Promote Your Fundraising Sweepstakes with Organic Social Media

The most successful nonprofit fundraising sweepstakes are those that consistently market their fundraiser through multiple avenues on an ongoing basis throughout the duration of the sweepstakes, including:

• Prominently featuring their sweepstakes on their website (this also helps donors recognize that it is a legitimate fundraiser),

• Sending out regular emails to their donor base (find examples of great emails here),

• Posting on their existing social media channels,

• And working with other social media channels when possible.

In this blog post, we’ll look at top strategies for making the most of your organic social media campaigns. It essentially comes down to one core tenet of sweepstakes success: The more people that know about your fundraiser, the better it will do.

Let’s strategize about the best ways to spread the word.

Promoting Fundraising Sweepstakes on Organic Social Media

For the purpose of today’s post, let’s zero in on organic social media engagement. “Organic” social media engagement is any interaction that occurs without a paid promotion, meaning that you’re not paying to advertise, “boost”, or promote your posts — and you’re not running ads.

Side note: Running ads is often a good idea, particularly for larger nonprofits running sweepstakes for big prizes, like cars, camper vans, and exotic trips. Paid social media campaigns can be incredibly effective at raising funds with a fundraising sweepstakes, and we typically recommend that nonprofits work with marketing agencies in these cases. We are happy to make referrals for nonprofit customers to our partner marketing agencies.

Leveraging your nonprofit’s current social media accounts is a cost-effective way to raise awareness for your sweepstakes, and it uniquely presents the opportunity for your posts to be shared beyond your existing audience.

Create a Great Social Media Post

In all social media posts, be sure to include: 

• A compelling image or video of your prize…

• Copy that clearly explains what your prize is…

• Language that encourages the viewer to take action and enter…

• A link back to your fundraising sweepstakes page with a promo code to help you track which posts are doing best. TapKat makes it very easy to put a promo code on any piece of marketing material (learn more).

And for bonus points, include…

• Hashtags to teach the social media platform how to categorize your posts and help new people find your content...

• An explanation as to how their donation will benefit the organization (who it will help).

Make your posts clear, colorful, and easy to read, and chances are good that you’ll see organic results when you market your TapKat sweepstakes on your social media channels!

How Often to Post on Social Media

Of course, the level of engagement you receive with your sweepstakes posts will depend on how active you are on social media and how engaged your followers are already. At a minimum, we recommend weaving in 1-2 social media posts per month, although this can change based on the platform you’re using. 

Facebook and Instagram: Posting 1-2 times monthly on your Facebook and/or Instagram pages is a good way to keep the sweepstakes top of mind without overwhelming your followers. However, if you use the stories feature, you can post much more frequently (stories disappear off your profile after 24 hours). 

X: This platform demands a much higher frequency of posting in order to be impactful. If you’re already active on X, you can post up to 2-3 times per week, just as long as the sweepstakes isn’t the only thing you’re posting. If you use the platform less frequently, 2-3 times per month is best.

LinkedIn: Plenty of professionals on LinkedIn are looking for ways to support nonprofits and important causes. On LinkedIn, emphasize the positive outcome the sweepstakes is having for your organization, and post any time you have news to share (such as hitting a landmark raise amount, announcing that there is limited time left to enter before the winner is pulled, revealing a new promo code, etc.) In general, posting on LinkedIn 1-2 times a month is a good guideline. Something interesting to note: LinkedIn prioritizes posts from people, not companies. While it’s a great idea to share your news on your nonprofit page, when individuals post the same news, it will likely get more traction.

TikTok: If your organization is already using TikTok, you can post as frequently as once per week about the sweepstakes.

Remember, these are just recommendations. No one knows your audience better than you do, so make adjustments as you see fit.

Reach More People with Your Social Media Posts

These days, one of the best ways to reach more people with your social media posts is to work with partners and sponsors. Is there another organization or business or influencer that would post on your behalf? Perhaps an entity that works in the same space and wants to support your cause?

Creating a “collaboration” with another account on Instagram can be a great way to get more eyes on your posts. This is easy to do when you’re creating your post, and the other account will be notified that you have requested to collaborate. If they accept your invitation, the post will show up to all their followers, as well as yours. It can greatly increase the number of views on a given post.

Go Forth and Post!

Finally, remember to have fun while you’re putting together your campaign. The more energy and enthusiasm behind a fundraising sweepstakes, the more electric the campaign will become! And, when it doubt, follow these three rules for great social media posts:

• Be creative

• Be clear

• Be consistent

Now go forth and create!

Interested in taking your understanding deeper? Check out TapKat’s FREE Marketing Tools Deep Dive webinar, where we use examples of what real nonprofits are doing successfully to maximize the impact of their fundraising sweepstakes marketing.