13 Tools To Help You Create the Best Nonprofit Social Media Campaigns Ever

Marketing and Social Media

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Social media is an incredibly powerful storytelling tool for your nonprofit. According to our report, Navigating the Unknown: 2020 Findings to Future-Proof Your Fundraising, social media posts were the number one driver of charitable gifts in 2020—ahead of email and direct mail appeals! But as a busy fundraiser or nonprofit marketer, it can be challenging to find the time to make social media a priority.  

The good news? We’re here to help! To make posting easier, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite time-saving tools to help you create the best nonprofit social media campaign ever. Check out some of our favorites! 

Tools for Scheduling and Publishing Posts 

1. Buffer

Buffer is a publishing tool that lets you schedule and analyze your social media posts. With Buffer, you can schedule your social media posts for specific dates and times on all major platforms—including Instagram! You can mark certain posts for approval so your coworkers can provide feedback on your content. Buffer also offers analytics tools so you can learn more about your audience’s demographics and keep tabs on what posts perform best. 

2. Loomly

Loomly is another publishing tool that lets you draft and schedule social media posts. Similar to Buffer’s approval tools, Loomly has a workflow feature that lets you set up an approval process for your content. With Loomly, you cannot only draft, schedule, and publish your social media posts but you can also draft Facebook and Instagram ads! In addition to analytics, Loomly offers an interactions hub where you can see and reply to engagement on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. 

3. Hootsuite

Hootsuite offers drafting, scheduling, and publishing of social media posts. This social media tool has extra packages you can add onto their basic publishing tools to create social ads, view and respond to incoming messages, monitor content and accounts of your choosing, and analyze your performance. Aside from their social media tools, Hootsuite is also known for their social media best-practice courses and certifications. Check out their Academy to brush up on a number of social media related topics! 

4. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is another social media publishing tool. You can schedule your social media posts to be published according to the platform’s “optimal time” suggestions. Sprout includes content approval tools, social media analytics, and a shared content calendar view. What really makes Sprout stand out is its advanced listening tools. With Sprout’s listening tools your nonprofit can track trending topics, keep tabs on particular words or companies, be notified of industry thought leaders worth collaborating with, compare how your nonprofit is perceived compared to similar nonprofits, and more! 

5. Later

Later is a scheduling tool primarily for Instagram. This tool lets you draft, schedule, and post Instagram posts and stories. Later provides in-depth analytics of your posts and followers, including best times to post each day based on when most of your followers are online! One of Later’s most coveted features is its Linkin.bio tool. This tool offers a way to link specific posts to pages on your website so your followers can easily find or act on what they see in your feed. Later can also be used to post to TikTok, Pinterest, and LinkedIn (these plans don’t include analytics however).  

6. Bitly

Bitly is a must for sharing long links on social! Links that are longer than 20-25 characters look like spam and can detract your followers from clicking the link. To shorten any links you include in your social posts, simply paste the link into Bitly and click “shorten”. Now you have a nice, visually-pleasing link! 

Scheduling software can make posting on social media far less time consuming and help you stay organized. But before you hit the “schedule” or “post” button you need to know what you’re going to post. Creating a content calendar detailing what you’d like to post and when is a critical first step to using any scheduling software. Download our free Nonprofit Editorial Calendar to get started! 

Tools for Creating Content 

7. Canva

Don’t have a graphic designer? No problem! Canva is the go-to design tool for people with no design experience. Canva has thousands of pre-made templates featuring a variety of themes and sizes. You can even search for graphics that are sized specifically for each social platform! Canva also has thousands of video templates you can easily edit and add text to—no animation experience necessary!  

8. Vimeo

Video is the most engaged with type of content on social media. More engagement results in higher visibility for your content, so it’s worth creating video content for your social channels. Vimeo is not only a video sharing site, it also houses thousands of video templates you can easily edit and add text to. Vimeo also has packages for teams to edit and create videos if you’re looking for something a little more advanced.  

9. Bitable

Bitable is another video creation tool. Featuring live action video clips and animated cartoons, Bitable has thousands of options for you to choose from when creating a video. Based on the plan you choose, you can add collaborators to your video projects and export videos without the Bitable watermark.  

10. Emojipedia

Want to sprinkle emojis into your social posts, but can’t find exactly what you’re looking for? 🔎 Try visiting emojipedia. This site lets you search through thousands of emojis so you can copy and paste the perfect emoji into your post copy. Emojipedia’s search tool is a big time saver!  

11. Adobe Spark 

Adobe spark is another graphic and video creation tool. Abobe Spark is much easier to use than Photoshop or Illustrator, so you don’t need to worry about your graphic design skills! Made for beginners, Adobe Spark is available for as little as $10 a month and houses thousands of motion and graphic templates for you to choose from.   

Tools for Fundraising on Social  

 12. Facebook Payments and Charitable Giving Tools 

To access Facebook’s fundraising tools you need to be a registered 501c3 within the United Sates, have an active/published Facebook page, and have your nonprofit’s address in the “About” section of your page (other countries have different requirements). Once you determine your organization is eligible to use Facebook’s fundraising tools, you must apply for Facebook Payments access.  Enrolling in Facebook Payments will enable people to create fundraisers on behalf of your organization and add donate buttons to their posts. For more information on how to enroll in Facebook Payments click here.  

While Facebook itself gives registered nonprofits who enroll in Facebook Payments the ability to add a donation button to their page, your nonprofit can have the same function by using Qgiv’s Facebook donation form app! Plus, with Qgiv’s donation form app, your nonprofit will receive more donor data—making thanking donors and analyzing your fundraising results much easier! 

With the donation form app, your followers can make contributions right on your Facebook page using the same secure Qgiv donation form that you already have on your website. View the example from The Carousel Center below! 

 13. Instagram Donate Button 

Instagram lets nonprofits and their supporters fundraise through the donation sticker in Instagram Stories and donate button on Instagram Business Accounts. To access these features you must be registered for Facebook’s charitable giving tools. To register for these tools follow the process to enroll in Facebook Payments, listed above under point 12.  

Once you’re enrolled in Facebook Payments and have access to Facebook’s charitable giving tools, you need to make sure your Instagram account is a business account. The next step is to link your Instagram business account with your Facebook page. For detailed instructions on how to do this click here.   

Once you’re all set up you can add a donate button to your profile by going to your settings, clicking “Business,” and then clicking “Donations.” You’ll see a toggle to add a donate button to your profile. 

To add a donate sticker to your Instagram stories (and make the sticker available to everyone who searches for it and wants to fundraise on your behalf) simply upload a photo or video for your story. Click the sticker icon at the top right of your screen then click the “Donation” option. You can then search for your nonprofit and select your organization as the recipient of donations. For more instructions on how to set up Instagram’s fundraising tools click here.  

Conclusion 

Posting on social media shouldn’t be an intimidating task that requires a videographer or graphic designer (although they’re incredible to have!). With the tools we’ve shared you can schedule professional looking content that engages your audience and helps tell your story. For more social media marketing tips check out these resources: 

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