How to increase fundraising engagement on a Giving Day with social ambassadors

Texas Christian University has been running Giving Days since 2014, and social ambassadors have played an important part in their success. This post looks at how TCU increased alumni and supporter engagement with their Giving Days, along with a few tips on how to find the best social ambassadors from Harmonie Farrow, TCU’s Director of Loyalty Giving Programs. 

How social ambassadors can contribute to the success of a Giving Day

The power of social media can be used to increase the effectiveness of a Giving Day by encouraging a younger audience to share engaging messages with their peers, to help further expand donor participation. This maximizes the chances of increasing both the relevant audience and donations received by the campaign.

A good social ambassador is someone who already feels engaged enough to support your campaign, and who also has a significant network to allow them to help scale the campaign.

TCU managed to overcome the challenge of finding good ambassadors last year by using Hubbub’s Ambassador tool, which streamlines and enhances the recruitment and management of ambassadors. This led to a very successful Giving Day and a tripling in the number of social ambassadors happy to be part of the campaign.

TCU’s success in numbers

How TCU involved social ambassadors in its Giving Day

Harmonie Farrow, Director of Loyalty Giving at TCU talked about Giving Days and how ambassadors contributed to their successful campaign.

Describe your social media activities for your last Giving Day

On our last Giving Day, our social media ambassadors had three primary objectives: to raise awareness of the day in advance, to promote our social media challenges and to encourage their friends/followers to make a gift on the day. It was helpful for us to raise as much awareness of the event as possible in advance so that our target audience was primed and ready to participate in our third Giving Day. Having the ambassadors promote our social media challenges (such as posting pictures of your pet in TCU gear to win a prize) offered them the opportunity to share messages that weren’t always about making a gift and brought some fun to the day as well.

How important was social media for your Giving Day?

Extremely important! Our ambassadors provided information and a case for support in their own voice through their own social media accounts, which lent some authenticity and shared ownership to the day. I think it’s very important for your institution to have partners who can advocate for your giving day alongside you.

What makes a good social ambassador?

Good social media ambassadors share your social media communications when asked. Great social media ambassadors do so in their voice, adjusting and tweaking your message as appropriate. They are advocates who are as passionate about your cause as you are. They support you with their time, their talent and their resources.

What’s your #1 tip when starting to identify the right kind of ambassadors?

When starting to recruit social media ambassadors, you want to find people at the intersection of social media savviness and enthusiasm for your cause or organization. Some ambassadors will be very enthusiastic but less active on social media, and some will be very active on social media, but less interested in your cause. The best ambassadors will be both. If you’re struggling with where to start, take a look at who is interacting with your institution’s social media channels.