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Nonprofit work, especially in 2026, isn't easy. But the good news is you do not have to figure it out all alone. You're invited to join me and hundreds of other change makers at Bloomerang's annual conference GiftCon, coming up May 17th through 20th. And trust me, this is the place to be if you want to sharpen your fundraising and communication skills. I'll be there leading a session called From Passive Post Style to Powerful Campaigns Social Media that Drives Donations. If you've been wanting to turn your content into real conversion, you're going to love this one. But here's the part you don't want to miss. Givecon's lowest registration rate is available right now. For the next few weeks, this is the perfect moment to grab your ticket and save your organization some budget. Join me and an incredible community of nonprofits at Givecon. Learn more and register@givecon.com that's G I V E C O N.com now on to the episode.

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Hello and welcome to Nonprofit Nation. I'm your host Julia Campbell and I'm going to sit down with non profit industry experts, fundraisers, marketers and everyone in between to get real and discuss what it takes to build that movement that you've been dreaming of. I created the non profit podcast to share practical wisdom and strategies to help you confidently find your voice, definitively grow your audience and effectively build your movement. If you're a nonprofit newbie or an.

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Experienced professional who's looking to get more.

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Visibility, reach more people and create even more impact, then you're in the right place. Let's get started.

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Hi everyone, this is Julia Campbell and I'm going to record solo episode for you today. A little bit of a difference from my usual interview style, but I wanted to talk about the world of nonprofit social media and with the landscape changing so rapidly, it is definitely becoming harder and harder to get that engagement and to grow your audience. And that's why every year I invite nonprofits to join Social Media for Social Good Academy. Now the Academy is run live every year over five weeks with interactive trainings, live Q&As, take home exercises and more. Just a little bit about what you'll learn. How to use the highest performing social media platforms to grow your audience and drive donations, the latest trends that you need to know about how to build and grow a community, how to create content, how to use AI tools to create posts and save time and also measure roi, return on investment, and then most importantly, how social media fits into an overall digital fundraising plan including your website and email newsletter. So right now you can get on the wait list@socialgoodacademy.com and when you join the waitlist, you'll get a coupon for 50 off when the doors open. Now let's get to my five tips for non profit social media managers as we are in fully in to 2026 now to start, I realize that there is a lot on your plate. There's a lot on the plate of the modern nonprofit social media manager, and it's getting harder to manage the chaos, to stay focused and to do our work effectively and efficiently without getting completely overwhelmed. Add on to that that the fact that reaching your audience on social media can seem more and more difficult. So let's review some recent statistics. Social Insider reported an average organic reach rate on Instagram of about 3.5% of followers, meaning only a small slice of your audience sees your Instagram posts without paid support. And on Facebook, organic reach continues to shrink with typical figures closer to about 1.33 to 2.2% of followers seeing organic posts. Now here are some engagement rates and engagement rates are calculated as a percentage of reach. So to calculate your engagement rate, you want to take total engagement reactions, shares, saves, comments, et cetera, divided by the number of posts published. Multiply the result by a hundred to get a percentage. Social Insider found that the average engagement rate in 2025 for Instagram 3.3% and Facebook 1.4. Those are low. What does this mean? Well, organic reach of course remains a challenging but persistent concern. I mean, you're likely only reaching a small fraction of followers without paid support. Engagement rates have not dramatically rebounded, but they appear relatively stable or slightly better on Instagram compared with earlier years. And sector specific engagement like nonprofits still outperform general benchmarks highlighting the value of mission driven communities online. And that's what I'm all about. Creating a mission driven community online. So what's a social media manager to do? Especially at the beginning of a busy new year when there's so much to do? Here's my top five tips. I hope they help. Number one, focus on building a community, not just an audience. Social media is not just about grabbing attention and getting followers and getting reach. It's about building a community. As non profit social media managers, we have to know inside and out who we want in this community and what they want to hear from us. This is why so much non profit social media content falls flat. No purpose, no reason to exist, just simply promotion. And you may say, well we want to Engage everyone. Everyone with a pulse needs to be a part of our online community. But let's get real for a second. Your mission and your message are not going to resonate with everyone, period. Although I don't know if kids are saying period anymore. I think they might be saying boots. I don't know. I don't know the lingo. But if you're a small non profit dealing with a niche issue or a local problem, you have to face facts that your online communities, it is going to be a lot smaller than a national organization. I