Beyond the Algorithm: Authentic Social Media Strategies for Nonprofits
Creating a social media strategy that builds community, creates conversations, and gets your nonprofit attention is a common goal, but how do you do it?
Every nonprofit is different, so the biggest challenge I’ve seen in my years of marketing experience is discovering your organization’s voice, vibe, and values on social media and then executing on those elements.
How do you build relationships, create irresistible social content, and foster a thriving, engaged community that truly supports your mission—all while making progress toward your organization’s goals? That’s what we’re here to discover!
I’m going to use my 4 years of growing VegFund’s community online as a case study to illustrate some of the following points.
Let’s take a look at how to do it.
1. Define Your Audience & Goals
Before you start posting, clarify who you want to reach and why. Are you looking to attract donors, volunteers, or advocates?
Set clear goals—whether it’s increasing engagement, driving donations, or expanding outreach.
At VegFund, we provided grants to vegan advocates and we wanted to grow and support our community so they’d be able to provide the best advocacy possible.
So we had the goals of growth and engagement - we wanted our advocate community to connect with each other, ask questions, and view our resources.
Action Steps - Planning:
Identify your key audience personas (e.g., young activists, professionals, local community members).
Research and understand your audience - Use analytics, surveys, and engagement data to gain insights into your target audience’s interests, behaviors, and needs.
Set measurable social media goals, such as boosting engagement (comments/shares/DMs) by 20% or increasing followers by 1,000 within six months.
Align your content with your goals - Once you’ve defined your objectives (e.g., engagement, growth, or donations), create a content strategy that supports these goals.
2. Share Compelling, Mission-Driven Content
People connect with stories, not just statistics. Share content that highlights your nonprofit’s impact and resonates emotionally with your audience.
At VegFund, one of the things we wanted to do was inspire action by sharing the initiatives and events of our grantees.
We’d feature them in images, ask for advice videos from them, have live Q&A sessions with them, and feature them in case studies.
Trying a variety of methods and storytelling styles will help you find what your community connects with best.
Action Steps - Content Ideas to Try:
Impact Stories: Showcase real stories of those your nonprofit has helped.
Behind-the-scenes: Offer a glimpse of your team’s daily work to create authenticity.
User-Generated Content: Encourage supporters to share photos or testimonials about your organization.
Educational Posts: Share facts, tips, or insights related to your cause.
Live Q&A Sessions: Engage with your audience directly through live videos.
3. Foster Two-Way Engagement
Social media is about conversations, not just broadcasting information. Encourage and respond to comments, messages, and shares to create a true sense of community.
At VegFund we’d literally just post images with a question on Instagram, and those were some of our highest-performing posts! Our community loved sharing their thoughts and stories in response, and we’d learn a lot from them.
And those posts took less than 5 minutes to create. You just never know what’ll resonate online - so it’s key to try a lot of things and learn what’s effective by taking chances on new ideas.
Action Steps - Creating Conversations:
Ask open-ended questions in your posts to encourage responses.
Reply to comments and direct messages promptly.
Run polls and surveys to involve your audience in decision-making.
Create Facebook or LinkedIn Groups for deeper discussions and peer engagement.
4. Go Live to Connect in Real Time
This is one that’s really effective but you rarely see nonprofits taking advantage of the live social strategy. It’s because many find it so scary of course!
Live streaming is one of the most effective ways to engage your community in real time. It allows your audience to interact directly with your organization, fostering a sense of connection and transparency.
At VegFund we’d set up live socials primarily to answer questions about our grant programs, and to host live Q&A sessions with advocacy experts and grantees.
I hosted several of these, and they took some work to set up, but they’d get a ton of comments that we’d be able to answer in real time.
But you don’t need to do a lot of planning for these to be effective - you could just hop online if you have some news to share with your community and field some questions and check in.
Action Steps - Reasons to go Live:
Host Live Q&A Sessions: Answer common questions about your nonprofit’s mission and work.
Showcase Behind-the-Scenes Content: Give a real-time look at events, volunteer activities, or daily operations.
Interview Key Stakeholders: Feature leaders, beneficiaries, or volunteers to share personal stories.
Promote Fundraising Events: Use live sessions to encourage donations and explain how funds will be used.
Engage Viewers with Live Polls & Comments: Respond to audience questions and feedback in real time to boost engagement.
5. Leverage Influencers & Partnerships
Collaborating with community influencers, partner organizations, and advocates can expand your reach and strengthen your credibility.
Your nonprofit is doing important, compassionate work, and if you ask, others will show up for you and led their support.
At VegFund, we had an array of experts make videos for us, host webinars, join us or live social interviews, and share our content with their community.
This expanded our reach exponentially - it’s mostly all about making those connections and asking for what your nonprofit needs.
Action Steps - Leveraging Partnerships:
Partner with local influencers or well-known advocates who align with your mission.
Encourage board members and volunteers to amplify your content.
Feature guest takeovers where a partner organization manages your account for a day.
6. Build a Consistent Posting Schedule
A sporadic posting strategy can cause your audience to lose interest.
Develop a content calendar to maintain a steady presence. One of the best things I learned was to batch tasks together - so if I was thinking of questions to ask, I’d create 10 posts in one sitting and schedule them out over the month.
I’d do the same thing if I was making a video of me speaking about a topic - Instead of just one video, I’d shoot 5 videos in one day (they’d be about 1 minute long each) and schedule those for future posts. This would save me setup time and I’d be prepared and in the right frame of mind to do this kind of work.
Action Steps - Consistent Scheduling:
Batch your content creation - set aside a block of time to create a series of similar posts.
Use scheduling tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, or Meta Business Suite.
Post at peak engagement times (analyze platform insights for best results).
Maintain a mix of educational, inspirational, and action-driven content.
7. Track and Adjust Based on Analytics
Regularly reviewing your social media performance allows you to refine your strategy for better results.
Setting aside time at least once a month to review your social data, identify trends, and make note of what worked and what didn’t is essential. Taking time to think about your strategy and make some changes when necessary is key as well.
One of the harder things I’ve had to do is pivot away from a strategy that was working (and that I liked to do), because it stopped being an effective use of my time.
Action Steps - Key Metrics to Track:
Engagement rate: Likes, shares, DMs, comments, and saves.
Follower growth: New followers gained over time.
Click-through rates: How many people click on your links.
Conversion rates: How many social media visitors take meaningful action (e.g., donations, sign-ups).
Conclusion: Build Relationships, Not Just Followers
The key to building an engaged social media community is authenticity and connection. Focus on storytelling, meaningful interactions, and strategic partnerships to create a digital space where supporters feel valued and inspired to take action.
If you take away one thing from reading this, I hope it’s this point - in my experience, a willingness to be vulnerable is the essential ingredient for success.
We’ve got to be open to trying the thing that scares us.
People connect with vulnerability and people who show up and let them in.
Want to take your nonprofit’s social media strategy to the next level? Start small, experiment, practice vulnerability, and keep refining your approach based on what resonates most with your audience!
