Donors Social Media Usage Varies by Cause

Many nonprofits make the mistake of casting a wide net when it comes to reaching donors through social media. They figure the bigger the network, the better. That's why 93% of nonprofits use Facebook and 83% use Instagram. But those platforms are also noisy and competing to get your voice out there is a challenge.

If you're trying to get in front of donors, maybe Facebook isn't the right place. Turns out, social media behavior amongst donors varies quite a bit based upon the cause.

With data provided by the audience analysis platform, SparkToro, we can see that donors for some causes tend to be more prevalent on Pinterest, and others tend to be more prevalent on LinkedIn. Knowing where your donor audience is online is critical in making your marketing resources stretch to truly make an impact. To do that, let's look at social media indexes by cause.

What is an Index?

An index compares a particular audience's usage to the US average. A high index means your audience is more likely than average to be using that platform. A low index or negative index means your audience is less likely to be found on that platform.

Social Media Index by Cause

Donors have different social media behavior depending on their cause. Those who donate to art museums are more likely to be on Pinterest, Instagram, and X. Those who donate to LGBTQ+ are more likely to be on TikTok, Quora, and X. And donors to symphony orchestras are more likely to be on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Below is a chart to show the differences between various causes and their social media behavior. Simply click on the legend to select/de-select a particular cause and mouse over the chart for details.

Index vs Volume

One last note, it's important to consider the overall volume vs the index when deciding which social media platforms to invest in. For example, a high index on Quora (which has 158M US users) may not be as helpful as a medium index on TikTok (which has 703M US users.) Your best bets are social media platforms that have both a medium-high index and enough users to make an impact.