Time, Resources Slow Nonprofit Social Media Adoption
The responses of 1,295 nonprofit executives show that 91 percent raise money online, but only 58 percent of those nonprofits use social media for fundraising. Sharing their story, building a community, public relations, and donor engagement/retention -- not raising funds -- were listed as the nonprofits’ top reasons for engaging in social media.
The executives were responding to a survey conducted by Sage Nonprofit Solutions, based in Austin. The responses were from across the country. Among other findings:
88 percent of respondents use some form of social media but more than half of them have been using social media for less than a year;
46 percent of respondents that haven’t adopted social media cited a lack of time and resources and 33 percent (some overlap) cited a lack of understanding and expertise;
45 percent of respondents that haven’t adopted social media are unsure of the relevance and advantages to their organization.
The most popular types of social media used are widely-adopted social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, followed by blogging and microblogging. YouTube is also widely used;
70 percent recognize social media as either very or somewhat important to their organization, while only 9 percent are very satisfied; and,
20 percent of respondents spend more than five hours per week using social media
“Nonprofits are already using social media channels to participate in conversations with their constituents, but we’re finding that the majority of them are still trying to balance using social media as a vehicle for fundraising with their internal time and resource capacity to take advantage of it,” said Krista Endsley, senior vice president and general manager for Nonprofit Solutions at Sage. “It seems that social media still hasn’t become part of nonprofit organizations’ everyday activities, perhaps simply because the organizations don’t think they have enough expertise or time to do so.”
While online donations are growing, organizations are still trying to unite their social media strategies effectively with their fundraising campaigns, according to the survey findings.
“The most successful nonprofits are capitalizing on social media, not by simply tweeting a link to their donation form, but by using it as part of an integrated campaign,” said Endsley. “Multiple touches with constituents are what result in donations. Social media is helping nonprofits engage in more ‘touches’ with more donors and, ultimately, raise more funds.”
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This article is from NPT Instant Fundraising, a publication of The NonProfit Times.
