5 Inspiring Not For Profit Social Media Campaigns

19th October 2018

For most not for profit organisations, their main goal is to increase donations to their specific cause. With the explosion of social media over the last 10 years, NFPs now have even more scope to create inspiring content that reaches more people than ever before.

Looking for inspiration for your next campaign? Check out five brilliant campaigns from charities below, which helped to widen the reach of their cause and increase donations.

Breast Cancer Now – #WearItPink

 

Every October, Breast Cancer Now holds their annual #WearItPink day. The charity uses the hashtag across social media to raise awareness, encouraging people to take part and share their pink outfits and other preparations for the day. The charity has also created a microsite for the annual event, which provides news, events, fundraising ideas and the option to sign up and donate.

Last year, they focused their campaign efforts on personalisation, creating videos for supporters who had used the hashtag. This in turn increased engagement and reach of the campaign even further, whilst creating a fantastic sense of community.

UNICEF Sweden – Likes Don’t Save Lives

 

When UNICEF revealed their Likes Don’t Save Lives campaign back In 2013, it caused a stir thanks to its straight talking headlines. They were the first major international charity to come right out and say that likes and virtual support was not enough – they needed money and supplies.

They created four heart-wrenching YouTube videos and each one ended with the message that likes can’t fund vaccinations. The videos were viewed over 750,000 times across 195 countries and gained more than 10,500 tweets during the campaign’s duration. This brave decision to ask difficult questions no one else was certainly paid off, with a large increase in supporters and donors.

WaterAid – #GiveAShit

 

In 2016, Water Aid joined forces with The Pub to bring the issue of global sanitation to the forefront of everyone’s social conversations. Taking advantage of the popularity of the poop emoji, the #GiveAShit campaign offered a fun way to learn more about a serious subject that affects around 2.3 billion people.

This fairly simply idea began to spread across social media, particularly when some of the world’s biggest stars were given their own personalised poop emojis. Water Aid also created a free app that allowed users to create their own custom emoji to share with their friends and donate to the cause.

This campaign was a huge success, capturing the imagination of all ages in 53 countries, with media coverage in the likes of Huffington Post, Mashable, Metro and Yahoo!. Most importantly, it brought more than 11,000 new supporters to Water Aid.

WWF Denmark – #LastSelfie

 

In 2014, the Danish branch of WWF took advantage of the Snapchat craze to get their serious point across. They used the fleeting nature of Snapchat images to illustrate how quickly it takes to an endangered species to be wiped out forever.

The ads featured one of five different endangered animals with the message ‘Don’t let this be my #LastSelfie’ written across them. It also encouraged users to take a photo of the ad and share it with their friends. The Snapchat ads were seen by 120 million users, which represented 50% of all users at the time. Due to the provocative nature of the ads, they were also shared on Facebook and by over 40,000 Twitter users along with the hashtag, helping to spread the cause and engagement even further.

Because of this campaign, The WWF met its monthly donation target in just three days.

SOS Children’s Villages International Norway

 

Another highly emotional campaign was created by SOS Children’s Villages International, which aimed to raise awareness of the situation of children in Syria. They set up a hidden camera and placed an 11-year old boy at a bus stop on a freezing cold day in Oslo, Norway. The result is a heart-warming video of strangers taking off their own coats and wrapping them around the boy, bridging a gap between our own lives and those in crisis in a different country. The video ends with a message encouraging viewers to text donate.

The video has now amassed an incredible 20 million views on YouTube and the charity surpassed their fundraising target by over 10 times, enough to buy more than 26,000 jackets. The campaign also generated more than 800 articles, as well as featuring on numerous TV and radio show across the globe.

Whilst these promotions are fantastic and serve as some great inspiration for your next not for profit campaign, we know that getting your hashtag to go viral isn’t exactly the easiest task in the world. There are however many simple and cost-effective ways to ensure your social media connects with your audience. One option is sharing photos or quotes from your beneficiaries, volunteers and staff with a link to your website. This is a great way to personalise your content, stand out from the crowd and show people exactly why they should be supporting your cause.

Looking for more help with your social media? Call WillCreate today and speak to one of our experts.