Written by Franck Bernard
The problem is you are likely busy getting work done in the field, preparing your next fundraising event and/or wrapping your head around your next annual report. How does one make time for all this? If only it could be included in some of the work you are already doing.Wait. It is.
Annual reports.
For most nonprofits, the annual report is an extensive 60 pager with a PDF version online. However, there are many ways to twist this format and captivate your audience in a meaningful way such as the video format. But even better, you could chop down the report into bite-sized pieced of content that can be easily nibbled on throughout the year rather than eating it all in one sitting. While conserving the same nutritive values.
Youtube for the win
The effectiveness of video content is unquestionnable. The sharing potential of photos and videos is really remarkable and should be the core of every content sharing strategy for social media. Having 1- or 2-minute punchy clips explaining your mission, latest accomplishment or fundraising event on your Youtube channel can really go a long way. Also, the Facebook community craves video content so it is a great way to promote your Youtube channel and its content. Sprinkling capsules throughout the year on your social media is a great way to stay on the radar, stay interesting and relevant. It will also be very easy if you already opted to go with the video format for your annual report.
Get those pictures out
The effectiveness of photo content is unquestionnable (bis). Websites like Instagram are a goldmine of photo-craved users. It’s a great platform to snap everyday shots of the office life, fundraising events and of your actual work on the field. It can be channeled for contests and to reach an audience you’d probably never reach organically on Facebook or other platforms. It is already a visual log of the endeavors you deploy throughout the year. You could reuse some of the pictures to incorporate stats and share them. Example, take a great picture from a fundraising event, add a bit of text over it saying how much it raised or how many people were involved, etc. The strong visual still remains, it is matched with the impact of the text and it can make for an excellent Facebook post challenging your fans to shatter these numbers at the upcoming second, third or twentieth edition of the event. Charity Water’s Instagram account has some good examples of that.
Charts and charts and charts
Lets face it, a lot of charts will be used to demonstrate variations in data from the previous years in your annual report. While it might not be the sexiest form of information for the social media age, it remains quite powerful. You could create a board on your Pinterest page exclusively for that type of content making it somewhat narrowed. All you have to do is add another chart here and there troughout the year and keep it relevant. One of the main advantages of that strategy is that the people following that board are exclusively people interested by its content. You could also promote that board as Facebook posts to drive your Facebook following towards your Pinterest page. Which is always, always, a good strategy.
Daily servings
Having a full scale annual report is obviously very important, but as we’ve seen, it can be broken up into smaller pieces for other purposes. Since most of your social media fans don’t have time or don’t care enough to read such a heavy file it is important to feed them that information in a way that resonates with them. Photo and video content are clearly the best options and smaller servings of information will allow you to spread your content troughout the year, while creating greater impact.