think we really all know that now. Community building is the focus of my book, how to Build and Mobilize a Social Media Community for your nonprofit in 90 days. If you email me if you're listening to this and you email me, I have three copies to give away. So if you're one of the first ones, it's julia@jcsocialmarketing.com I will mail you the book if you don't. If you're not one of the first three, you can get it on Amazon pretty cheap. My best social media advice is to nail down who your choir is and preach to it. If the choir is singing together in harmony, they'll bring others in. They'll share your gospel. Leverage your current community members to bring others into the fold. Unless you're dealing with an issue that's getting national press coverage, most of us actually are. Whether it's fortunate or unfortunate, it's incredibly difficult to get traction from complete strangers online. So every day, go into your communities. Let's stop calling them platforms and see what's working. Answer comments and questions. Be present. Don't over automate. Always be learning about your community and what they're interested in, what moves them, what drives them, what inspires them. Create content just for them and more will follow. Number two, Set a timer when posting. How much time do you have to spend on social media? Is this a hundred percent of your job or just 10%? The best way to determine how much time social media management is going to take is to clarify how much time you have to devote to it. And the truth is that getting results on social media is really much like getting results out of an exercise plan. Consistency and intention are key. If you have 30 minutes a day to get a quick walk in, and that's really my resolution this year. That's better than sitting at your desk all day every day and getting zero activity. If you can fit in an hour walk once per week, your results will be even better. The same goes for social media no matter if you have all day or just an hour a day to focus on it, you need to create a time management plan to avoid spinning your wheels and wasting time, which is so easy to do on these platforms that are actually designed by psychologists to grab our attention and to keep us clicking and to keep us on the platform. I recommend the popular Pomodoro technique which is where you set like a kitchen timer. It doesn't have to be a tomato timer, although a tomato timer is very cute for 25 minutes. If you aren't constantly monitoring your accounts, using the Pomodoro technique at the beginning of the workday can probably help you focus and ensure that you've addressed all messages and notifications that came in overnight. Now, remembering that the work of social media is not just posting and promoting your own stuff and then leaving the real work that gets results is the most time consuming. I mean, isn't it always? It's interacting, building connections, exploring topics, creating great content, tweaking, analyzing, improving. Once the 25 minutes is up and the timer dings, you're done, no matter what you did or didn't accomplish. But of course you can then set it again at the end of the day or the middle of the day. It all depends on how many channels you manage and what else you have going on that day. Now, social media management takes discipline and practice, but a time based strategy like this is absolutely crucial for all of us that have other competing jobs responsibilities, right? So number three, super important, especially right now when I can't even go on Instagram or TikTok without wanting to cry. Number three, take frequent mental health breaks. The mental health stress on social media managers has been documented. It is a real thing and the ramifications are just beginning to be actually studied and understood. The always on mentality dominates pretty much every industry right now, but it's especially true with social media. Now we know this consistent use of social media can be detrimental to our mental health. We like actually know this. So taking a step back now and again is essential, even if it doesn't feel like an option because there's just too much to do. This may mean turning off social media notifications when you leave the office. If you absolutely need to respond to something, set aside 10 to 15 minutes of dedicated time after work to go into the platforms and shut it down for the night. It's also important to take digital detoxes and vacations to come up for air to give your eyes a break from the screen. Here's some great mental health podcasts to listen to holding space with Dr. Cassidy Freitas. Jen Gotch is okay sometimes and then selfie. A self care podcast hosted by a psychotherapist and a lifestyle blogger. My favorite self care podcast that I'm listening to right now is Amy Poehler's podcast Good Hang. It's funny, it's witty. They really do not delve into current events, for better or for worse, but it's really kind of a breath of fresh air for me. I highly recommend the Amy Poehler podcast. If you're looking for levity, if you're looking to laugh, if you're looking to smile. Also, I'm just a huge fan of hers and of course, Leslie Knope is my soulmate. Okay, number four, just say no to perfectionism. This one's really hard for me. Okay. I am a cancerian. I am an eldest daughter. I'm also the oldest granddaughter and I'm the oldest cousin and I'm the oldest of all my friends. So I have just this like perfectionist energy. I gotta take control. Everything has to be right. I've got to do everything in the right order. But we have to, I mean, we got to get rid of this on social media because authenticity and transparency and vulnerability is what really rules right now. So your content is never going to be perfect. You know, your social media to do list is never going to be fully checked off. So we have to be okay with done and imperfect and it's better than simply not done at all. Now, this does not mean lazy mistakes or sloppy grammar half baked content, but