7 Nonprofits Crushing Their Social Media

As you hopefully know by now, social media is a powerful platform that everyone must be utilizing. Whether it’s running ads on Facebook and Instagram, highlighting your nonprofit’s journey through Instagram stories and IGTV or featuring some of the amazing things your organization is doing on your profile, social media has the incredible ability to reach millions of people in an instant. 

Online and on-mobile is where people’s attention is at now. Keeping that in mind, let’s dive into what is eye-catching about these following organizations’ social presence, and let it inspire your nonprofit to start doing the same!

1. UNICEF

UNICEF uses their Instagram profile as a way to highlight a different issue each month, and are including relevant links in their profile so people can learn more about the issues at hand, as well as how to get involved. 

While UNICEF’s core mission is to drive change for children and young people across the globe, highlighting an even more specific issue each month is a great way to introduce a new perspective to followers and get others better versed with the various issues around the world that regard children and young people. 

2. World Wildlife Fund

WWF’s strategy incorporates something really important: mixed media! They are not only using a good mix of photo and video content on their Instagram feed, but they are also utilizing IGTV. 

IGTV is great because while you can only upload videos up to a minute long into Instagram posts, IGTV allows you to push past the time cap and upload longer form video content while creating a clip of video for your feed. 

Another thing we love about World Wildlife Fund’s feed are the important facts included in captions that relate to the subject matter of the photo or video content in the post. This is a great way to educate followers. 

Did you know plastic is slowly entering our bodies through our food, water, and air? We could be ingesting 5 grams of plastic per week on average.

3. Save the Children

Their Instagram feed continuously spreads awareness. They have their logo and nonprofit name directly on their posts, so if someone reposts something from Save the Children, other people will know exactly where that photo came from. This increase awareness as their imagery in itself is compelling and captivating enough to where people will want to repost and share it on their feed, but it helps them to have their logo branded on the bottom of each image. 

Save the Children also uses relevant hashtags on each post. This helps their posts get viewed by people who might not be following their page, but are following that hashtag in particular, and ultimately increases their overall reach.

If you need a refresher on how to find relevant hashtags for your nonprofit, make sure to check out our post on How to Find Great Hashtags to Market Your Nonprofit.

4. ACLU

ACLU is taking advantage of Instagram’s most recent updates. In their Instagram bio, they’ve utilized the newest feature: the donations sticker. Donations via the Instagram sticker benefit the ACLU foundation, an affiliated 501(c)(3) org. It’s amazing to see them testing out something new right away!

Besides immediately getting on board with new features like the donation sticker, they are also sharing statistics in image form through graphics—simple, but compelling graphics. By using these people can stay informed about important statistics while scrolling through their feed as a whole, as opposed to on each individual post where you’d have to read the captions to know the fact.

5. National Geographic 

NatGeo uses eye-catching imagery, has a variety of subject matter, and, most importantly, crowdsources much of their content. This means their photos are by other people, and they don’t have to create all of the content themselves. 

This can be a huge time saver for your organization and it’s also a great strategy to get people to tag and engage with you. If you give people the opportunity to be featured on your feed, when relevant, of course, engagement and visibility may increase as you are now allowing your followers to become a part of your mission by asking for their perspective.

6. Oceana

This organization is super active on Twitter, sharing relevant posts and stories about all things related to protecting and restoring the world’s oceans. They even create articles on current political issues that are affecting the world’s oceans, whether it’s now or in the future. 

Oceana’s Instagram feed is curated with a cohesive color scheme, something that helps with the overall look of the profile. In their captions, they start with a fact and end with a call to action, which is a very strategic way to get people involved. Their page also has a specially designed highlights section for important topics, such as petitions, giving, events, and more. 

7. Feeding America

Feeding America is doing something we are constantly pushing for: highlighting the perspective of the people who they are helping. Much of their Instagram feed is of the people Feeding America supports, with direct quotes and storytelling. 

It’s important to shine light on the reason why your organization is doing what it’s doing. The WHO of your organization ultimately leads to the WHY of your mission, so make sure you are giving your audience an idea of who they are supporting. 

Tara Moradian