Social media stats for charities and nonprofits

How does your organisation perform on social media compared to industry benchmarks? Which social media channels are the best for generating site traffic, engagement and conversions?

This article contains a collection of stats to help you understand the effectiveness of social media activities for charities and nonprofits, including benchmarks for fundraising, Facebook, X/Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram.

Although a lot these stats aren’t from brand new research,  this will still be useful to you if you manage social media activity for a nonprofit or charity.

There is a great deal of analysis in this report in individual reports and surveys, so click through on the source for each stats, but the summary of each report is given here.

Social media stats for charities and nonprofits

• 29% of online donors say that social media is the communication tool that most inspires them to give [email 27%, website, 18%, print, 12%, TV ad 6%] (Global Trends in Giving Report).
• 87% of donors who first donate from a social referral source make their second donation from a social referral source (The State of Modern Philanthropy Report).
• For every 1,000 email addresses, nonprofits had an average of 806 Facebook fans, 286 Twitter followers, and 101 Instagram followers (M+R Benchmarks Report).
• 71% of nonprofits worldwide agree that social media is effective for online fundraising (Global NGO Technology Report).
• 34% of nonprofits worldwide have paid for social ads (Global NGO Technology Report).
• On average, nonprofits spend $67 USD on social media ads to acquire a donor (M+R Benchmarks Report).
• Social Media drives 57% of traffic to fundraising campaign pages (Classy).

Facebook stats for charities and nonprofits

• For every $100 in online revenue, $1.77 is raised through Facebook Charitable Giving Tools (M+R Benchmarks Report).
• 88% of donors who have given through Facebook Charitable Giving Tools say they are likely to do it again in the future (Global Trends in Giving Report).
• 93% of NGOs worldwide have a Facebook Page. 25% post once daily on Facebook, 23% post once every other day, 19% post once weekly, 18% post twice or more daily, and 15% post less than once weekly (Global NGO Technology Report).
• Small nonprofits have an average if 8,722 Facebook Followers. Medium have 32,092. Large have 109,158 (Global NGO Technology Report).
• Facebook posts only reach an average of 4% of a nonprofit page’s fans (M+R Benchmarks Report).
• The Engagement Score (engaged users divided by total page fans) for an average Facebook post is 0.31%. Video posts have the highest Engagement Score at 0.33% (M+R Benchmarks Report).
• 41% of NGOs have used Facebook to report live from a special event or to showcase their organization’s work (Global NGO Technology Report).

Twitter stats for charities and nonprofits

• 17% of nonprofits worldwide have participated in or hosted a Tweet Chat (Global NGO Technology Report).
• 77% of nonprofits worldwide have a Twitter Profile. (Global NGO Technology Report).
• 24% tweet two to five tweets daily, 21% less than one tweet weekly, 18% tweet once daily, 18% tweet one tweet every other day, 12% tweet once weekly, and 7% tweet five or more tweets daily (Global NGO Technology Report).
• Small nonprofits have an average of 4,241 Twitter Followers. Medium have 17,737. Large have 39,496 (Global NGO Technology Report).

Instagram stats for charities and nonprofits

• 50% of NGOs worldwide have an Instagram Profile. 30% share less than once weekly, 24% share once weekly, 21% share once every other day, 17% share once daily, and 8% share twice or more daily (Global NGO Technology Report).
• Small nonprofits have an average of 1,837 Instagram Followers. Medium have 7,675. Large have 19,365 (Global NGO Technology Report).

LinkedIn stats for charities and nonprofits

• 56% of NGO worldwide have a LinkedIn Page. 68% post less than once weekly, 15% post once weekly, 8% post once every other day, 6% post once daily, and 3% post twice or more daily (Global NGO Technology Report).
• Small nonprofits have an average of 785 LinkedIn Followers. Medium have 2,837. Large have 10,107 (Global NGO Technology Report).

• In an average month, 8 out of 10 18-49 year-olds watch YouTube.
• Among millennials, YouTube accounts for 2/3rds of the premium online video watched across devices
• More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices
• The average mobile viewing session lasts more than 40 minutes
• The most viewed brand videos are on average 31–60 seconds long (32% of all views)
• In 2015, 18-49 year-olds spent 4% less time watching TV while time on YouTube went up 74%
• 28% of nonprofits are on Youtube.
• 6 billion nonprofit videos viewed in 2016.
• 57% of people who watch nonprofit videos go on to make a donation.
• 68% of nonprofit video watchers view similar videos within 30 days.