Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or nonprofits play an incredibly important humane role in the ever-evolving business landscape. In our increasingly materialistic world, seeing and hearing about people who care about others and work for a noble cause always reassures us that selflessness exists.
However, the voice of these organizations may often get lost in the tumult of the paid advertising of large corporations on digital platforms. Still, there are ways nonprofits can spread the word about their cause and influencer marketing for nonprofits is one of those strategies. Let’s learn all about it with the help of our experts.
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What Is Influencer Marketing for Nonprofits?
Influencer marketing is a marketing model that relies on partnerships with people with a large and engaged social media following to promote events, services, products, or even messages. These influencers usually have a large and dedicated following on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, or other sites, like YouTube (where the highest-paid influencer, Christiano Ronaldo earns an estimated $3,234,000 per post in 2024).
Leveraging the trust, credibility, and personal brand of these influencers can benefit nonprofit organizations by allowing them to reach an engaged audience authentically, without the impersonal and often pushy touch of traditional advertising.
For instance, if your NGO focuses on environmental protection, you may partner up with an eco-conscious influencer who has a like-minded following. The influencer can create content around your organization’s mission, events, and initiatives, raising awareness amongst followers who are already engaged and more likely to take action.
Don Dodds, Founder of M16 Marketing & PIEARM.AI, is a firm believer that organizations should focus on partnering with individuals whose values are aligned with their cause.
"Nonprofits can ensure their messaging remains authentic and aligns with their mission by carefully selecting those who genuinely care about and understand the nonprofit’s cause. Clear communication is essential; nonprofits should provide influencers with comprehensive information about their goals, values, and specific campaigns. Collaborating closely with influencers to co-create content allows for a balance between maintaining the nonprofit's message and the influencer’s authentic voice."
The Benefits of Nonprofit Influencer Marketing
NGOs may reap several benefits from working with the right influencers. Increased credibility and improved reach are only two self-explanatory advantages, but the right partnership may also open new opportunities to help your overarching mission.
- Improved awareness
- Authenticity and enhanced credibility
- Reaching the right people
- Cost-effective marketing
- Better content
1. Improved Awareness
The partnership can result in increased cause awareness, especially if you manage to find a partner with a large and dedicated following. Expanding your reach in such a way can help you attract new supporters, create more buzz around your activities, get donations, and even get asked to work on new initiatives.
2. Authenticity and Enhanced Credibility
When influencers speak on your behalf, they are already reaching out to followers with whom they have an ongoing relationship and established trust. Social proof should be already there, meaning that you don’t have to build it yourself.
Also, the right partnership represents an authentic endorsement and is far more trustworthy than traditional advertising. As Clinton Jiggetts, Founder of Best Fit Digital, tells us, this trust and authenticity can go a long way, but only when influencers remain authentic.
"Let influencers align with their type of content. Don't ask them to create "commercials" as we think of them historically. Their followers will see the lack of authenticity if they look like a generic commercial. They risk alienating those followers and no longer being "one of them," which can hurt not just your campaign, but their reputation too."
He also adds that if you insist on following a more traditional advertising approach, you can still take advantage of influencer marketing.
"Consider the passive influencer ads trend, allowing the influencer to remain aligned with their audience, while creating curiosity and ultimately leads, traffic, and attention for your nonprofit."
3. Reaching the Right People
While paid and organic social media together can help you reach more people, growing privacy concerns can make targeting more difficult and ad-blindness will often push both paid and organic content out of the view of your followers. There’s little you can do about IT.
Influencers talk to people who are already listening. Shared beliefs, values, and interests may help you not only expand your reach but tap into a new community of individuals who are ready to take action for the cause.
According to Dodds, when wanting to reach the right audience, you can often take a more cost-effective route, especially if you value quality over quantity follower-wise.
"Partnering with micro-influencers, who have smaller but highly engaged audiences, is often more affordable and can yield significant engagement. Collaborating with influencers who have a personal connection or passion for the cause can lead to collaborations driven by genuine interest rather than financial incentives. Additionally, inviting influencers to participate in events or campaigns allows them to create compelling content and engage with the nonprofit firsthand."
4. Cost-Effective Marketing
When done right, influencer marketing can be highly efficient in comparison to other advertising strategies, especially for nonprofits that generally work with tighter budgets. The more engaged audience can outperform the engagement on your organic posts, there’s no ad-blindness since the content is coming from an organic voice, and the production costs can also be lower as most influencers now have all the tools and knowledge to create and prepare professional content.
5. Better Content
If you’ve prepared content for your social channels and website, you know that producing quality material takes time and mental energy. Sometimes, even a short post can take some planning and effort.
From that standpoint, partnering with an influencer can also help you grow your content assets, while you can focus on other aspects of the organization that serve the cause and your community more effectively.
Growing your content library can help you with other digital approaches too. For instance, earned content can help you with search engine optimization. It may contain high-value links, increase the number of shares, and boost your visibility and relevance in the eyes of Google.
Types of Influencers
Before you get started, it’s important to note that not all influencers are "equal." Here’s what we mean:
- Top-tier influencers: These are public figures with 100k to 1m+ following across their social media channels. They probably won’t work for free and are usually associated with bigger brands. However, the large pool of followers often means that most of them are less engaged and might dismiss your collaboration.
