring Your Cause to Life
Facts and statistics matter, but stories help people connect emotionally.
Consider sharing:
- Beneficiary case studies
- Volunteer experiences
- Staff stories
- Fundraising successes
- Project updates
Stories make charities relatable and help supporters understand the real-world impact of their contributions.
The SOCIAL Framework for Engagement
The guides introduce a useful framework for increasing engagement:
Share
Provide valuable and interesting content.
Offer
Give insight, advice and support.
Comment
Join conversations proactively.
Listen
Monitor discussions and understand audience needs.
Inform
Share relevant news and impact stories.
Ask
Use questions, surveys and polls to encourage interaction.
This approach shifts the focus from broadcasting messages to building genuine conversations.
Social Media and Fundraising
Many charities view fundraising as the end goal of social media activity.
In reality, fundraising is usually the result of a longer journey.
The guides highlight a fundraising funnel consisting of:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Engagement
- Action
- Advocacy
Before people donate, they usually need to understand the cause, trust the organisation and feel connected to the work being done.
Focus on Relationship Building
Social media fundraising works best when organisations build relationships rather than simply asking for money.
This concept, sometimes called social selling, is about:
- Creating trust
- Demonstrating impact
- Encouraging interaction
- Developing long-term supporter relationships
Fundraising becomes much easier when supporters already feel connected to the organisation.
Don’t Forget Your Landing Pages
Getting somebody to click a social media link is only part of the challenge.
The guides emphasise the importance of creating effective landing pages.
Best practice includes:
- Matching page content to the social post
- Keeping donation forms simple
- Including testimonials
- Using clear calls to action
- Ensuring mobile compatibility
A poor landing page can undo all the hard work of a successful social media campaign.
Why Paid Social Media Can Be Valuable
Organic social media remains important, but paid promotion can help charities extend their reach.
Paid campaigns can be used to:
- Increase awareness
- Reach specific audiences
- Promote fundraising campaigns
- Drive event registrations
- Boost engagement
Even relatively small budgets can help charities reach people who may never otherwise discover their work.
Measuring Social Media Success
One of social media’s biggest advantages is that performance can be measured.
The guides recommend monitoring metrics such as:
- Reach
- Followers
- Engagement
- Page actions
- Impressions
- Clicks
- Interactions
- Engagement rate
X
- Impressions
- Followers
- Mentions
- Engagement
- Link clicks
Tracking performance helps charities understand what content resonates most strongly with their audiences.
Final Thoughts
Successful social media is not about being on every platform or posting constantly.
It is about building relationships, sharing valuable content and creating opportunities for supporters to connect with your cause.
By developing a clear strategy, focusing on audience engagement and measuring results, charities can turn social media from a time-consuming task into a powerful tool for awareness, fundraising and long-term growth.