A brief 20-second video may attain hundreds—if not hundreds of thousands—of viewers. TikTok’s highly effective algorithm doesn’t simply favor influencers; it’s additionally a priceless instrument for amplifying worthwhile causes.
For nonprofits, TikTok is greater than a platform for leisure—it’s a game-changer for mobilizing the subsequent era of supporters. As consideration spans shrink and competitors for donors grows fiercer, TikTok for nonprofits has emerged as a shocking but efficient digital marketing instrument to construct group and drive motion. However how can nonprofits rework fleeting scrolls into significant engagement?
On this information, we’ll present you how you can leverage TikTok for nonprofits to advance your mission:
Able to faucet into TikTok’s potential to encourage social change? Let’s dive into the fundamentals of how this platform can improve your nonprofit’s advertising efforts.
The Fundamentals of TikTok for Nonprofit Organizations
Let’s reply some widespread questions you may need concerning the platform and its influence on charitable causes.
Is TikTok Good for Charities?
Completely! Whether or not you’re a grassroots nonprofit or a world group, TikTok gives artistic methods to amplify your trigger, join with youthful audiences, and share behind-the-scenes content material, success tales, and ongoing campaigns.
With over 1.5 billion active users, TikTok is a robust platform for nonprofits seeking to broaden their attain. Plus, 55% of TikTok users say the app helps them uncover new manufacturers.
Its concentrate on quick, participating movies opens the door to distinctive alternatives for storytelling, inspiring motion, and sharing memorable messages. The truth is, formatting your outreach as movies means viewers will retain 95% of your message, in comparison with simply 10% when studying it as plain textual content.
Nonprofits can use TikTok to:
- Elevate consciousness. Share bite-sized content material about your mission, upcoming occasions, or essential points with a world viewers by utilizing viral challenges, interactive campaigns, and fascinating content material.
- Safe donations. TikTok’s donation instruments make contributing straightforward with stickers and bio hyperlinks.
- Construct group. Domesticate a group of passionate supporters by participating with feedback and responding to user-generated content material.
- Present influence. Publish real-time updates and success tales that present the tangible outcomes of donations and volunteer work, encouraging continued help.
Since TikTok’s algorithm promotes content material primarily based on engagement relatively than follower depend, even smaller nonprofits have the potential to go viral and make a big effect.
From local weather change consciousness to psychological well being advocacy, the potential for creating real-world influence by means of TikTok movies is staggering. Your nonprofit can construct a passionate following, humanize your trigger, enhance donations, and enhance help.
What Is TikTok For Good?
TikTok for Good is TikTok’s initiative that goals to highlight nonprofits and causes making a constructive social influence by means of the platform. Whereas many options—reminiscent of Donation Stickers, fundraising livestreams, and Branded Hashtag Challenges—can be found to any registered nonprofit on the app, TikTok for Good gives further visibility and help to organizations making significant change.
This system highlights social influence efforts, fostering partnerships with nonprofits, creators, and communities, encouraging TikTok’s international viewers to take motion by donating, collaborating in campaigns, or spreading consciousness. By way of TikTok for Good, nonprofits also can entry promotional alternatives, academic sources, and techniques to amplify their attain.
Moreover, the official TikTok for Good account shares inspiring charity content material, providing greatest practices and concepts to your nonprofit’s movies.
Register Your Nonprofit on TikTok
Getting your nonprofit on TikTok is straightforward (and free!). Right here’s a step-by-step rundown to creating your account and organising your profile, so you can begin posting movies and constructing your following.
Step 1) Obtain the TikTok App
First, obtain the TikTok app out of your machine’s app retailer. It’s utterly free and obtainable for each iOS and Android customers.
Step 2) Create An Account
As soon as put in, open the app and choose “Signal Up.” You possibly can register utilizing an e-mail deal with or cellphone quantity. This would be the main contact to your TikTok account, so select a shared e-mail that your advertising crew can entry. This ensures that a number of crew members can log in and handle the account with out wanted to share private login particulars.
Through the sign-up course of, you’ll want to decide on a username, which must be your nonprofit’s title or an acronym. For reference:
- The American Purple Cross is @americanredcross
- Habitat For Humanity is @habitat_org
- The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) is @llsusa
When you’ve created your account, go to your account settings and swap to a enterprise account. This unlocks essential options, together with TikTok’s analytics instruments, the power to run advertisements, and the choice so as to add clickable hyperlinks to your bio.
