The Impact of Social Media on The Non-profit Organizations

Introduction

Non-profit organizations play an important role in our society by providing goods and services to low-income communities when our government fails to do so. Yet it is not rare to find nonprofits facing a financial crisis and going out of business because of the lack of funding. Many nonprofits are primarily funded by fluctuating donations, government support and fundraising efforts. In this research paper I will be Analyzing Case Study 12: Volunteer and Donor recruitment on Social Media by Julia Read, Benjamin Bingle and Kenneth Meyer to explain how nonprofits are strategically using social media. Two basic questions that are asked during board meetings are: How can we promote our organization? Who can we ask for donations? In the recent years, nonprofits have looked to different methods to fund their campaign and continue their mission to support marginalized communities; social media has been one of these ways. “Social networking sites are mostly used for their viral ability to spread messages to users, consumers, and other organizations” (Brown, 2015). In the last decade social media marketing has revolutionized the way that businesses, companies and even nonprofits grow their brand. Social media has emerged in a huge way increasing awareness, engaging the community and mobilizing activities that will cultivate a relationship with influencers and potentially raise money. It is important that in this paper I explain the relevance of the Resource Dependence Theory which is “concerned with how organizational behavior is affected by external resources the organization utilizes, such as raw materials”. RDT contributes practically to creating an effective organization by allowing donors to understand the fiscality of the organizations’ environment. nonprofits seek an online presence to assist in building and maintaining their organization. Generally, speaking, social media has been used to channel primarily three organizational goals in the nonprofit sector: garner new volunteers, resource development and create a social change.

Social media in Nonprofit Organizations

As we know, Nonprofits struggle with attracting qualified volunteers because it can be a discouraging burden on board members. “In the past, it may have been time consuming and costly for an organization to reach various individuals. Now, organizations can communicate quickly and more frequently with the members, volunteers, and donors through social media” (Brown, 2015). Social media has been a great recruiting tool because of the different mediums that are used to market to advertise the nonprofits mission. It is crucial that nonprofit organizations understand the benefits of marketing how to use it effectively. According to the business dictionary Marketing is defined as the management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. In the case study Bill Perkins, the CEO of Hope Center believed that capitalizing on competitions and marketing his nonprofit by organizing an annual 5K and by displaying this on social media would in return attract interested individuals. Social media has a huge impact on who volunteers. The first step to gaining new volunteers is creating engaging and informative content that will connect with people who have a passion for your organization's objective. The center marketed themselves using selfie posting and small prizes that lead to a spike in social media connections and 2- way communication. At the end of the campaign the hope center staff noticed an increase in volunteers, although most were young people. Hope center should have established various forms of social media that would attract different demographic and social strata.

Nonprofits often encounter major complications when it comes to obtaining and managing financial resources to support the mission and purpose. It is common for organizations to partake in traditional fundraising, grant writing, endowments, annual campaigns, but as we know it is not always healthy to rely solely on the same donors, with the recruitment of volunteers. With the help of platforms such as, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram the donor recruitment have made it easier for members to ask for money. Included in these mediums are tool that have allowed for people to donate through online fundraising platform such as GoFundMe, the donation tags on Instagram and fundraising tag on Facebook where individuals can click on a cause that is significant to them. The Hope Center failed in creating an all-inclusive campaign that would include people from all backgrounds and ages. In return, organizations are often stagnant with donations. Resource Dependence Theory (RDT) notes that dependence on critical resources influences diverse actions and behavior of organizations. It effects the nonprofits behavior, performance and survival rates. “A core argument of the resource dependence theory is that organizations are unable to generate by themselves all the resources they need for survival but have to obtain and derive various types of resources from its environment” (Lam & Nie, 2019). So, in order to improve the nonprofits survival rates and grow their funding it is imperative that these nonprofits look to other forms of income. Since the individuals that are engaged in the social media competitions were young and did not have a stable income to be a regular Hope Center donor the income generated was very little to none. Although young adults are not able to be listed as regular donors’ they more inclined to donate to nonprofits that call for a social change

Social media has become an ingenious space when it comes cultivating digital social movements and supporting nonprofits. “Advocacy and social change practice have rapidly become linked with technology tools and Internet-based outreach” (GoldKind, 2015). One relevant reason the Hope Center did not perform how they speculated was because of their lack of promoting their mission and appealing to societies pathos. The case relied so much on the contest and rewards that they failed to advertise the purpose of their nonprofit and how they are benefiting the community. The people who participated obviously did not realize that they were trying to produce more than weekly competitions, they were trying to find donors and volunteers to help support their nonprofit organization. “Specifically, a newly established nonprofit which strives to increase its popularity among members of the public might want to focus on posting information messages online to attract public attention as their first step”. Nonprofits exist primarily to generate a social change, whether it to bring awareness or provide supplies for marginalized communities.

Conclusion

Social Media is taking over, there is no longer a need for flyer, card or poster, but a new demand on a promotional social media page. “Over 2.77 billion people are expected to be using social media by 2019 (up from 2.46 billion in 2017), meaning there’s no shortage of opportunities to find people who can support your cause through platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram” (Dopson, 2018). Resource Dependence Theory is essential for organizations to appreciate and implement a strategy that will cause leaders to add additional supply of funds by using differing ways to invite donors. After reviewing Case Study 12: Volunteer and Donor recruitment on Social Media I have concluded that in order to attract interested volunteers and donor who are willing to support the organization it is vital to create a social movements or campaigns through social media that will enhance readers understanding of the Hope centers purpose and strengthen their giving capacity and perhaps become regular volunteers if not donors. From research it is evident that social media may be the number 1 reason why nonprofits succeed or fail. We live in a time where people donate on social media, most donors and volunteers are accumulated from ads they see on platforms like Facebook and Instagram and if they relate to the mission of the nonprofit. A recommendation for the Hope Center is to create a campaign that will provide mindful information about your organization, especially with it being a moderately new foundation with the intention to grow their brand on social media.