Five Steps To The Right Nonprofit Influencers

Posted on February 25, 2022

Influencer marketing for nonprofits is an effective marketing tactic – it’s an established strategy with a new home. Celebrities and large nonprofits pair up regularly for good causes often, yet social media transformed the influencer marketing landscape with a network of niches and spheres of influence.

With the right voices and platform, a nonprofit extends its reach to reach a new audience that cares about its mission. Many audiences pay closer attention to recommendations from their favorite influencers than those of prominent celebrities.

There are influential people enthusiastic about advocating for your cause and organization – you need to find them and create a partnership. The internet is full of prominent and talented people who share your values – you only need to find them, connect, and create a partnership.

Benefits of influencer marketing for nonprofits 

When you think about influencer marketing, it’s understandable to connect it to industries like fashion and beauty. Networks like Instagram and TikTok serve as platforms for business empires. In an increasingly socially conscious world, influencer marketing works for nonprofits, too.

Tapping into the influencer talent pool can:  

• Increase your brand awareness – an influencer gives your organization access to new followers, donors and volunteers
• Reach the right audience – influencers allow you to access an audience that’s already paying attention
• Boost credibility – when an influencer speaks on behalf of your organization, they appeal to the trust of their followers. Influencers shortcut the long process of social proof. Rather than depending on the number of positive mentions, likes and shares, an influencer’s endorsement persuades people you’re trustworthy, too.

Here are five tips for finding the right nonprofit influencers for your organization:

1. Research

Finding the best influencer for your cause begins with researching nonprofit influencer-marketing trends, your target market, and other benchmarks.

Hashtags are a good starting point for your research. Studying trending nonprofit hashtags helps identify influencers associated with your cause.

A deeper dive will reveal the influencers supporting nonprofits similar to yours, with valuable insights by approaching those nonprofits and finding out how their influencer marketing experience played out. If you find different nonprofits that have hired other influencers, you could compare their experiences. Keep in mind that the success of an influencer for one organization does not mean they will be equally effective for yours.

Influencer databases are accessible through paid services, and tools like iConnectx offer data analytics of previous influencer marketing campaigns.

In-depth research helps establish the roadmap for influencer marketing. It also enables you to identify costs associated with influencer marketing to help you budget.

2. Identify your Audience

When planning a fundraiser, one of the first steps is to identify your audience –demographics, interests, and the social media channels they use.

Details about your audience help identify the influencers who resonate with your audience. Once you know your audience’s passions, you can find an influencer to make an impact.

3. Identify the Social Media Channels for Marketing

Influencer marketing is effective on social media platforms. However, one influencer may not be effective on all social media channels because audiences vary from platform to platform. An influencer with many followers on Instagram may not have a similar following or network on LinkedIn.

4. Choose an influencer who aligns with your mission

You may find several influencers with a vast following — we suggest you select influencers who share your core values.

5. Three types of influencers

You will likely find several potential candidates ranging from celebrities to micro-influencers. It’s tempting to engage a big name to speak for your brand; however, the cost implications for hiring a big name are much higher than hiring a micro-influencer. Don’t assume that bigger is better when looking for an influencer.

When it’s time to present your candidate with an offer, be clear with what you want – Facebook posts, Instagram posts and stories, video, and so on.)

There are three main types of influencers: top-tier, power middle and micro.

Top tier influencers

Top tier influencers are public figures with a high reach, from 750k to 1M-plus followers across all platforms. These people are noteworthy, recognized, and developed their audience over the years. Generally, these influencers will not work for free, and they have experience working with big brands.

Power middle influencers 

This group of influencers has a moderately-sized audience reach of 50k to 250k followers across social media. They are more likely to have acceptable cost agreements or no price at all.

Micro-influencers

Micro-influencers have less reach, about 10k across social media platforms. It’s important to note that their audiences are highly engaged and accessible to their followers, and their reliability resonates with consumers.

The final word

Beyond your organization’s social media accounts, scan through Instagram and Twitter hashtags related to your cause and use the “suggestion” feature to find similar accounts to theirs.

Follow your influencer candidates on different platforms and engage with them in general. Spend time and energy creating a relationship before you ask them to do something for you.

You could also scan your email subscriber database for influencers; people who signed up for your emails care about your cause and likely share your content.

Whomever you choose, be strategic. Choose quality over quantity.

iConnectX offers a full suite of tools to help nonprofits fundraise, manage and plan events. Our platform provides data and statistics on events and campaigns to help you maximize social media messaging and your influencer campaigns.

Would you like to know more? Reach out to us today!