Rebuilding Philanthropy: Social Media’s Impact on Nonprofits After the Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic created varied impacts among nonprofit organizations in the US and globally, including changes in operating costs, employment, and services, which are well documented; however, in the aftermath of the pandemic other challenges are being felt in unexpected ways that are shifting how nonprofits market themselves moving forward. This study explores the unique challenges that nonprofits have faced using social media for marketing purposes since the pandemic. Qualitative data from focus group participants representing small-sized nonprofits suggests that social media is still useful for marketing and brand awareness, but there are limits to their applicability and effectiveness for fundraising, particularly for tracking donor information and receiving timely resources. Further, the pandemic forced organizations to build their social media capacity and innovate, and these effects are forcing nonprofits to evaluate their technical capacity moving forward. Implications for nonprofit organizations in terms of capacity building training are provided, in addition to mechanisms for small nonprofits to align social media use with their mission and leverage networks and partnerships to increase technical capacity.