Social media is a great way for charities to reach new supporters, show the difference they make and to attract donations, volunteers, enquiries or event sign-ups.
But here’s the problem: many charities are posting reactively, across too many platforms, with no real idea of what’s working. Staff are stretched, time is scarce and social media can feel like a lot of work, with not much progress. And we all love progress, right?
So, how do you build a social media strategy for a charity that’s realistic for a stretched team? In this post, I’ll walk you through a simple six-step framework, using a fictional example, Mindful Hearts, a medium-sized mental health charity offering free counselling and community workshops. It’s hypothetical, but it’s based on typical challenges I’ve seen in real organisations. Think of this blog post as a simple charity social media strategy guide you can reuse and adapt.
1. Start With Clear, Measurable Charity Social Media Objectives
Before you create content, or look at platforms or tools, you need to know why you’re using social media at all. A good social media strategy for charities starts with clear objectives that tie in with your wider organisational objectives. For Mindful Hearts, these wider objectives could be:
- Increase donations compared to last year
- Fill more places in their workshops
- Reach more local people who need support
- Gain more volunteers
Internally, they’d put specific numbers and timeframes against these, so they’re SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound). For social media, the important thing is to be clear about what you’re trying to support, so all your efforts can work towards it.
At the start, Mindful Hearts are posting whenever someone has time. Some posts get good engagement and others get very little. No one currently can say whether social is helping them get more donations, bookings or volunteers.
So first, they set clear SMART social media goals for the next six months. For Mindful Hearts, realistic stretch goals might look like:
- Increase followers by 25%
- Increase reach by 35%
- Increase donations by 30%
- Generate 36 counselling enquiries
- Fill 90 workshop places
- Gain 12 new volunteers
Your charity numbers will differ. Consider your starting point (where you’re at right now), your capacity, how consistent your social media has been so far and your previous results from the last 3 months. For example, if you’ve barely been posting and then start posting consistently, you’re creating more opportunities to reach people, but results will still depend on content quality and engagement. The important thing is that your objectives are specific, measurable and clearly tied to your wider organisational goals.
Ask yourself:
- What do we actually want social media to achieve in the next 3, 6 or 12 months?
- Can we put numbers against that (followers, reach, engagement, clicks to key pages, sign-ups etc)?
- Can we measure whether people are moving from social into the things that matter (donating, booking, volunteering or enquiries)?
If you can’t measure it at all, it’s hard to know what’s worth the little time you have.
2. Get Specific About Your Audience
Once you’ve clarified your goals, the next step in a charity social media strategy is to get specific about who you’re actually talking to. If you try to talk to everyone in every post, you’ll struggle to connect with anyone. From social platform insights and their own experience, Mindful Hearts identified two main groups:
1. People seeking support, often aged 25-45, many women, looking for practical help and reassurance.
2. Potential donors and supporters, including older individuals (50+) who care about mental health and want to fund services.
They mapped out simple audience snapshots (or personas):
- Gender, age range, locations, interests
- Life situation e.g. working full time, carer
- Relationship to the charity e.g. donor, service user
- What each group worries about or the challenges they face
- Their goals and motivations – what do they want to achieve?
- What might stop them from reaching out or donating, their objections
- What platforms they actually use
- What proof they need to trust the charity
When creating these for your charity, use social platform analytics, speak to your team, and if you have the capacity, undertake some interviews with beneficiaries and fundraisers or create a survey. Interviews can help you to obtain the qualitative information that you may be missing, but obviously make sure you consider confidentiality, informed consent, respect for their time and input and ensure a professional, respectful approach throughout the process.
3. Audit What You’re Doing Now
Before planning anything new, carry out a simple audit of your current social media to gain clarity on what’s working and what isn’t. Mindful Hearts noted:
- Which channels they’re using: Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn
- What they’ve posted in the last 3 months: topics, formats (images, video etc) and frequency
- Performance: which posts got the highest reach, most comments, shares, clicks and which got the lowest. What their channel growth has been over the last 3 months, every month. Which channels got the highest and lowest website visits (via Google Analytics 4).
