The nonprofit lifecycle isn’t complete without fundraising activities. After all, donated resources are vital to further nonprofit missions. However, charitable organizations stand to gain even from non-monetary donations — otherwise known as in-kind donations. These gifts are usually goods or services and can be extremely beneficial.
Many of your supporters may not know that you need this kind of support, which is why marketing is so essential. With the number of social media users at over 5 billion worldwide, social media is one of the best channels for reaching a large audience of potential in-kind donors.
Whether you run a thrift store, aquarium, cultural center, or other type of nonprofit, this guide will teach you the top strategies for creating a social media marketing plan to boost in-kind donations. Let’s dive in!
1. Understand the Benefits of In-Kind Gifts
Before you can establish how you’ll acquire more in-kind gifts through social media, you must first understand the benefits of in-kind gifts for both yourself and your supporters. These include:
- Cost savings. Although you might not see in-kind gifts as revenue generators, they are, at the very least, cost savers. With the right gifts, you’ll have spare funds to allocate to other important areas of your operations.
- Improved efficiency. Certain gifts can help you reduce administrative burden and streamline your processes. For example, if a small nonprofit receives a laptop as a donation, its staff can handle bookkeeping through software rather than by hand.
- Increased generosity. Supporters who may not be able to donate money may be willing to donate goods or services instead, leading to increased generosity for your mission.
- Stronger community relationships. By accepting in-kind gifts, you’ll show your community that their support is valuable to you, even if they can’t donate money. This will strengthen your relationship with them, as they’ll see that you value them beyond their funds.
Whether you solicit auction items for your upcoming gala event or request volunteer help for administrative tasks, non-monetary support can be extremely valuable to your mission — you just need to communicate that to your supporters.
2. Identify Your Target Audience
Now that you understand why in-kind gifts are worth pursuing, it’s time to determine how to market them to your supporters. This usually depends on the type of in-kind gift you’re looking for, but in general, you’ll probably target one of these audiences:
- Supporters
- Volunteers
- Donors
- Community members
- Local businesses
For example, let’s say that you run a nonprofit summer camp, and you want to increase enrollments. You’ve determined that the best way to do so is to develop a more robust marketing strategy. In this case, your target audience might be marketing agencies, independent marketing professionals, and graphic designers, as those groups can most help your needs.
3. Choose the Right Social Media Platforms
Once you’ve pinpointed your target audience, you’ll need to tailor your marketing to their preferences. While it’s tempting to post your content on all of your pages, it’s best to instead select a few that your audience frequent and focus your efforts there.
Popular social media platforms you may use in your marketing strategy include:
- TikTok
If you’re not sure which platforms your target audiences prefer to use, consider taking NPOInfo’s advice to conduct a social media append. By doing so, you’ll locate your supporters’ profiles and gather data that empowers you to successfully connect with individuals about in- kind donations. Plus, you can use this information to shape your other social media marketing strategies as well.
4. Craft Compelling Social Media Content
Your last step is to craft compelling content that entices viewers to take action. While the success of your content depends entirely on your audience’s unique preferences, here are a few general tips:
- Discuss the importance of in-kind gifts. Ask yourself, Why should your audience care about making in-kind donations? How do they impact your mission? Communicate that to viewers in your social media post so your audience understands why their gift matters and what you will do with it. For instance, if you’re hosting a clothing drive and distributing donations to unhoused people in your community, include that information in your post to boost support.
- Use fun visual elements. Given increasingly shortened attention spans, when most people see a wall of text on social media, they’re likely to move past it. Instead, start your post with a fun visual element like an image or graphic to capture attention and boost engagement.
- Use hashtags and keywords. Increase your reach beyond your pages’ followers by incorporating relevant hashtags and keywords in the body of your post or its caption. This will boost the visibility of your content for people who frequently view those hashtags or keywords.
- Create a content calendar. Not all of your social media posts should be about in-kind gifts — after all, there are plenty of other programs and initiatives you should promote. However, reminding your audience every month about in-kind gifts is a great way to keep the subject top of mind and encourage them to make a gift when they can.
Additionally, be sure to include all the information supporters need to make an in-kind gift, either directly in your social media posts or through a separate link.
For example, let’s say you run a thrift store on behalf of a nonprofit as a sustainable revenue stream, and you’re looking for volunteers to help you facilitate inventory management. You’ll want your volunteers to be familiar with inventory management best practices and perhaps even have previous retail experience. And, if your store follows ThriftCart’s recommendation to use point of sale software, your volunteer must be willing to learn how to use it.
Since this is a lot of information to convey, you might post a quick snippet in your social media post and link to a volunteer application page that lists the details in full. This way, your audience
can quickly tell if it’s an opportunity they’d be interested in.
You’ve probably heard of the importance of income diversification for your nonprofit. Diversifying the potential support you can receive is just as important. With these strategies, you’ll be better
prepared to promote in-kind gifts to your audience and acquire more to further your cause.
