Utilizing SoSha's organic social sharing tools, advocacy groups have been able to drive big results with small-dollar donors.
With the election over, many organizations are now looking to take advantage of end-of-year donations, especially from small-dollar donors. With 30% of all annual giving happening in the month of December, and the volume of giving on Giving Tuesday which saw $3.1 billion given in 2023, these are crucial weeks to amplify your messaging and connect with donors.
For the past five years, SoSha has supported numerous advocacy organizations with their fundraising efforts, from campaign fundraising events to end-of-year giving. Focusing on engaging small-dollar donors, SoSha’s organic social sharing platform helps organizations share their messaging with supporters and donors, effectively replicating word-of-mouth marketing in digital spaces.
Here are a few examples of how SoSha partners utilized best practices to drive small-dollar donations, and how your organization can implement them to meet your end-of-year giving objectives:
Placing your campaign mission/objectives at the center of your fundraising
Longtime SoSha partner and non-profit advocacy organization Demcast USA utilized SoSha toolkits in September to amplify fundraising campaigns for down ballot Supreme Court candidates across various states.
DemCast provided supporters with a range of state Supreme Court races to promote and contribute to depending on whichever race supporters most identified with, increasing the probability of sharing.
Working in partnership with political advising platform and SoSha partner Oath, DemCast highlighted specific races across the country to donate to, with a variety of customizable messaging and available platforms for supporters to potentially share content, increasing supporter sharing and the likelihood of donations.
Over the course of two weeks, over 200 visitors landed on the toolkit, performing 150 shares and driving 87 clicks to the donation pages. While modest numbers, these clicks generated 25 donations – a significant 28% conversion rate – amounting to a total of approximately $2,600 in donations without a single dollar of additional marketing and advertising.
Translating pre and post-event enthusiasm into donations
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin (WisDems) capitalized on an online campaign fundraising event they were hosting in late September to encourage attendees to share event details and their participation with their networks after signing up.
Post-action or post-event sharing is one of the most underutilized yet critical strategies organizers can use to ensure they’re getting the most out of their content and messaging and sustaining donor engagement. Providing non-financial avenues of community engagement to prospective and current donors will keep overall community interest high, reinforce authenticity and increase the likelihood of future fundraising opportunities. WisDems also used mandatory donations as a prerequisite of joining the event, boosting potential dollars by using the draw of their celebrity event attendees.
WisDems was able to capitalize on a star-studded event to generate enthusiasm pre and post-event. Celebrities notwithstanding, organizations can utilize event promos, recordings, and influencer involvement to generate additional opportunities for donations.
Utilizing SoSha toolkits to maximize pre and post-sharing opportunities, WisDems generated 361 shares that drove 292 clicks to their event registration page. From SoSha shares alone, WisDems saw 42 donations, totalling nearly $1,200.
Providing a mix of donation and non-donation related messaging
Voter Registration PAC and SoSha partner Field Team 6 made use of SoSha toolkits extensively in the last few months, engaging supporters and across a variety of campaigns, from voter registration leading up election day, to their own Giving Tuesday campaign.
Within these toolkits are social posts that either encourage a call to action surrounding donating for specific campaigns, or action across a variety of other different campaigns such as events registration, GOTV, or issue amplification.
Providing posts with non-donation CTAs allow for potential audiences to interact with your campaigns even if they’re not ready to make a financial commitment yet, and over-time can increase the likelihood more people will see your more donation-specific messaging and contribute.
For Field Team 6, posts focused on donations were shared 2,153 times over Q3-4 2024. These shares via SoSha toolkits generated 1,587 clicks to Field Team 6’s donation pages across a wide variety of campaigns, generating over 100 donations, amounting to over four thousand dollars.
The Takeaway
There is still enough time for organizations to utilize these organic social sharing strategies to engage potential small-dollar donors. By using the right tools and being strategic about where and how your fundraising messaging is deployed online, your organization can find cost-effective ways to both expand your end-of-year funding pool and lay the groundwork to engage digital communities for next year’s organizing.
Want to learn more about SoSha or understand how SoSha’s features would work in your current digital strategy? Curious if SoSha is right for your organization?
Visit our Request a Demo page to schedule a free 15-30 minute consultation with our team to learn more!