If you’re a charitable or nonprofit organisation looking to gain supporters and drive donations, user-generated content (UGC) should be part of your marketing strategy.

 

UGC helps build trust in your brand and creates an authentic and emotional connection with your audience. And we're here to teach you everything you need to know about UGC for nonprofit organisations.

In the advocacy space, this is particularly important as you are usually fighting for a cause and can be quite raw. Whether your organization focuses on climate change, mental health, religion, animal welfare or something else UGC is authentic, effective and powerful. UGC will help increase awareness for your cause and attract an audience. 

 

But what is user-generated content?

 

UGC stands for user-generated content. By definition, user-generated content is any form of organic content—text, posts, images, videos, reviews, etc.—created by individual people (not brands) and your community. It can save you lots of time and resources, as you don't need to hire a film crew or video editor.

For nonprofits and charities, UGC is particularly valuable. It saves them lots of time and resources as you don’t need to hire a film crew or a video editor, and is therefore extremely cost-effective for your nonprofit budgets without needing to make compromises. All the more reason for you to make it an integral part of your marketing efforts.

 

Wondering how UGC works and how to create a campaign? Here are some UGC campaign ideas for your charity or nonprofit:

 

Use UGC campaigns to create awareness and increase participation in fundraisers

 

Video serves the dual purpose of education and storytelling. It is an easy way to share a personal story and evoke empathy in viewers while also creating awareness around the struggles and problems of the disadvantaged community.

You need to educate others about the communities you’re helping and advocate for the cause you’re working towards. This will generate interest and eventually help you gain supporters, volunteers, and donations.

 

 

Share impactful and inspiring stories of your benefactors

 

Use the power of video to tell impactful stories of your brand and its benefactors. Potential donors are looking into how you’re using grants. Through video storytelling, you can share genuine and unfiltered stories of your benefactors and how you’ve brought about a change in their lives. 

People often share videos that move them and are aligned with their personal values. You could repurpose and promote these videos and posts on social media to reach a wider audience.

 

Provide a platform for your advocates to share their passion for the cause

 

Use UGC at events and fundraisers by encouraging your supporters to share a video explaining why this mission is important to them. It is a great way to build relationships with donors, volunteers, stakeholders, and the community.

 You can play it on the spot or collect the responses to use in a campaign later.

 

Gather testimonials from your stakeholders

 

Get your supporters to endorse you and speak about the efforts and impact you’ve made so far. Gathering testimonials from your community will help build strong social proof. Social proof means that people tend to adopt the behaviour of others. Once your audience sees that others have contributed or volunteered, it will encourage them to take action too. It ensures that potential donors trust your organization enough to donate. Afterall, 72% of consumers say positive testimonials and reviews increase their trust in a business (Big Commerce)

 

Conclusion

 

Now that you know how you can leverage your community to promote your cause, here is how Vloggi can help you source Community videos. To help you get started and plan your advocacy video campaign, we have outlined four steps on our blog How to Build a Powerful Advocacy Campaign with Community Video.