You may not realize it, but LinkedIn is often the most effective social media channel for making initial contact with major donors and prospects. This social media platform is designed to foster business and professional connections, and many of your prospects will be active or semi-active users.
We’re going to look at 7 strategies for how to use LinkedIn to support your outreach and communication efforts with new major donors and prospects. Put these strategies into practice, and you’ll be adding another channel to your outreach media mix. This is a good thing to do since not everyone prefers to use all the same channels.
And a sizable number of your ideal prospects use LinkedIn, and prefer it to texting, email, phone, and other channels.
Why Is LinkedIn the Best Social Media Platform for Fundraisers?
The simplest way to say it is this – wealthy people use LinkedIn in greater numbers and greater percentages.
That’s it. That’s why you should be on there. Because your major donor prospects are on there – the people who have the wealth capacity to give transformation gifts.
41% of LinkedIn’s active users are millionaires, and 37% of all millionaires use LinkedIn, according to a study from 2016. Granted a lot has changed since then, but the same study found only 11% of them used Twitter at that time. It’s unlikely these percentages have changed that much. And, more importantly, Twitter (or X) is not set up to make it easy for you to find and connect with specific people you don’t already know. LinkedIn is.
Perhaps the most compelling reason for major gift officers to use LinkedIn is because of how wealthy people use it. 36% of ‘mass affluent’ people use social media for discovery and consideration for financial decisions, and 63% of them take action based on what they learn.
Think about that.
This means a great number of people who have wealth capacity to give major gifts not only use LinkedIn to investigate and consider financial decisions and activities, but the majority of them also take action based on what they learn.
So if a major donor prospect finds your LinkedIn profile and spends time investigating you and your organization, you have already made a good impression on them – without even speaking to them!
Assuming, that is, that your LinkedIn profile is optimized for connecting with major donors.
Most aren’t.
So, here are 7 tips for how to improve your LinkedIn presence and use it more effectively.
1. Understand What LinkedIn Is
LinkedIn is a social media platform built to facilitate networking. It is not the place for politics, cat videos, or sharing your experience with a bad waiter at a restaurant. Treat this platform just like you would an in-person networking event.
Be professional. Ask questions. Introduce yourself. Find common interests and experiences. Share resources and content. And arrange meetings.
This is how your prospects use this site, and it’s how you’ll make effective connections on here.
2. Have a Strong LinkedIn Profile
This is critical. If your prospects hear about you and decide to check you out on LinkedIn before interacting with you directly, you want them to find a profile that reassures any nervousness they may be feeling, and even makes them intrigued and excited to talk with you.
The primary goal of your profile is to not scare people away, but draw them in. You do this by being professional, helpful, and informative. And by making your profile public, not private. A private profile says the exact opposite of what you want your prospects to think of you. You’re open and interested in communication.
Here are three ways to improve your profile:
Have a good photo
When it comes to photos, for starters – have one. Many profiles have no photo at all. According to LinkedIn, profiles with pictures are 14 times more likely to be viewed.
Second, make sure your photo is professional and warm. This again isn’t the place for crazy graphics and edgy photos. Be presentable and approachable. Any decent headshot will suffice.
Write for your audience, not for a job
Most LinkedIn profiles read like resumes. And this is fine if your main purpose for being there is to get job opportunities or make connections about future work possibilities.
But that’s not why you’re on there. As a gift officer, your primary reason to be on LinkedIn is to connect with potential donors. That means wealthy prospects are your LinkedIn audience, not other fundraisers, and not other nonprofits. So, write your headline and experience section with the right person in mind – potential major donors who search for you on social media.
Optimize your about section
With the ‘about’ section of your LinkedIn profile, you have a few different ways of doing it that can work well.
For example, you could give a clear and inspiring description of what you do – how you help donors achieve fulfilling life experiences through giving. But, you could also do this through a storytelling approach if you have a story with enough details that people will understand what you do.
Other effective ‘about’ sections make compelling offers or share more details about how you create satisfying outcomes for donors. Lastly, you can position yourself as the better choice compared to what donors typically experience at other nonprofits.
Show how you’re different by highlighting the negative experiences some donors will be familiar with. Here’s more about the 5 approaches to writing a LinkedIn About section.
