A team of researchers from NYU, the University of Miami and the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg found that nonprofit organizations raise more money via social media when focusing on philanthropy.
Researchers gathered data from an eight-year fundraising tournament facilitated by the nonprofit Brackets for Good, which created a competitive bracket with 64 fundraisers to determine which strategies yield the most donations. The study categorized social media posts into three main messaging strategies: philanthropic framing, gamification framing and crowdsourcing framing.
The study found an increase in philanthropy-related tweets brought in around $500 – $600 more — while the same increase in gamification-focused posts was negatively related to donations, causing around $340 – $380 in losses. Crowdfunding framing yielded no significant results.
In a statement to WSN, Jamie Levine Daniel — an associate professor at NYU Wagner and co-author of the study — said that while this most recent study offered new details regarding how different types of nonprofits work with different framings, the research was overall aligned with what they had previously found.
Levine Daniel said that the competition simulated in the bracket reflected the inherently competitive environment between fundraisers on social media. She said that while competition was a positive incentive for nonprofits, its influence needs to be recognized by the donors, fundraisers and other stakeholders.
While the study did not take into account the impact of social media algorithms, Levine Daniel noted in her statement that fundraising organizers found hashtag use essential for grabbing attention of donors and for capturing the data to link to donation streams.
As nonprofits continue to recover from job losses and other instabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, social media plays a significant part in their fundraising efforts and ability to build relationships with stakeholders. Authors concluded that amid heightened efforts to raise money via social media, strategic marketing efforts and ongoing research in the field are critical.
“Almost every person here at NYU has impacted and/or been impacted by a nonprofit organization at some point in their life,” Levine Daniel told WSN. “Our work helps shed light on the realities and challenges these organizations face as they attempt to carry out their missions and provide public goods and services.”
Contact Kaleo Zhu at [email protected].