Step 3) Set Up Your Profile
Now that your account is energetic, it’s time to arrange your profile. Create a robust, informative profile by taking these steps:
- Craft a brief bio. Your bio is restricted to 80 characters, so be concise. Use this area to speak your mission and encourage customers to observe your group. Consider it as a fast elevator pitch. For instance, “Bringing Clear Water to Communities 💧🌍 Be a part of us in creating lasting change!🤝”
- Hyperlink to your socials. By linking different accounts like Instagram and YouTube to your TikTok profile, customers can simply observe your different digital advertising channels.
- Add a profile image. This picture will seem on the high of your profile and on each TikTok you submit. For nonprofits, utilizing your official emblem ensures model consistency.
- Add a donation hyperlink. In case your nonprofit already has over 1,000 followers or is utilizing a enterprise account, you’ll be able to add a direct hyperlink to your optimized donation page in your bio. This permits customers to simply contribute to your trigger with out leaving TikTok.
Right here’s an instance of an entire profile for LLS:
- Profile image: LLS’s emblem
- Username: @llsusa with verification checkmark
- Bio: United in progress towards a world with out blood most cancers
- Hyperlinks: LLS’s donation web page, Instagram account, and phone web page for beneficiaries
Step 4) Begin Posting TikToks
Begin sharing your nonprofit’s story with the TikTok group. Whereas we’ll present in-depth ideas later, listed below are some recommendations to get began:
- Movie your movies in vertical orientation (9:16) to reap the benefits of the full-screen expertise.
- Have good lighting, whether or not you employ a hoop gentle, a lamp, and even the solar.
- TikTok recommends utilizing the app’s results and textual content remedy choices to make your content material really feel native to the platform and amplify it on For You pages.
Don’t fear in case your early movies aren’t excellent. TikTok thrives on authenticity. As you grow to be accustomed with the platform, you’ll discover your rhythm and uncover what content material works greatest to your nonprofit.
Ideas To Make the Most of Your Nonprofit’s TikTok
To successfully interact the TikTok group and develop your digital footprint, strive these methods:
Publish Persistently
Based on Rival IQ’s Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, most nonprofits solely submit a mean of 1.59 occasions to TikTok per week, in comparison with 5.95 occasions on Instagram. Intention for 3-5 posts weekly. Consistency retains your viewers engaged, will increase your probabilities of being seen by TikTok’s algorithm, and helps you keep related on the platform.
Your movies may be anyplace from 3 seconds and half-hour lengthy, however Socialinsider’s 2024 research exhibits that TikToks between 90 and 120 seconds maximize views and look at charge. That very same analysis signifies that most manufacturers are inclined to publish movies between 40 and 50 seconds lengthy, however shorter movies or longer, participating content material as much as 3 minutes also can carry out nicely relying on the message.
Leverage In style Sounds, Hashtags, and Developments
To maximise the attain of your movies, use trending sounds, hashtags, and challenges. TikTok’s algorithm favors content material that faucets into what’s at the moment common. Right here’s how you can do it:
- Trending Sounds: Add trending audio clips to your movies to extend your probabilities of showing on folks’s For You web page.
- Hashtags: Use a mixture of basic and cause-specific hashtags to assist customers discover your content material. Our nonprofit hashtags guide shares a number of common choices like #DoGood, #HumanRights, #CleanWater, and #ProtectOurPlanet.
- Challenges: Take part in viral challenges and adapt them to your nonprofit’s mission to realize traction.
Engaging with trends makes your nonprofit’s movies extra discoverable, doubtlessly resulting in extra followers. As an example, The Innocence Mission launched the #SaveMelissaLucio marketing campaign to lift consciousness for a case involving a wrongful conviction. By encouraging customers to duet, share, and sew the video, they created a viral motion that engaged the TikTok group in supporting legal justice reform
Get Artistic With The Content material You Publish
When creating TikTok content material, preserve your content material contemporary by alternating between these kind of content material:
- Academic Content material: Share statistics, information, or insights associated to your trigger (e.g., information about endangered species or starvation aid).
- How-To Tutorials: Show your work, like how your crew cares for animals, organizes donations, or units up occasions.
- Success Tales: Spotlight impactful tales or testimonials from those that have benefited out of your nonprofit’s work.
A majority of these content material not solely inform your viewers but in addition construct belief and credibility.
