Social media strategy example

Social media strategy example for a regional food bank

A nonprofit social media strategy sets which platforms an organization will use, what it will publish on each, and how that activity brings in volunteers, donors and the people its programs serve. It is owned by the communications lead and agreed with the development, volunteer and program teams and the executive director.

This is the Nonprofit version of the social media strategy template.

Horizon: 1 year4 priorities · 10 outcomes

Use this template

What this social media strategy template includes

ContextThe situation, the challenges to solve, and what is deliberately left out.
Platforms and rolesWhere the brand will be active and what each platform is for.
Content pillarsThe recurring themes and the share of posts each receives.
Voice and communityHow the brand sounds and how it responds.
Paid socialHow paid budget supports organic activity.
Priorities and measuresThree to five priorities, each with an owner, outcomes with a baseline and target, and the initiatives behind them.

Worked example

A complete social media strategy for a fictional organization: regional food bank supplying 140 partner pantries across six counties.

Worked exampleSocial media strategy

Organization	Regional food bank supplying 140 partner pantries across six counties (50 staff)
Ambition	Use social to fill every weekday warehouse shift, bring in monthly donors all year, and point neighbors who need food to the nearest open pantry.
Horizon	1 year

Context

Where we are and what we are choosing

We distribute 11 million pounds of food a year through 140 partner pantries in six counties, with 50 staff and a $9.5 million cash budget. The warehouse needs 1,900 volunteer shifts a month. Weekend shifts fill within days while 22% of weekday shifts go empty. Online giving is $1.9 million, of which $118,000 can be traced to social, and 62% of that arrives in November and December. Facebook has 21,000 followers and Instagram 6,400. Seven in ten posts are appeals or event promotion, engagement is 1.1%, and the communications coordinator has 12 hours a week for social.

Challenges

Empty weekday shifts mean staff sort and pack food instead of doing their own jobs, and social sends only 140 volunteer sign-ups a month, nearly all for weekends.
Social giving is a year-end event. Ten months of the year bring 38% of the money, and only 60 new monthly donors a year start from a post.
People who need food message us at night and on weekends and wait until the next business day for an answer that is the same every time.

We will focus on

Three jobs for social, in this order: weekday volunteers, monthly donors, and helping neighbors find food.
People inside our six counties. Reach outside them is not counted.
Stories supplied by pantries, drivers and volunteers, so that one coordinator can sustain the calendar.

We will not

Photos of people waiting in line for food. Those images raise the most per appeal, and we have decided that the dignity of the people we serve comes first. Stories run only with written consent and never show children's faces.
TikTok and trend-led short video. It is where younger volunteers are, and it would take the coordinator's whole week.
Separate accounts for the mobile pantry and the school backpack program. Both teams have asked, and neither has anyone to run one.

Platforms and roles

Platform	Audience there	Role	Posting cadence
Facebook	Donors and neighbors aged 45 and over, local community groups; 21,000 followers	Donor stories, monthly giving, pantry hours and supporter-run fundraisers	5 posts a week
Instagram	Volunteers aged 22 to 40 and local businesses; 6,400 followers	Volunteer shifts, warehouse and driver stories, thanks to partners	4 posts a week, stories on shift days
LinkedIn	Local employers, corporate giving leads and board contacts; 2,100 followers	Weekday group volunteering and corporate partnerships	1 post a week
Nextdoor	Households in the neighborhoods our pantries serve	Where and when to get food, mobile pantry stops, urgent shift needs	2 posts a month per county

Content pillars

Pillar	Share of posts	Example post
Where the food goes	30%	A pantry coordinator in the smallest county shows Thursday's delivery and how many households it will feed
Volunteers and shifts	25%	Tuesday's morning crew packed 1,200 senior boxes; six places are open next Tuesday, with a sign-up link
What a gift does	20%	A monthly donor explains why she gives $25, beside the receipt for the truckload of milk it helped buy
Find food	15%	This week's mobile pantry stops with times, in English and Spanish, and what to bring: nothing
Appeals	10%	Summer match: every dollar given by June 30 is doubled by a local family foundation

Voice and community

Tone of voice	We write neighbor to neighbor: plain, warm and factual. We say neighbors, never the needy. We do not use guilt, and when we say what a gift provides we can show the calculation behind it.
Response time	Messages and comments are answered within 4 business hours on weekdays. Requests for food help are answered first, with the nearest pantry and its hours. Outside office hours an automatic reply gives the find food page and the helpline number.
Escalation	Anyone with no food for today is passed to agency relations the same day for an emergency box. Complaints about a partner pantry go to the agency relations manager within one business day and are never discussed in public. On hunger policy we state our position once and do not argue. Press inquiries go to the executive director.

