Social media gain for the non-profits

Priyadarshini Sachdev, a Bengaluru-based software professional, itches to do “something good for the society”. That’s the reason the 32-year-old gave up on her plush job to train her focus on her dream project—a not-for-profit organization for the senior citizens. The first thing she did was to create a page for the organization—Samvedna—on Facebook. With her first social event in 2013 to create awareness for the safety of senior citizens, which she shared on the social media page, Sachdev garnered a huge success in terms of participation and donations.

Posting regular updates on Facebook, sharing links on Twitter, posting pictures on Instagram maybe a routine for most of us narcissistic souls, but the truth is that almost all participants of the society—be it corporate, government, or the police—are using the social media to reach out to millions across the globe. The newest entrants in the bandwagon are the not-for-profit organisations, who are seeking to connect directly with their patrons and beneficiaries, at little or no extra cost. In fact, in all aspects, it is about 10 times cheaper than the traditional mediums like print, or television.

It’s not just the rookies who are depending on it, but also reputed Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) such as Greenpeace, CRY, Akshaya Patra of ISKCON and Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled, who have strategised the use of social media in the business of doing good. Promoting campaigns for mass appeal, tapping online feedback and chats on the social media, identifying opportunities are few of the leveraging points that NGOs are exploiting through social media.

At Greenpeace, a dedicated team of 11 is entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring online discussions and conversations to find out trending topics on social media. Once the relevant data is in, a series of tweets, posts on Facebook, and pictures are uploaded on Instagram. Not just that, they use various monitoring tools also, to follow the buzz their activity has generated in real time. Digital marketers, after all, is not just a fancy post created by corporate. It involves a careful study of the impact of digital space, of which social media is a prominent part, and using the insight to strategise the company’s placement therein. Navdha Malhotra, digital marketing manager of Greenpeace India agrees, and says, “Social media helps you measure things in real-time, which traditional media does not allow, and NGOs can get more bang for their buck out of this.”

Greenpeace’s digital team was formed in 2009 with just one person. The massive Akshaya Patra programme that provides mid-day meals to schoolchildren, as part of ISKCON, has five dedicated members to monitor the social media, and 15 more to strategise its digital presence. The Samarthanam Trust, which recently jumped into the fray, plans to hire two dedicated resources to manage its digital strategy.

Although the social media has been by NGOs in earlier instances too, it was largely restricted to basic conversations and passive promotions. The not-for-profit entities are now using these platforms more actively to generate more support, find volunteers and even raise funds.

Samarthanam Trust, for instance, existed on social media merely as an inactive page until recently, and that too because one of the volunteers created an account, Prateek Madhav, chief executive of the trust says. The focus on social media shifted for the trust after they realized that it could be a viable medium to rope in retail donors—like you and me—that accounts for nearly 45 percent of the donor base. It can be anyone’s guess that this 45 percent primarily includes the population born between the 1970s and 1990s. Madhav says, “It was important to create an online experience for them, as they engage with that medium the most and we will only see more of our donor base coming from this cohort in the future.”

After Facebook launched its ‘donate now’ button for non-profits in August last year, the Akshaya Patra foundation has taken due advantage of it. The foundation gets 25-30 clicks every day on its ‘donate now’ feature, and the donations thereafter contribute a significant 20 per cent to its overall online donations of close to Rs 12 crore every year on an average. The foundation’s total fund inflow through donations stands at about Rs 100 crore every year. Ajay Kavishwar, director of communications at Akshaya Patra estimates the social media’s contribution to online donations to increase by almost 70 percent in the next three years.

Samarthanam Trust also plans to expand the quantum of presence that social media has provided them, by making it the primary medium of engagement. “We want to have a digital-first approach where information about our campaigns, etc., will be first published online and we may also skip traditional media (like pamphlets) altogether,” Madhav says. But Samarthanam Trust, Greenpeace or CRY hasn’t logged on to request donations as yet. For fund-raising, Greenpeace relies on other digital means like e-mailers.

But Sachdev cautions that random updates and bombarding all kinds of social mediums can actually do more damage than good. “You can come across as vain and purposeless. It is important to chart out a strategy and identify where your campaign will be most effective.”

Anita Bala of CRY attempts to add perspective. She says that every medium demands a different content strategy. “Although our messaging across platforms remains the same, we tweak the content according to the platform it is being shared on. What works on Twitter, for instance, does not necessarily work on Instagram,” she says. When posting reactions and experiences, the post performs best on LinkedIn, Twitter, on the other hand, is most effective for promoting events, or opinions or thoughts. For personal stories and pictures of children, Facebook and Instagram are good platforms, Bala explains.

But if you overdo it, one runs the risk of being identified as a spam. So how can one strike a balance? “We update people with a maximum of 3 to 4 posts a day. We realized that if you post too much, your followers hide you. So, not bombarding the audience works as they stay engaged for a longer time,” Malhotra of Greenpeace says.