3. Build Your Network Consistently
Next, go on LinkedIn regularly. Interact with people. Search for people you don’t know, from a variety of industries and backgrounds. Look for professionals, supporters you do know, board members, and specialists like wealth managers who can be assets for you in ways that help donors.
Active users get more attention, more connections, and greater followings. When prospects visit your profile and see your activity, they’ll trust you more and will gain a clear idea of what you’re about, even before meeting you.
Do not focus your attention so much on other gift officers and fundraisers. This is not your audience, and you’ll just end up doing shop talk, which often includes complaining. Prospective donors will not be attracted to this.
Not at all.
4. Less Networking, More Proving Impact
While networking is important, the most important thing to do on your page is to continue to post content that demonstrates impact, achievement, emotional resonance, and fulfilling giving experiences.
Tell compelling stories that highlight the transformational impact other donors have achieved through giving, and the value they gained by working with you.
This is what you want prospective donors to see when they visit your page. Not a resume.
5. Consider Buying the LinkedIn Premium Version
LinkedIn Premium doesn’t cost very much, and it comes with a host of benefits that can help you more effectively be found and connect with potential major donors. So, consider making the upgrade. Here are the main benefits we have seen fundraisers using:
InMail
First, the premium version gives you access to InMail. This means you can message people who are not in your network. In other words, you can message people you don’t know, which could be 3rd degree connections, or people out of your network altogether.
This is helpful when making initial outreach to a prospect who is expecting to hear from you, but when you may not know which media channel they prefer to use.
Removes search limitations
The premium version also enables you to search for terms, keywords, industries, and various other categories of people. As you’re looking to build your network, this can be a very helpful benefit.
Widens range of viewable profiles
Some profiles are restricted if you use the free version. With the premium version, you can see many more profiles, and this is very helpful for reasons we’ll share in a moment.
Shows who sees your profile
With the premium version, you’ll know who has seen your profile so you’ll know when one of your supporters has checked out your page. This is helpful especially if you’ve made some outreach attempts but haven’t heard back or connected with a prospect. If you know that prospect has looked you up on LinkedIn – even if they haven’t spoken to you yet – you’ll at least know you made an impression and that they got the message.
6. Send InMails
With the free version, you can only send InMails to 1st degree connections. With the premium version, you can send InMails to people out of your network.
You’ll want to do this regularly, and not just for prospects. It’s a good way to build your network and meet people from a variety of industries. Doing so will also build your confidence and skill in reaching out through LinkedIn to people you don’t know. That way, when you do want to reach out to an actual prospect, it won’t be your first time doing this.
7. Research Prospects Before Reaching Out
This final tip is possibly the most important one, and it’s one reason you want wider access to more LinkedIn profiles.
Wealthy donors are often suspicious of being contacted by people they don’t know. You might even call them skittish. And they have good reason to be. That’s why making outreach through the phone can be so difficult if you don’t have permission to call them.
LinkedIn provides a much softer introduction, almost effortlessly light.
All you have to do is make a point of researching the prospect’s LinkedIn profile before making outreach.
Why do this?
Because LinkedIn will notify them that you viewed their profile. If they’re active on LinkedIn, they will likely view your profile to see who you are. And if they do, you will now know they looked at yours. With this simple profile viewing swap, you have now had a blind introduction. You both know the other person exists and that you saw each other’s profiles.
If you send an InMail a day or two after this soft introduction, the other person will likely remember seeing your name and your profile, and will thus be more likely to read and respond to your message.
It’s a way to chip a few cracks in the walls that block you from initiating with a new person.
Use this and the other tips from this article to optimize your LinkedIn profile, and you will make a great first impression with all the major donors and prospects who check you out on LinkedIn.
Related Resources:
- The Smarter Way to Prioritize Your Major Donor Outreach: Let Prospects Reveal Themselves to You
- The 4 Habits You Need to Develop for Productive Major Donor Outreach
- How to Gain Trust of Major Donors and Be Accepted As Their Guiding Sage
- From Transactional to Transformational: How Emotional Intelligence Builds Lasting Major Donor Loyalty
