How Social Media & Major Gift Fundraising Align

March 2022

With the world becoming increasingly digital, more people are being inspired to donate through social media. With social media platforms widely used by High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNWI), it presents an opportunity to put across your message/campaign to maintain the support of your followers, whilst also attracting potential major donors. It helps you take your potential donor on a journey, providing supporter engagement and insight to your cause which can encourage an individual to move from a follower to a major donor.

The proportion of people being asked by charities to donate online has been steadily increasing over the past few years. In 2020 this jumped to 30% from 24% in 2019, according to the charitable giving statistics in the United Kingdom (UK). Young adults are one of the main donors that dominate social media, with 11.2 million people aged between 25-34 using the platform to communicate with one another. 29% of young adults list social media as the communication tool that most inspires them to give, with 40% of people making a donation online in 2021. Might some of these be your future major donors?

 

What makes Social Media Donors Give?

Social media is all about great storytelling! Campaigns that stand out have more potential to attract large online donations, in terms of value. Reason Digital (an agency that partners with charities), also argue through their report on the Charitable Giving of Young Adults & Students, that online donors are encouraged to give when they see their followers/ friends giving, as they enjoy being a part of campaigns that they can get involved in with their friends. Viral social media posts also influence millennials to donate, when they feel a strong connection to a cause, or see its worth.

 

Attracting Major Donors through LinkedIn and Twitter

LinkedIn can be a great tool to identify and better understand your potential major donors, as they often share information about their business background, including the causes and organisations they have previously supported or worked for. Twitter is also a great way to engage donors and potential donors. The platforms enable you to build and maintain relationships with the donor, as you get to truly understand their views on a wide variety of issues. You can get real insight into the causes they are passionate about.

 

The Giving Needs of the Future Wealthy

Findings from the Beacon Collaborative 2021 report on Young Givers, suggests that social media should be used as a way which charities can engage with wealthy young donors. According to Social Media London, 70% of HNWIs in the UK use social media. Wealthy donors use it as it makes their lives easier and more convenient. Millennials in particular engage more with technology that can create innovative campaigns or events that fit with their lifestyles.

The Young Givers report surveyed 27 millennials with more than £250,000 in investable assets, nine of whom have investable assets over £500,000. The findings showed that most of the millennials are currently donating between £500 and £5,000 annually, with two donating more than £5,000 and 3 less than £500. Twelve of the participants had volunteered their time in the previous 12 months. Most were donating to several charities, with the sample showing that around 3 charities were being donated to on a regular basis.

 

Causes on Social Media that have led to Major Donations

Two recent social media case studies show how the platform can be used to attract major donors. These are young social housing activist Kwajo, through his fight to expose London’s social housing crisis, and social media influencer Ashley Cain, who fought on social media to generate donations for his late daughter Azaylia’s lifesaving leukaemia treatment.

Both Kwajo and Cain took their supporters on a journey of supporter engagement and emotional giving, which led to some becoming major donors to their causes. Telling the story behind your cause/ campaign on social media, and the impact which gifts can make, helps generate supporter engagement. Growing evidence also suggests that sharing what you are achieving on social media helps to engage young people (millennials) to become donors, as they are driven by real results. Emotional giving has always been at the heart of fundraising. People often give more when they can connect with your cause, as donating is an emotional journey, personal to each donor. Social media helps make this connection.

Kwajo – Social Housing Activist

In recent times, Kwajo has been able to develop mass attention through his Twitter campaigning, generating a large numbers of followers and donations from wealthy donors. Kwajo has created supporter engagement on Twitter by developing relationships with his followers, by taking them on his campaign journey through video documentation of the poor conditions residents in London live in. Through consistent tweets, he has been able to trend on Twitter, which has helped him gain support from wealthy donors. He has further been able to develop more support by interacting with his followers and commenting on trending conversations, drawing more attention to his campaign.

British millionaire, businessman and entrepreneur Steven Barlett was recently inspired to donate £10,000 to the activist via Twitter, to further his charitable quest. Bartlett’s donation was the result of him seeing numerous trending Twitter posts by Kwajo, highlighting poor social housing conditions. Barlett also provided the activist with mentorship and recording equipment. Barlett took to Twitter to say, “What an incredible young man leading an important fight to improve Social Housing in the UK.” The donation from Barlett led to more wealthy influencers on social media offering their support, which inspired the activist to create a ‘Go Fund Me’ page, where he further received multiple large donations from online donors, equating to over £20,000.

 

Ashley Cain – Social Media Influencer

In 2021 former footballer now social media influencer Ashley Cain, was able to raise over £1m in 18 hours for his late daughter’s leukaemia treatment. Cain’s social media posts went viral attracting mass attention from young donors, as people sympathised with the influencer as they felt an emotional connection his cause. Millennial Billionaire Umar Kamani donated the most (£20,000), alongside other wealthy donors who donated between £5,000- £10,000 each.

The constant retweeting and sharing of Cain’s social media posts on Instagram and Facebook helped to attract the attention of wealthy donors. The campaign further encouraged 80,000 people to sign up to the charities DKMS and Anthony Nolan, to register as stem cell donors. Growing evidence from the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) suggests that millions of people give on a regular basis to support causes they believe in, as well as for the positive effect it has on their own lives. This was true for Cain’s campaign, as his daughter’s leukaemia fight captured the hearts of millions.

 

Get in Touch

If you would like help with finding wealthy donors who can support your cause, then please get in touch. Our team have over 25 years of experience and will be able to assist you in learning how to cultivate major donors. Keep an eye out for our webinars, as in the up-and-coming months we will be delving into more depth, looking at the role social media plays in major gift fundraising. Please email us at info@prospectingforgold.co.uk or give us a call on 01491 577311.