- Any real-world actions: which posts and channels led to workshop bookings, new volunteers, donations or enquiries
- Messaging: whether their bio and recent posts clearly explain what they do, who they help, the impact they make, why they are different and what they want people to do next (donate / book / get support).
- The fundamentals: profile photos, cover photos, bios, links, pinned posts, contact details, highlights etc
They discovered:
- Personal stories and practical tips get the most engagement
- Video was a popular format across all platforms
- Carousels did well on Instagram
- Facebook is where people sign up for events and ask about workshops
- Instagram generates quiet DMs from people asking for help
- X had almost no interaction
They also realised their current posting pattern was unsustainable. They knew they needed to post more, but trying to use four platforms with one overstretched staff member was not working.
From this audit, they made honest decisions:
- Pause X and LinkedIn for now
- Focus on Facebook and Instagram where real conversations and actions are happening
- Post 4 times a week, more videos, carousels and stories
Ask yourself:
- Which posts in the last 3 months got the most reach and engagement?
- Which topics or formats consistently fall flat and which do well?
- Which channels are you currently using and which ones are driving growth and real actions (donations, bookings etc)?
- Are you trying to be on more platforms than you can realistically manage?
- Are your profiles and pages optimal?
- Is your charity’s messaging and impact clear?
Your audit doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does have to be honest.
4. Look at Similar Organisations – Then Decide How You’ll Stand Out
Next, review a small set of similar charities or organisations to understand what “good” looks like in your sector, and where there’s room to do things better. Three is enough. Mindful Hearts decided to look at a national mental health charity and 2 local counselling services.
They reviewed:
- What they post (topics and formats): do they use stories, stats, quotes, fundraising asks, tips, videos?
- How they show impact: do they use clear outcomes, case studies, numbers, testimonials or none?
- How often they post and where: are they clearly investing in one or two channels, or trying to be everywhere?
- What posts and channels get high engagement and low engagement?
- Do their bios and recent posts have clear messaging?
Common patterns appeared:
- Many accounts lean heavily on generic awareness messages.
- Very few clearly explain what support is available locally and how it can be accessed.
- Almost no one is demystifying what happens if you reach out for help.
- Posting is inconsistent and video usage is low.
This became Mindful Hearts’ chance to be different. They decided their social media would focus on:
- “Real support, close to home”
- Short videos and carousels answering common mental health questions and tips
- Clear, practical posts on how to get help and what to expect
- Posting consistently and regularly
The point isn’t to copy other organisations. It’s to understand the landscape and then deliberately choose how you’ll stand out.
For your charity, you don’t need a huge competitor analysis. Just:
- Look at 2–3 similar organisations
- Note what they’re doing well
- Note what’s missing or confusing
- Decide 1–3 ways you’ll be different and clearer
5. Create A Content Plan That Serves Your Goals
Now you’re ready to move forward and create a content plan! Consistency is key here. You can use Excel or a Google Sheet and list your key dates for campaigns, appeals, events for the year and relevant awareness days. Mindful Hearts add relevant awareness days/weeks/months like Mental Health Awareness Week and campaigns such as The Big Give.
They choose a small set of content themes:
- Support and education: practical mental health tips, FAQs, “what to expect” if you reach out, confidentiality
- Stories and impact: anonymised client stories, workshop highlights, outcomes explained
- Community and events: upcoming workshops, groups, volunteer roles, local partnerships
- Fundraising and thanks: clear reasons to give, what donations fund, specific campaigns, thank yous
Then they build a realistic rhythm, for example:
- 4 posts per week on Instagram and Facebook – 1 video weekly or bi-weekly, 2 carousels a week
- 1 story a week: when something is happening now (events, behind-the-scenes, reminders) or highlighting support offered for those in need
Before you post, do a quick check:
- Does this help more people understand what support is available?
- Does it make it easy for someone to donate or attend with a clear call to action?
- Does it show the impact made?
- Does it build trust with the people we want to reach?
- Is the message clear?
For your charity, pick:
- 3–5 themes with topics and formats
- A manageable posting frequency (even 3 posts a week is fine)
- One or two clear actions you want people to take
Once you’ve chosen your themes and posting rhythm, here are two ways to make the plan more effective without adding more work:
When creating your content plan, pay attention to what each platform is currently rewarding
Each social platform has its own algorithm and it will favour certain formats at different times. That matters, because you can publish great content and still get low reach if you’re consistently using formats the platform isn’t pushing.