Paid social

Monthly budget	$2,000 a month for ten months and $7,000 in November and December: $34,000 for the year, up from $9,600 spent on boosted posts. In an ordinary month $1,100 goes to weekday shifts, $600 to monthly giving and $300 to find food posts.
Objective	Completed weekday volunteer sign-ups at $12 or less, and new monthly donors at $90 or less. Event posts and general appeals are no longer boosted.
Targeting	Shift ads reach adults within 15 miles of the warehouse, weighted to retirees, students and shift workers, plus a lookalike audience built from volunteers who opted in. Giving ads reach people who engaged with us in the last 90 days, excluding current monthly donors. Find food posts run in the 14 ZIP codes with the greatest need, in English and Spanish, with no retargeting.

Priorities and measures

Priority 1Owner: Volunteer Services Manager

Fill the weekday warehouse shifts

One in five weekday shifts goes empty, and staff cover the gap. Social already fills weekends without effort, so the work is to reach people who are free on a Tuesday morning.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
Weekday volunteer shifts filled	78%	93%	Q4 2027
Volunteer sign-ups from social per month	140 sign-ups	300 sign-ups	Q3 2027
Corporate volunteer groups booked per quarter through LinkedIn	6 groups	15 groups	Q4 2027

Initiatives

Post open weekday shifts every Monday with a link straight to the shift, not the general volunteer page
Run shift ads to retirees, students and shift workers within 15 miles of the warehouse
Offer employers a weekday team shift with a photo and impact summary they can share
Ask every volunteer to tag the food bank after a shift and reshare the best posts

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Priority 2Owner: Director of Development

Turn followers into monthly donors

Social giving arrives in a two-month spike, which does not match a warehouse that buys food every week. A monthly donor giving $27 is worth more over three years than most single year-end gifts.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
New monthly donors per year who start from social	60 donors	180 donors	Q4 2027
Annual online gift revenue traced to social	$118K	$180K	Q4 2027
Social gift revenue arriving outside November and December	38%	50%	Q4 2027

Initiatives

Make monthly giving the default ask on social, with a donation page that opens on the monthly option
Run a spring and a summer matching campaign funded by two local foundations
Thank and follow up everyone who starts a birthday or supporter fundraiser on Facebook
Add campaign tags to every giving link so gifts can be traced to a post or an ad

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Priority 3Owner: Agency Relations Manager

Help neighbors find food without a phone call

Requests for help arrive at all hours and each one needs the same answer: the nearest pantry that is open. Getting that answer out quickly is program delivery, not marketing.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
Visits per month to the find food page from social	900 visits	3,000 visits	Q4 2027
Requests for food help answered within 4 business hours	35%	90%	Q2 2027

Initiatives

Publish each county's pantry hours and mobile pantry stops weekly, in English and Spanish
Set up automatic replies with the find food page and helpline for evenings and weekends
Give two agency relations staff access to the inbox and a set of saved replies
Ask partner pantries to share the weekly schedule post on their own pages

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Priority 4Owner: Communications Coordinator

Let pantries, drivers and volunteers tell the story

Seven in ten posts ask for something, and engagement is 1.1%. The coordinator cannot be in six counties, but the people who are there every day carry phones.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
Average engagement rate on Facebook and Instagram	1.1%	2.2%	Q4 2027
Posts per month built on material from pantries, drivers or volunteers	3 posts	16 posts	Q3 2027

Initiatives

Recruit 20 story contributors among pantry coordinators, drivers and shift leads, with a one-page guide to photos and consent
Collect photos and short videos through one shared number and a simple consent form
Plan the calendar monthly against the five pillars and limit appeals to one post in ten
Move the printed newsletter from four issues a year to two to free 4 hours a week for social

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Blank social media strategy template

The same structure with a prompt in every field. Copy it, or download it as a Word or Excel file.

Your planSocial media strategy

Organization	[Describe your organization in a few words, with its size]
Ambition	[One sentence on where you want to be at the end of the plan]
Horizon	[How long the plan runs, for example 12 months]

Context

Where we are and what we are choosing

[Where things stand today: the facts that make this strategy necessary]

Challenges

[A problem the strategy has to solve]
[A problem the strategy has to solve]

We will focus on

[Something you are choosing to concentrate on]
[Something you are choosing to concentrate on]

We will not

[Something you are deliberately leaving out]
[Something you are deliberately leaving out]

Platforms and roles

Platform	Audience there	Role	Posting cadence
[Platform]	[Audience there]	[Role]	[Posting cadence]
[Platform]	[Audience there]	[Role]	[Posting cadence]
[Platform]	[Audience there]	[Role]	[Posting cadence]

