You’ve been planning your upcoming Spring Gala for over a year. Everything is in place. The food is ordered, the band is ready, and all the auction items are on display at the event centre. The only problem is you have a 60% expected attendance. What do you do next?
Getting “new blood” to your events, charity programming, or fundraising efforts is challenging – especially for a Not-for-Profit. There are all kinds of articles and strategies about attracting new donors, but one idea that often gets overlooked is leveraging a partnership with local influencers and micro-influencers to turn your upcoming fundraising efforts into a viral success.
What is an Influencer?
An influencer is someone who can sway a group of people to take an action. Influencers on social media are accounts with large or highly engaged followers eager to try the same products, attend similar events, or mimic the lifestyle of the influencer in some way or form.
Think of it like those popular kids in high school. Their head nod toward some action being “cool” or accepted means a large crew of other students will likely approve.
It would be like Robert Irwin, famed son of The Crocodile Hunter himself, wearing a specific name brand on a social media post about saving a croc. You can expect that brand to get a massive boost in engagement and sales.
How Can an Influencer Help NFPs?
Your NFP may not have a massive warehouse of items to sell, but you’re still marketing a product. It is most likely something related to social services, healthcare, or helping the community in some way – but you need engagement to reach your mission.
Partnering with a social media influencer (or micro-influencer of under 10K followers), allows you to communicate your mission more effectively to a larger group of potential donors, volunteers, clients, and participants.
Top 5 Benefits of NFP Influencers
#1 – Significantly Boost Brand Awareness
Around 69% of consumers put trust in an influencer’s recommendation. They already have developed a strong relationship with followers and know how to best appeal to their tastes, desires, and sensibilities. The result is that when they say, “try this BBQ sauce,” or “stay at this hotel,” their followers take their recommendations.
Your brand may have a massive hole in engagement. An influencer partnership allows you to directly appeal to an audience already positioned for working with your particular mission and goals.
#2 – Pinpointing a Target Audience
Say what you want about soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, but when he posts, around 648 million Instagram, 115 X, and 73 million YouTube followers listen. These influencers cultivate a following of the exact people likely to share and celebrate their opinions.
For example, say you have an NFP focused on providing support for fixing baby tongue ties. You would want to seek out influencers in the “New Mom” or “#breastfeeding” niches. Their audiences will already be interested in the same mission you want to achieve and more likely to engage with your services or events.
#3 – Elevate Your Credibility
When Robert Downey, Jr. says something about Marvel Studios, we all believe him. The background of working as Iron Man and visiting Comic Cons means he is a credible source of information for this topic.
If you can partner with an influencer already perceived as an “expert” in their field, you get a boost of credibility to your NFP. Yes, it would be better to have scientists or humanitarian aid specialists with the same level of celebrity as others, but the reality is not always so kind. Using influencer partnerships suddenly lends more credibility to your work, allowing you to ride the coattails of others until you become a juggernaut of expertise in the public limelight.
#4 – Infuse SEO Tactics into Your Online Presence
A sneaky little trick with micro-influencer partnerships is how it gives you extra gravitas concerning SEO (search engine optimisation). The content they share on your behalf acts as a high-level backlink. If it gets shared by their followers, you get additional backlinks, all of which point to your landing page or social media accounts.
The result is your SERP (search engine results page) puts your NFP at a higher level. You could easily go from #7 to the first or second result just because that micro-influencer you hired made a reasonably engaging post about your mission and successes.
#5 – Give You a Lesson in Content Creation
Finally, when you work with an influencer, you get a masterclass in content creation. Instead of trying to come up with your own ideas or spending decades learning the art of content, you get to see what a professional would do if they were in your shoes.
When you partner with an influencer, you can dictate certain parameters and inform them of your brand identity and voice. However, they retain a lot of wiggle room to put your brand through their marketing machine. Those final pieces of content will give you a lot of insight into new campaigns or storylines that could boost your following and reach your target market.
When to Partner with Social Media Influencers
The best time to hire an influencer or micro-influencer is when you need more oomph for your marketing campaign. That may be:
- Raising awareness of your brand or primary goal when you’re new to the industry/area.
- Working with a limited budget and needing high ROI results without breaking the bank.
- Promoting an upcoming gala or fundraising event.
- Co-hosting virtual events.
- Communicating your impact on the local community.
You may be surprised at how many social media influencers are already invested in this type of partnership. If you spend a little time looking into the niche or hashtag of your industry, you’ll likely find a lot of influencers more than willing to donate their time and presence to your efforts.
After all, they get a bump in credibility when they are seen actively partnering with an NFP like you.
Final Thoughts
Influencers present a fun and exciting way for Australian NFPs of all sizes and scopes to boost brand awareness, engage with a broader audience, and get a lesson in quality content creation. As long as you are clear about your goals and work with someone highly related to your mission, you should see significant success.
Of course, you’ll need a mobile-responsive and user-friendly website to leverage all that new traffic your partnership garners. For that, contact our team at Web 105.
We are a group of professional website designers and developers specialising in quality sites for governmental organisations, healthcare providers, and growing NFPs. We can help you get the infrastructure you need to scale your online presence quickly. Give us a call, and let’s get to work!
FAQs
Why is it important to collaborate with influencers?
The right influencer will help you cultivate more brand visibility, boost your credibility, and drive a new, highly targeted audience to your NFP and its mission.
Should charities pay influencers?
Yes and no. You will find plenty of influencers out there willing to work through a relationship of goodwill. You get more exposure without spending a ton, and they gain followers aligned with your cause.
Is it a good idea for celebrities to do work for charity?
Celebrity endorsements are similar to influencer content. It helps elevate the visibility of your charity, but you want to be careful, as any negative activity the celebrity engages in could impact your operations.