- Middle-tier Influencers: They have a moderate and relatively dedicated reach between 20k and 100k people. Some of them are still building their brand and audience base, meaning they might also be quite flexible regarding partnership costs. They can be a great option if you want to reach more people and are ready to sacrifice some engagement to raise awareness.
- Micro- and nano-influencers: These influencers will usually have 10k or fewer followers, but most often, they have the most engaged audiences, as our experts have already stated. They can be ideal for nonprofits if you value quality over quantity.
How To Choose the Right Influencer
Renee Miller, Founder and Executive Creative Director at The Miller Group, points out that finding the right partner is crucial for successful NGO influencer campaigns.
"Carefully select the influencers and make sure that you communicate your mission and values. Work closely with them to co-create content that authentically represents the cause. Develop clear messaging guidelines to stay on point. Encourage them to share personal stories or connections to the nonprofit's cause."
"Be transparent about the partnership and ensure that their audience knows the nature of the collaboration. Regularly monitor the content produced to ensure it aligns with the nonprofit's mission. Build long-term relationships with influencers rather than one-off collaborations to foster a deeper understanding and commitment to the cause."
But how can you find the best influencer for the campaign? Consider the following:
- Define your target audience: Who’s most likely to join your cause? Create the ideal social media user and look for influencers who have a follower base that’s similar to your ideal user.
- Consider reach: We’ve talked about quality over quantity. Based on your objectives and goals, you may opt for someone with a larger following, if your goal is to raise awareness. If you want more engagement and direct actions, choose someone with a smaller but more devoted follower base.
- Evaluate the content: Take a look at the existing content portfolio of your potential influencer and see whether the way they approach topics aligns with your brand or goals or not. While there, you can also assess the engagement of their content. The more comments, shares, and likes they have, the better the chances that your partnership will bring results.
How To Create a Successful Influencer Campaign
Now that you know the basics of NGO influencer marketing, let’s discuss the ins and outs of preparing a campaign. To ensure success, you will need to take several steps and overcome potential challenges.
- Define your goals and audience
- Choose the influencer
- Plan the campaign and create the content
- Track the campaign’s performance
- Nurture the partnership
Define Your Goals and Audience
Do you want to raise awareness for an upcoming fundraiser, drive donations, or want to promote an ongoing initiative? Knowing what you want to achieve with your campaign will help you decide your campaign goals, establish your budget, and more.
You will also need to identify and understand your target audience and find influencers who align closely with your organization and cause.
Choose the Influencer
Understanding your marketing objectives will also help you find the right influencer. At this point, you will also want to consider your budget. NGOs tend to work with more limited resources, which means that working with an equally dedicated influencer can potentially keep costs lower while maximizing overall effort and keeping authenticity intact.
Plan the Campaign and Create the Content
Next, develop a detailed plan for your campaign with your partner. Touch bases on the type of content you’ll create and use, the channels where the content will be posted, and the length of the campaign. At this point, you can talk about whether you want to focus only on the organic content of your partner or include ads in their reels or short videos.
Try to work on the content together too. This will ensure that your NGO’s brand presence is consistent with the content on your channels, your message is communicated, and your mission and vision don’t get distorted.
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Track the Campaign’s Performance
Even before launching the campaign, talk with your partner and discuss your plan for tracking the project’s metrics. Chances are that they will already have the right analytics tools to track the campaign’s results. You can either rely on their reports or keep a more thorough eye on your digital ecosystem too. If you’re noticing a boost in site traffic, an increase in social followers, and more direct messages and phone calls, chances are that your campaign is headed in the right direction.
According to Dodds, nonprofits can measure performance by looking at several metrics.
"Engagement rates, including likes, comments, shares, and direct messages, indicate how well the content resonates with the audience. Reach and impressions provide insights into the number of people who saw the content and its visibility. Monitoring follower growth on the nonprofit’s social media accounts during and after the campaign can indicate increased interest and support."
Nurture the Partnership
It’s important to regularly communicate with influencers during the campaign. However, even after the project’s end, it’s advisable to maintain a positive relationship with them, as their commitment to the cause and positive experience with your organization may encourage them to create more relevant content for your brand, even when they're not paid to do so anymore.
Influencer Marketing for Nonprofits: Finishing Thoughts
As our experts have pointed out, the key to running successful campaigns with influencers is partnering with people who share the same values as you and are committed to your organization’s cause. This will help you target the right people, create content that aligns with your mission, and could also possibly result in long-term partnerships benefiting both parties.
Lastly, don’t forget to consider quality over quantity. A large following means little if your ideas don’t resonate with the influencer’s following. Often, a smaller and more dedicated crowd will get more engaged and support your cause more efficiently.
Nonprofit Influencer Marketing FAQs
What should you consider when choosing an influencer?
Sharing the same values, ideas, and commitment to the cause is usually the most important thing you should keep in mind. If your organization tackles environmental issues, your best option is to partner up with an eco-conscious influencer with a like-minded following.
How can you overcome the challenges of working with a limited budget in influencer marketing?
NGOs usually won’t have the massive advertising budgets to match commercial entities. As such, they should consider finding niche-specific micro- or nano-influencers, who will often be very flexible regarding their fees. These people will also probably have a dedicated following who are likely to take action, improving ROI even further.
What’s the key to a blossoming long-term partnership with influencers?
Communication is paramount. Just with clients and your community, regular and transparent communication can foster an environment where your organization and the influencer can establish a long-term collaboration from a one-time project.