Work together with the Neighborhood
Engagement is vital to sturdy visibility on TikTok for nonprofits. To foster sturdy group engagement, it is best to:
- Reply to feedback. Use the Reply-to-Remark or Video Reply function to reply questions, thank supporters, and construct relationships along with your followers.
- Duet and sew. Create duet or sew movies with different TikTok creators to broaden your attain.
- Like, share, and remark. Usually work together with different content material creators and supporters by liking, commenting, and sharing movies.
The TikTok group appreciates energetic creators, and frequent engagement will assist your nonprofit construct a devoted following.
Use Donation Stickers and Hyperlinks
TikTok’s Donation Stickers and Donation Hyperlinks make it straightforward for customers to help your trigger straight inside the app. Right here’s how they work:
- Add Stickers to movies and livestreams. Incorporate stickers into your common TikTok movies or livestreams, permitting viewers to donate immediately. Supporters also can add these to their TikToks:
- Add Donation Hyperlinks the place potential, reminiscent of in your profile bio or above video descriptions.
- Encourage motion. In your captions or video, remind customers to faucet the Donation Sticker or click on hyperlinks to help your trigger.
This function streamlines the donation course of, making it handy for followers to contribute with out leaving TikTok.
Examples of Viral Nonprofits on TikTok
To get impressed to your nonprofit’s TikTok, let’s discover just a few organizations which have performed nicely on the platform and constructed an engaged following.
Not all the things these nonprofits submit on TikTok goes viral, however they do an excellent job of utilizing common sounds, leaping on tendencies, and interacting with their followers.
Aquarium of the Pacific
Positioned in Lengthy Seaside, California, Aquarium of the Pacific makes use of a mixture of trending and area of interest hashtags. In addition they submit quite a lot of content material, like enjoyable information, workers life, and aquarium excursions. This nonprofit is nice about interacting with its group reminiscent of by creating Video Replies in response to customers’ feedback.
Right here’s an instance of one in every of their viral academic posts that racked up over 9 million views and 500K likes. It explains how the aquarium’s workers weighs its beloved octopus Goji:
@aquariumpacific How we weigh octopuses on the Aquarium! 🐙 #STEM #LearnOnTikTok #aquariumofthepacific #octopus
Bat Conservation Worldwide
Bat Conservation Worldwide tapped into the area of interest #BatTok group by utilizing a enjoyable video that includes a bat synced with trending audio, resonating with TikTok’s love for cute animals whereas selling bat conservation efforts.
It’s a brief, easy video that exhibits off Geoff the bat’s distinctive voice. The nonprofit’s TikTok generated practically 640K views and over 125K likes:
@batconservation Geoff has a v imp announcement. 🦇Geoffrey’s horseshoe #bat 📷Dr. Winifred Frick #animals #africa #bats #battok #Conservation #science
The nonprofit can be good about utilizing trending sounds, like on this current TikTok:
@batconservation Bats however they get extra derp 📷 Rachel Harper, Bat Conservation Worldwide #battok #ohlookastrawberry #cute
UNICEF
UNICEF has participated in tendencies like #VoicesOfYouth, utilizing common hashtags and sounds to highlight local weather change and youngster safety. They share how-to guides, one-on-one interviews with benefactors, and user-generated content material from ambassadors like Millie Bobby Brown and BTS’s RM.
Just lately, UNICEF posted behind-the-scenes TikToks about their help in Gaza. In addition they shared an interview with the boy band BTS and B-Roll of benefactors. The nonprofit’s TikTok drew 1.8 million views, 580K+ likes, and 20K+ shares:
@unicef Feeling overwhelmed? @BTS has a message to brighten up your day. #BTSLoveMyself #OnMyMind #BTS 💙💜
TikTok vs. Google Advertisements: Which Is Higher For Nonprofits?
Paid advertising empowers nonprofits to amplify their content material to probably supporters. At Getting Consideration, we’re massive followers of Google Advertisements, as a result of eligible nonprofits obtain free credit to spend on the platform!
Nonetheless, that doesn’t imply different promoting platforms aren’t efficient for reaching your viewers. Social media platforms like TikTok provide distinctive alternatives to attach with supporters and enhance donations. However how do the 2 platforms examine, and which is healthier suited to your nonprofit’s targets? Let’s have a look at the fundamental advantages, codecs, and techniques for every platform.