So when you’re building your content plan, look at what’s getting visibility on each platform right now (and what the platform is actively promoting). For example, at the time of writing, Instagram is often prioritising formats like Reels and carousels over static posts. Use this alongside what your audience already engages with and keep some room to experiment, because what’s rewarded can change.
Repurpose content to save time (without feeling repetitive)
If you’re short on time, repurposing is your best friend. One blog, report, event or campaign could be used for:
- 3–5 social posts (key points, a quote, a story, a myth-bust, a quick tip)
- one carousel (a simple “step-by-step”)
- one short video (the headline takeaway)
You don’t need brand new ideas every week, you need clear messaging, repeated consistently.
6. Review and Tweak
Finally, check your results every month and optimise. Mindful Hearts look at:
- Which posts got the most reach and engagement (likes/reactions, comments, shares/reposts)?
- Which posts drove clicks to key pages (get help, donate, book, volunteer)
- Whether the audience on their main channels is growing over time (following)
- Whether they’re seeing more enquiries, bookings, donations
They ask:
- What should we do more of?
- What isn’t worth the effort?
- Do we need to adjust our themes, posting frequency, or calls to action?
Based on that, they refine their plan and keep going.
Minimum viable measurement (if you can’t track everything yet)
If you can’t reliably track donations, bookings or enquiries from social yet, don’t panic. Track two things instead:
- Intent from social: are people clicking through to the right pages?
- Total outcomes overall: are donations, enquiries or bookings increasing in the same period?
Donations: clicks to your donate page from social + donate page views (a signal, not proof) + total donations overall.
Bookings/workshops: clicks to booking/enquiry page from social + page views + total bookings/enquiries overall.
Volunteers: clicks to volunteer page from social + volunteer enquiries overall + messages/DMs about volunteering.
If you can, add a simple “How did you hear about us?” question on your enquiry/booking forms (Facebook / Instagram / Google / Email / Word of mouth / Other). It won’t be perfect, but it gives you useful data until your tracking is stronger.
Common mistakes I’ve seen (and quick fixes)
Mistake 1: Trying to be on too many platforms
Fix: Pick 1–3 social platforms where your audiences are most active and use these effectively and consistently. Add more later if you genuinely have capacity.
Mistake 2: Posting without a clear call to action
Fix: Give each post a focus. If you want donations, enquiries, volunteers, bookings or awareness, make the next step crystal clear. For example: “Want to support this work? Donate today.”
Mistake 3: Scheduling posts… then disappearing
Fix: Posting is only half the job. Factor in time to reply to comments and messages (even twice a day). It builds trust, increases engagement and stops your page, and community, from feeling abandoned.
Mistake 4: Jumping on every new platform
Fix: New platforms create FOMO. Most aren’t worth your limited time. Keep an eye on what’s emerging, but only add something new if your audience is actually there and it supports your goals.
Bringing It All Together
Mindful Hearts is fictional, but the process is realistic:
1. Set objectives – know what social media is meant to support
2. Target audience – be clear who you’re talking to
3. Audit current social – see what’s working and what isn’t
4. Look at similar organisations – learn from others and decide how you’ll stand out
5. Content plan – choose content themes and a realistic posting rhythm
6. Review and tweak – check in regularly and adjust
You don’t have to do everything at once. Even taking one or two of these steps today will put you in a stronger position. When you approach social media with a strategy, it stops being a constant, messy headache and becomes a focused channel that genuinely grows your brand awareness, generates more donations and supports your mission.
Need Support With Your Social Media?
If you’re a charity or non-profit and you’re not sure what’s working, or you’re worried you’re wasting effort, I can help.
I offer social media audits and strategy support that:
- Review your current content and channels
- Look at how you compare with similar organisations
- Check whether your profiles and message are clear and consistent
- Highlight what to stop, start and focus on
- Turn everything into a practical plan you can actually use with the time and team you have
I’ve helped charities increase website traffic and grow their audiences, and I’d love to help with yours too.
If you’d like an expert pair of eyes on your social media, you can get in touch here.