Content pillars

Pillar	Share of posts	Example post
[Pillar]	[Share of posts]	[Example post]
[Pillar]	[Share of posts]	[Example post]
[Pillar]	[Share of posts]	[Example post]

Voice and community

Tone of voice	[Your tone of voice]
Response time	[Your response time]
Escalation	[Your escalation]

Paid social

Monthly budget	[Your monthly budget]
Objective	[Your objective]
Targeting	[Your targeting]

Priorities and measures

Priority 1Owner: [Role accountable for this priority]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]

Initiatives

[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]

Priority 2Owner: [Role accountable for this priority]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]

Initiatives

[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]

Priority 3Owner: [Role accountable for this priority]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]

Initiatives

[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]

Priority 4Owner: [Role accountable for this priority]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]

Initiatives

[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]

How to adapt it

01
Write down the two or three things the organization needs most from the public, such as volunteers on particular days, recurring donors or program sign-ups. Give social a job for each and drop the rest.
02
Count the staff hours available for social each week and plan a cadence that fits them. If the plan needs more hours, say what will stop to make room.
03
Check when social gifts arrive across the year. If most come in two months, set an outcome for the other ten.
04
Write the consent and dignity rules before the content calendar: whose stories can be told, with what permission, and which images are never used.
05
Decide who answers requests for help and how fast. For a service organization the inbox is part of the program.
06
Add tags to every donation and sign-up link so results can be traced to a post, and record this year's baseline before setting targets.

How to run it

A plan only works if it is reviewed on a rhythm. This is the cadence the example assumes.

Check-in	Outcome owners update progress and confidence weekly.
Review	Priority owners review outcomes and unblock initiatives monthly.
Reset	Leadership revisits priorities and targets quarterly.

Tability keeps this cadence for you. Each priority becomes an objective, each outcome a key result with its baseline and target, and each initiative a tracked task. Owners get a check-in reminder and the plan shows what is on track.

Track this plan in Tability

Still comparing tools? See the 10 best strategy software tools.

Common mistakes

Posting mostly appeals. Followers who are asked for money in seven posts out of ten stop seeing the other three.
Reporting followers and likes to the board instead of volunteer sign-ups, donors and people helped.
Opening an account on every platform with a part-time coordinator, then letting half of them go quiet.
Using the most distressing image available because it raises more, at the expense of the people in the picture.

Questions, answered.

What should a nonprofit social media strategy include?

It should include the platforms and the job each one does, content pillars with a share of posts, rules for voice, consent and replies, and any ad budget. Add outcomes tied to the mission and to funding, such as volunteer shifts filled, new monthly donors and people directed to services.

Which social media platforms are best for nonprofits?

The best platforms are the ones your donors, volunteers and the people you serve already use, and that your team has time to run well. For the food bank in this example that means Facebook for donors, Instagram for volunteers, LinkedIn for employers and Nextdoor for neighbors. Two well-run accounts beat five neglected ones.

How much should a small nonprofit spend on social media ads?

Spend what you can tie to a result you would otherwise pay for. The food bank here spends $34,000 a year, less than 0.4% of its cash budget, aimed at weekday volunteer sign-ups at $12 each and monthly donors at $90 each. It stopped boosting event posts and general appeals.

How does a nonprofit measure social media success?

Measure the actions that matter to the mission, traced through tagged links: volunteer sign-ups, gifts and new recurring donors, and visits to service pages. Engagement rate is a useful early signal that content is being seen. Follower counts and reach outside your service area say little about impact.

How often should a nonprofit ask for donations on social media?

About one post in ten is a sensible ceiling outside a campaign. The rest should show where the money and time go, thank supporters and offer something useful. When an appeal does run, a specific ask with a deadline or a match performs better than a general request.

Social media strategy example for a regional food bank

Get the Word file

What this social media strategy template includes

Worked example

Context

Platforms and roles

Content pillars

Voice and community

Paid social

Fill the weekday warehouse shifts

Turn followers into monthly donors

Help neighbors find food without a phone call

Let pantries, drivers and volunteers tell the story

Blank social media strategy template

Context

Platforms and roles

Content pillars

Voice and community

Paid social

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

Get the Word file

How to adapt it

How to run it

Common mistakes

Questions, answered.

What this social media strategy template includes

Worked example

Fill the weekday warehouse shifts

Turn followers into monthly donors

Help neighbors find food without a phone call

Let pantries, drivers and volunteers tell the story

Blank social media strategy template

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

How to adapt it

How to run it

Common mistakes

Questions, answered.

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