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Non-Profits – Stop Asking For Donations, And Build Value With Social Selling

Jamie Shanks
Jamie Shanks

Sales for Life had the privilege to train CannedWater4Kids on Social Selling, a great non-profit helping ensure everyone has clean drinking water. When you hear Greg Stromberg talk about their initiatives, you can feel the value instantly.

Greg also sees value in LinkedIn’s ability to drive awareness, solidify branding and demonstrate their thought-leadership around water shortages. He sees a real opportunity to become the absolute leader and difference-maker in their sub-set of non-profits.

As we were talking about LinkedIn’s ability to build business, we discussed an inherent challenge in the non-profit space. The traditional way a non-profit raises donation funds & sponsorship has been:

“Can you spare some money for us?”

Most people will ask themselves a question question – “what’s in it for me?”

Just asking for donations is becoming less impactful as the non-profit market has moved from a few to 100,000’s. People are asking themselves how this non-profit will add value to themselves, their brand, and their organization.

Non-profits need to shift gears and begin educating potential donors, sponsors and partners, with the most powerful medium possible – Social Media. This is exactly why CannedWater4Kids is using Social Selling to be different.

Here are simple steps that help be different, demonstrate leadership in the market, and ultimately skyrocket awareness.

Commit to Optimizing a Social Presence

“People buy from people they like, and people like people like them.” Develop a personal LinkedIn profile that demonstrates you are the utmost committed to your cause. Next, create a LinkedIn page that shows recommendations from sponsors and partners, making people believe their donation is a wise investment. Finally, Facebook and Twitter are your megaphones to the world. All these profiles optimized will drive traffic and give people the impression your innovative.

Join the RIGHT LinkedIn Groups

Monitor and contribute to trigger events in Groups – the right groups will have a wealth of market information. This is an endless pool of prospects that can be continuously nurtured with proper Social Selling training.

Develop Your Own Unique LinkedIn Group

Now you have an opportunity to talk about what they do, and the value you present. Events, discussions, polls, debates – all attracting prospective donors, advocates, sponsors and partners.

Curate Essential News About Your Market Challenge

CannedWater4Kids will be able to find dozens of news stories about Milwaukee, the new “Silicon Valley of Water” that attracts attention back to his organization. The more valuable content that is poured into the market, the more attention is paid to CanndedWater4Kids.

Times Have Changed, Has Your Organization?

Non-profits can’t keep “asking for the money” as their competition for dollars is being pulled in 10 other directions.

If you don’t want to be left behind the 8 ball – you need to start to take action. The following dozen blog posts on utilizing Social Selling strategies using LinkedIn can help you start. If you are really looking for some hidden gems on how you can attract a very specific prospect, I recommend you check out – How-to-Guide: Making $$$ with Social Selling.

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