Tips on how to attract more people to volunteer at nonprofit using social media

By Erica Sunarjo

Updated Sep 17, 2020 at 04:26 PM

Reading time: 2 minutes

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Image by Riccardo Raspa

What is one of the most challenging things about running a nonprofit organisation? Engaging and recruiting new volunteers. The new generation is interested in volunteering, and that’s a great thing. But the problem is that there are many nonprofit organisations in the world, and it’s difficult to convince people to choose one project.

Today, social media gives us a chance to connect with prospective volunteers. That’s why it’s important we learn how to use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms to attract more new gens to nonprofits.

First of all, you should explain to people why you started your nonprofit organisation and what goals you want to achieve. You should demonstrate the importance of your work and emphasize the difference you make. Your audience should get a clear understanding that your organisation is a great place to gain volunteering experience at.

You can share your story in the form of long posts, videos, or interviews with the founders of nonprofit. Your volunteering program is unique, so you should find your own way to share your story with the world.

Millennials and gen Zers want to make a difference; they want to find meaningful work. So the next step you should take is to explain to your social media followers in what specific way one person can contribute to a global goal.

Here’s where you can start:

• List the roles of prospective volunteers.
• Write down what specific tasks and assignments each volunteer should complete.
• State it clearly what concrete goals nonprofit will achieve thanks to the work of one volunteer.

Who are your prospective volunteers? How old are they? What languages do they speak? You should find answers to these before crafting your content strategy.

To attract more people to your nonprofit organisation, you should clearly understand who your target audience is. That will give you an idea of what type of content to create to appeal to prospective volunteers.

Here is a simple tip that will help you to boost your social media efforts. Marie Fincher, an editor at ClassyEssay, explains: “You should always speak the language of prospective volunteers. If most of your followers use slang, acronyms, and emojis—you should do the same. If your target audience comes from France—you should write your posts in French.”

Don’t know how to convince your audience? Use statistics and facts. Show your followers that you are dealing with a real problem and that you do need help from volunteers.

Also, be ready to share the sources of information you are using when writing social media posts. You are responsible for providing prospective volunteers with access to relevant, trustworthy data, so they will be able to learn more about the problem.

Your nonprofit organisation exists because you are trying to help someone who suffers. That’s true, but when crafting social media posts, you should focus more on positive rather than negative things related to your work.

For instance, our nonprofit organisation helps empower women who live in rural areas of Nepal. On social media, we should write more about women whom we helped rather than about women who suffer from various issues on a daily basis.

However, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t share ‘sad stories’. It means that you should publish happy stories more often than sad ones. Otherwise, your social media content will get your followers depressed, not motivated to volunteer.

To win your audience’s attention, create high-quality, engaging content:

• Videos: use explanatory videos, how-to videos, interviews with employees and volunteers, and other types of video content to draw the people’s attention to your nonprofit organisation.
• Infographics: this type of content works well when you need to explain a sophisticated topic related to your niche, or when you need to present a big amount of statistics.
• Interactive content: you can use quizzes, tests, and polls to engage, educate, and entertain prospective volunteers.

Thousands of social media users are thinking about becoming volunteers at nonprofit organisations. So if you create interesting, engage content for Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, you will attract more people to your projects. And, consequently, you will get more power to change this world for the better.