The One Thing Every Nonprofit Needs to do RIGHT NOW

By: Vicki Bohlsen, President

Every nonprofit has a board of directors, volunteers, partners/sponsors and donors: brand ambassadors at the ready.

These people already believe in your mission, goals and values, so why not give them the tools to become what I am going to call mission ambassadors? They all have a reason that they are involved with your organization and they can help share your cause and personalize your nonprofit. With some intentionality on your organization’s part, you can make connections and build awareness for your cause.

74% OF CONSUMERS IDENTIFY WORD OF MOUTH AS A KEY INFLUENCER IN THEIR PURCHASING DECISION.

- Adweek

This is exactly why influencer and micro-influencer campaigns are an integral part of organizations’ marketing plans. And the good news is, you have a whole host of influencers in your database; you just need to give them the tools – and permission – to act on your behalf. 

1. Gather your board of directors, volunteers, partner and/or sponsor and donor lists. 

2. Either find their social media handles (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) the old-fashioned way or send out a survey to gather these details. 

3. Your nonprofit should follow every single one of these people on all their platforms and should create a plan to incorporate them into your regular social media engagement plan.

4. Decide which lists to share with which groups. (Maybe you only share partners/sponsors and board members’ lists with board members, for instance).

I’m going to pause here for a second to elaborate on this. 

You are going to want to explain WHY you are sharing social media lists and what you would like to see from the groups… and this is an important step. The better handled, the more success you will see.

It’s going to be different with every organization because of your mission, the cadence of board meetings, exposure to volunteers and relationships with sponsors.

5. You will have more success when sharing the lists if you have a communications plan and tools for your newly found mission ambassadors and the group they fall into. 

6. Understand that not all will have the same level of understanding when it comes to social media platforms and engagement on them. Consider each audience and give them the tools they need to understand expectations.

Another pause. “Expectations” is a word I choose lightly here because you really can’t expect any of these people to share one bit of your content, but you can educate them on the potential value and return on investment of the exercise.

7. Consider each group when creating and implementing your organizations’ own social media activity. You will want to create content that will appeal to each group to activate in them a desire to engage and share their personal experiences with your organization on their own platforms.

If you want to be an overachiever, here are some tips for consideration:

• Distribute organizational content to these mission ambassador groups on a regular basis.

• Identify those that are engaging regularly and make them mission influencers rather than just ambassadors.

• Ask brand ambassadors to contribute to your organization’s content with testimonials or blogs.

When a brand message is coming from an individual, rather than an organization, it is way more likely to be received positively.  In fact, I have seen data indicating it to be upwards of 24 times more likely.

I encourage you to consider how to create a mission ambassador program that works for your organization.