Nonprofits face a particular challenge on social media: they have compelling missions and powerful stories, but tight budgets, small teams, and a reluctance to market themselves too aggressively. We've seen this firsthand working with Make-A-Wish Tri-Counties. Here's what we did — and what any small nonprofit can take from it.
Before creating a single piece of content, we aligned with the Make-A-Wish team on what success looked like. They had four concrete KPIs: donations, event attendance, social growth, and VIP ticket sales. Every content decision flowed back to one of those four goals. This sounds simple, but it's something many organizations skip — posting without a clear sense of what they're trying to achieve.
Make-A-Wish had no shortage of moving stories — they just weren't always centering their content on them. We helped shift the editorial focus toward the moments that made people feel something: wishes granted, families reunited, children meeting heroes. On Twitter, during the LA Rams Night event we helped promote, the Make-A-Wish account recorded the greatest number of engagements in its history.
Organic social builds community. Paid social builds reach. You need both for time-sensitive campaigns like fundraising drives and events. For Make-A-Wish, we developed hyper-targeted paid campaigns focused on the platforms delivering the best ROI.
Results: 396K organic impressions · 49% follower increase · 8.4K engagements · 104K paid reach · $0.40 CPC · $75,000+ raised.
You don't need a giant budget. You need clear goals tied to your mission, consistent posting, emotional story-driven content, a small targeted paid budget, and genuine community management. Social media is one of the most powerful and cost-effective fundraising tools available to nonprofits today.
If your nonprofit on the Delaware coast or Delmarva wants to grow its digital presence, we'd love to have that conversation.
About the Author: Alex Gold is the founder and CEO of Del Oro Media, a full-service social media and digital marketing agency based in Southern Delaware. With 15+ years of experience spanning Nickelodeon, the music industry, and clients coast to coast, Alex helps brands craft stories and drive measurable results. Get in touch to start a conversation.
Del Oro Media helps brands across the Delaware Beaches, Delmarva, and nationwide build social media strategies that drive real results.
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