you shouldn't be spending hours and designing like one single reel every day or editing a 30 second smartphone video for hours and hours and hours. So attention to detail is great, but really perfectionism is a killer. People love just. I really think authenticity is the word that needs to go away in 2026. I want to change it to vulnerability. People love vulnerability. They do. They want to know what's going on. They want to know there's humans behind the social media content. So, you know, post that post, edit it later if you find a drastic mistake, test it, see what's working, do more of that. And now we're at my number five. My last tip for you, advocate for yourself. So every job has its busy periods, but constantly feeling like you're struggling to keep your head above water is not okay. Can we repeat that? Constantly feeling like you're struggling to keep your head above water is not okay. Thea Neal T H E A Neal N E A L she wrote a Must read post and I will link to it in the show notes. Should you ask your social media manager if they're okay, which I love. So this is what she said. I'm going to quote her we are expected to be marketers, creators, analysts and customer service people. We are stressed out. End quote. If you're a team of one and your work responsibilities amount to three full time jobs, you have to be honest with yourself, with your supervisor and with your board. This is not sustainable. Conduct a detailed inventory of your time, listing out as many tasks as possible and how much time it takes to accomplish them. Do not be afraid to advocate for your work. Marketing is part of your mission. I want everyone to listen to me when I say marketing is part of your mission. Marketing is part of your mission. But some people still think that social media marketers get to play around on Facebook and Instagram all day and call it a job. It's so patronizing is what it is. Explain that you have to tackle issues and comments, often in a triggering, divisive and depressing news cycle. And understand and recognize that a big part of any job is selling people on the importance of your job. You know, find an ally who will have your back at board meetings and staff meetings. I can be your ally. I will be your ally. Give a clear budget and plan for execution. This is something that's really key because we have to know how people are responding to our ideas. If you have ideas, you've got many, many ideas without putting a budget or a plan behind them. It's really just an idea and often it can make people very nervous, especially if they're managers and they're really used to like, okay, we're going to do this and here's the five steps that it's going to take to get there. So sharing case studies, sharing screenshots, sharing emails, sharing other ideas from other nonprofits. Show what's possible. You know, really explain why these case studies are successful. Don't just say, you know, if only we could do what charity water is doing. I hear that all the time and I think, well, yeah, if only I could do what Beyonce's doing, right? But I can't. So let's just look at some of the case studies that are successful, some of the things that are working that you like, and see what we can adapt for ourselves. Advocate for yourself to report out at every staff meeting, but not with simple vanity metrics like, we got 50 more Facebook likes this week. Share an anecdote or a story of how the mission of the Organization was served because of social media. Someone called the hotline, someone started a Facebook fundraiser, someone shared it, a legislator shared it, an influencer shared it. And then share your editorial calendar so people can really see the work and the moving pieces. Explain what it takes to be successful. Research, creation, management and interaction. Follow up. Address skeptics on their terms. This is very important for people that are like, I don't want to be on TikTok or I think that all social media is evil. Whether or not any of that is true, I really do firmly believe that if all nonprofits and all social causes left social media, there'd be a huge void. And I know that we serve a really gigantic purpose for people. But with skeptics understand, you know, have, have sympathy. People are scared of things they don't understand, you know, so, so maybe educate them, but you know, not in a condescending way. I don't think you would do that. People are often afraid to admit that they don't know how all this stuff works. So, you know, when I first started out, I offered free and open no judgment zone lunch and learns I kept an open door policy. Right? And just help people. Please take time for yourself. Social media managers have a unique set of mental health challenges because they spend their days in the trenches of the Internet. Remember, building community and showcasing the impact of the great work you do is never a waste of time. So in conclusion, it's a busy, noisy, crowded online space. Sometimes people can be not so nice. Sometimes the work feels thankless. Sometimes it feels like you're doing it all alone. But you're not alone. Join the community of nonprofit social media managers, fundraisers and storytellers all going through similar things, you're listening to this podcast. You are not alone. Now, whether or not you join the 2026 cohort of social Media for Social Good Academy, I'm here for you. You can always send me emails if I'm available. Sometimes I take a long time to respond to emails lately because I'm trying to do my own mental health preservation. But if you want to get on the wait list for the Academy, go to socialgoodacademy.com and I'll send you a coupon for $50 off when the doors open to the Academy. I really hope that 2026 is a prosperous, healthy, fantastic year for you in all the ways that you want it to be. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. So wait until the next episode. It's going to be something great. You've got this and I'll talk to you soon.