LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network on the internet. You may use it to search for jobs, connect with professionals, or check in on friends’ job statuses. But are you utilizing LinkedIn for your nonprofit organization? Coming straight from the LinkedIn for Nonprofit page itself, LinkedIn can power your nonprofit in the following ways.
- Hire – Find and engage the right candidates and make smart talent decisions with LinkedIn data and insights
- Market – Build your brand, showcase your impact, and attract new donors, volunteers, and talent at scale
- Fundraise – Cultivate major donors, build strategic partnerships, and leverage the collective power of your team’s network
- Learn – Support your team and ensure your nonprofit has the skills it needs with personalized learning experiences
It’s time for your nonprofit to take advantage of the world’s largest professional network. Whether your goal is to cultivate engagement, increase donations, build professional relationships, or find volunteers, we’re here to show you how to do it on LinkedIn.
What are your goals?
Before you start using LinkedIn for your organization, identify what you want to accomplish. You can have multiple goals but your strategy should prioritize which are most important to your organization. Consider and rank the following questions:
- Do you want to increase the number of LinkedIn followers?
- Do you want to use LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website?
- Do you want to generate donation leads?
- Do you want to build a reputation as an expert for your cause?
- Do you want to use LinkedIn to share messaging to your donor base?
- Do you want to hire staff or recruit volunteers?
Establish a page
If you haven’t set up a LinkedIn company page, this should be your first step. Make sure to include your logo, a link to your website, your mission statement, and a cover photo. Once you’ve established your page, spread the word so that your staff, board members, and volunteers can add their experiences with your organization to their own personal profiles.
Post relevant content
LinkedIn differs from other social media platforms because it prioritizes both personal and professional relationships. Leverage your constituent’s networks to build real connections with your audience. Content that fits well on LinkedIn includes:
- Board Member Announcements
- Blog Posts
- Event Recaps
- News about your Organization
- Staff Updates
- Community Celebrations
- Sponsorships or Partnerships
To compare, set aside time to research content that other nonprofit organizations share on LinkedIn. Evaluate what you like about their content, what you would change, and translate your findings into your own organization’s LinkedIn content.
Use LinkedIn Ads
If you’ve created your organic LinkedIn content but are interested in setting aside part of your budget for LinkedIn ads, there are several different ad placement options.
Sponsored Content
Sponsored LinkedIn ads show up on your audiences’ LinkedIn feed and are labeled as promoted. You have the option of running video, photo, or image carousel ads. Like Facebook’s Boosted Post Ads, you have the option to control your reach and audience. Sponsored content can drive leads, donations, build brand awareness, and help you develop relationships with your constituents. Showcase how your organization is making a change and invite your audience to get involved in your cause.
Message Ads
Sponsored messaging allows you to directly advertise to LinkedIn members in their inbox. Include a specific targeted message and a purposeful Call to Action to attract your target audience and promote traffic towards your organization. This is also helpful if you are looking to target a more specific audience. For example, your organization is looking for volunteers with a background in human resources.
Text Ads
If you are on a tight budget or looking to build leads, text ads are a great option. Text Ads increase the visibility of your organization and showcase your mission. You can use your set budget to target a professional audience and control costs with pay per click or cost per impression pricing. You can also target your audience based on location, demographics, skills, interests, and more.
Dynamic Ads
Dynamic Ads are personalized based on the information in the user’s profile. LinkedIn offers templates for Dynamic Ads and each ad will populate with the user’s data. Dynamic Ads are a good option for organizations looking to drive traffic, convert prospects, or build awareness.
When it comes to LinkedIn advertising, nonprofit organizations have several different options that can be catered to your audience, goals, and budget.
LinkedIn Analytics
After you’ve implemented your LinkedIn strategy, you want to make sure that your efforts are paying off. LinkedIn offers several different metrics that can help you gain insight into your performance. You can break down your data by:
- Page views
- Follower count
- Button clicks
- Traffic sources
- Audience demographics
- Search appearances
Utilize this information to improve your content and create a data-driven marketing strategy. For example, if you notice that most of your audience is located in California and you are trying to expand to other states, adapt your strategy to target different audiences.
LinkedIn Nonprofit Examples
Step Up For Students
What we love: Complete Profile
Step Up for Student’s LinkedIn profile is complete with their logo, a cover photo, a link to their website, along with their detailed mission statement and objective.
Upon discovering their page, it’s easy to discover the purpose of their organization. Their complete page makes it inviting for anyone who discovers their organization. Along with this, staff are shown on their LinkedIn page which establishes credibility and helps increase awareness to their staff’s following.
Wounded Warrior Project
What we love: Consistent Posting
The hours between 9 a.m to 5 p.m during the workweek have been shown to be when LinkedIn users are most active. Wounded Warrior Project posts content daily that showcases their events, supporters and accomplishments as an organization.
Make-A-Wish
What we love: Using staff and partnerships
If your nonprofit organization has staff that are active on Linkedin or corporate partnerships that feature your organization, utilize their posts on Linkedin. Make-A-Wish reshares posts from their staff along with posts from their corporate partners and sponsors. It’s a great way to increase visibility while highlighting your connections.
LinkedIn is a great platform for professional and relevant content that establishes your organization’s credibility, builds relationships, and spreads awareness about your organization. We created a LinkedIn for Nonprofits checklist so you can start creating your LinkedIn content today!
If you’re looking for strategy or implementation help, or general nonprofit consulting, please reach out to our team!
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