Impact Through Influence - How social impact organizations can widen their Millennial & Gen Z donor base by leveraging the creator economy

Why Should Your Social Impact Organization Use Influencers?

Influencers and content creators can help raise awareness and expand market reach. However, as social impact marketers know, the investment to turn one-time engagement into advocacy is a one-to-one or one-to-many game, making email and direct mail go-to tactics. Non-profit marketing is personalized and segmented, coupled with data that isn’t always as robust as for-profit product-based consumer analytics. While there are obvious differences, it’s time to start thinking of our social-impact organizations like a business if we want to see growth and longevity. Investing in digital marketing should be at the top of that to-do list. 

Long before I jumped into the world of social-impact and cause-driven marketing, I cut my teeth in the private sector where driving the bottom line through marketing was key. I focused on allocating resources in a way that helped my team widen our company’s market share and deepen our impact with the customer base, so they chose to spend their dollars with us instead of our competitors (shout out to my days at Pandora Jewelry, Pretzel Crisps, and Freshology where we dug deep into our competitor analysis bag). That skill set would come to be useful while crafting cause-driven marketing campaigns. Understanding that customer centricity, trust, and education are the foundational necessities for brand loyalty helped to craft my marketing campaigns at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, a non-profit performing arts organization. 

We did not assume customers knew or understood all our product/concert offerings, so we used our brochure to tell them, and then we used social media to reiterate a sense of belonging. The thought process was to paint a picture to share what they could expect and lift the veil of mystery shrouded around an evening at the symphony. We started with more frequent posts to gauge the level of engagement. We tested videos, carousels, behind-the-scenes, interviews, and user-generated content. After a few months (yes, months. Solid testing takes time and patience), we forged ahead with a few initiatives, one of them being user-generated content. One of the tests even involved me as a mystery arts influencer writing an article (advertorial) about our upcoming concerts in the Baltimore Sun with a prompt to visit our website and social media platforms. That quickly sparked the idea to invite influencers out to concerts as a formal marketing campaign. 

Our Fusion series was the perfect opportunity to test this initiative because the program skewed toward a younger audience who was more likely to be a part of an online community. We curated a list of the city’s relevant influencers and invited them out. They posted ahead of time as “meet & greet” opportunities and created loads of fantastic reels, photos, and stories on Instagram from different perspectives the day of the concert. By reposting these experiences on our own account, potential customers could find a sense of belonging by seeing how the concert experience could be tailored to their liking. Our events team worked to curate post-worthy onsite activations and encouraged tagging us which was a true accelerator for user-generated content. We were then able to leverage the networks of our concertgoers and essentially turned everyone with a smartphone and a social media account into a brand ambassador. 

How Can Your Social Impact Organization Use Influencers?

During intermission, I would walk around to all the influencers I could find to introduce myself and ask about their experience. We’d chat about how their posts performed and any early insights they wanted to share. I requested feedback about the overall messaging and provided them with information about our other initiatives that focused on community engagement and arts education programs. While I know this is vastly different from an organization that is focused on hunger, workplace development, education, or human rights, there is a way to adopt this ideology. 

Offer them a seat at the table. 

Find a handful of influencers and content creators who are in true alignment with your mission. Set up calls or meetings to gauge if the fit is right and if it is, make them a part of your team. They're bona fied content marketers with an impactful skill that shouldn't be discounted. Whether you set up a limited brand partnership, or put them on an advisory council or payroll, you should formally invest in the relationship. Since the work social-impact organizations do isn’t tangible like a product, communication is necessary and should be a two-way street. Ask their feedback to ensure your message is clear to those outside of your organization and work together to make it relatable. If the influencer(s) is well versed in your mission, they can speak to the cause authentically. If you’ll recall in a previous article, I shared how Millennial and Gen-Z donors value transparency because they’re more likely to budget for philanthropy than prior generations. Having a deeply engaged trusted influencer or content creator as part of your team can provide your organization access to a built-in community where support can truly thrive. 

To find real-world examples of how leveraging celebrity as a part of your team can be beneficial, look to the fashion industry. While still for-profit, the high fashion houses are calling in stylish celebs as creative directors to provide true customer insight on what’s popular and well-received to game plan months and sometimes years in advance. Celebrities are looked to for inspiration, so the fashion houses have made those public muses a part of the internal process. Since this shift, we’re seeing things like capsule collections that feel personalized or even brand overhauls that are more resonate with today’s customers. 

In short, a symbiotic relationship is how social-impact organizations can leverage influencers. Beyond a post or two, influencers should have a vested interest in your mission and be armed with substantial knowledge of the inner workings of how you’re solving the problem your organization services. Content creators and influencers are wonderful champions to have in your corner. Just remember that partnership is key, and you’ll be set up for a winning initiative.