TikTok Advertisements
TikTok Advertisements are perfect for nonprofits searching for to have interaction youthful audiences by means of artistic, short-form video content material. The platform’s algorithm favors viral potential, that means even small organizations can attain vast audiences. TikTok advertisements are available in varied codecs, reminiscent of:
- In-Feed Advertisements: These advertisements seem as customers scroll, mixing with natural content material.
- TopView Advertisements: That is the primary advert customers see when opening the app, making certain most visibility.
- Branded Hashtag Challenges: You’ll pay to advertise a customized hashtag and encourage customers to create content material with it.
- Branded Results: These are filters and stickers that manufacturers can create.
You possibly can differentiate the In-Feed and TopView Advertisements from regular TikToks by searching for visible indicators like a small “Sponsored” label and a call-to-action button.
TikTok excels in consciousness campaigns and constructing model id, significantly for nonprofits targeted on visually compelling storytelling. Nonetheless, it primarily targets a youthful demographic (Gen Z and Millennials), so it is probably not one of the best match for reaching older supporters. Plus, TikTok’s visible, fast-paced nature requires a gradual stream of contemporary and fascinating video content material, which can be demanding for smaller nonprofits with restricted sources.
Google Advertisements
With over 3.5 billion daily searches conducted, Google provides unparalleled attain, permitting nonprofits to attach with supporters globally. Due to its huge attain and extremely focused search capabilities, Google Advertisements is without doubt one of the strongest promoting platforms for nonprofits.
In comparison with different platforms, search ads provide the highest ROI for nonprofits utilizing paid promoting. Even higher, by means of the Google Ad Grants program, eligible nonprofits can obtain as much as $10,000 per thirty days in free search advertisements, making it an economical possibility for driving donations and web site site visitors. This makes the platform supreme for nonprofits targeted on elevating consciousness or changing guests into supporters with out incurring steep promoting prices.
Google Advertisements provide a number of codecs, together with:
- Search Advertisements: These advertisements seem on the high of Google search outcomes, concentrating on customers actively looking for associated subjects.
- Show Advertisements: These banner advertisements are displayed throughout web sites in Google’s Search Community.
- YouTube Advertisements: These video-based advertisements run on YouTube.
Nonetheless, know that the Advert Grant can solely be used on Search Advertisements. You too can faucet into Responsive Search Advertisements, which let you enter as much as 15 headlines and 4 descriptions for Google to check and maximize efficiency.
With Search Advertisements, your nonprofit can bid on mission-related key phrases, concentrating on folks actively looking for subjects associated to your trigger. These advert codecs are glorious for lead era, web site site visitors, and donation campaigns.
Nonetheless, the text-based nature of search advertisements could restrict creativity in comparison with platforms like TikTok, which concentrate on dynamic video content material. Outsourcing the work to experienced Google Grant managers will allow you to beat these limitations and ensure your Google Advertisements drive real worth.
Google Advert Instance:
The World Wildlife Fund created a Google Advert that targets key phrases associated to “save elephants” and promotes touchdown pages for his or her elephant rescue efforts, a associated marketing campaign for polar bears, and their primary donation web page.
So, Which Is Higher for Your Nonprofit?
Selecting between TikTok Advertisements and Google Advertisements depends upon your nonprofit’s particular targets, viewers, and sources:
- TikTok Advertisements are nice for nonprofits seeking to increase consciousness amongst youthful, socially aware audiences by means of artistic and viral content material. It’s excellent for organizations that thrive in visible storytelling.
- Google Advertisements are perfect for nonprofits targeted on driving donations, rising web site site visitors, or producing leads. The platform’s concentrating on capabilities and the Google Advert Grants program make it a best choice for cost-effective, results-driven campaigns.
For a lot of nonprofits, utilizing each platforms can present a balanced strategy, permitting you to construct model consciousness on TikTok whereas driving conversions and site visitors by means of Google Advertisements.
Prepared For Your Nonprofit To Go Viral on TikTok?
TikTok’s short-form video format is reshaping how nonprofits share their missions and join with donors. With Gen Z and Millennials main the cost on the app, your nonprofit has a uncommon alternative to have interaction a complete new era of digital do-gooders.
Use the ideas we shared to harness the ability of TikTok for nonprofits. Whereas it takes some experimentation and consistency, you’ll get the swing of issues and construct a loyal follower base. Within the meantime, take a look at these different sources to enhance your digital presence:
