Improving Free the Children’s Social Media Presence

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Our Approach

Free the Children heavily promotes its initiatives and demonstrates transparency (Sustainable International Development, 2015).. The foundation shows where its donations go and how the donations impact the lives of others over social media posts. Free the Children’s personal identity is to inspire change. On social media, Free the Children heavily promotes their five pillars: education, clean water and sanitation, health, agriculture and food security, and alternative income and livelihood. Also Free the Children heavily promotes its use of a rights-based approach, where the communities they are involved with are active partners in their development.

Changes to be Made

Free the Children must maintain their “inspiring change” approach while also partnering with larger charities to reach a larger audience. Free the Children should follow The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and promote other charities’ positive work to expand their reach of potential donors.

CURRENT USAGE/EASE OF ACCESSIBILITY

Competitor’s Approach

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation uses Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and their blog to promote their work and progress to their donors. In a study done by Rick Lesaar, he compares different charities to their social following to calculate their engagement index. Large international charities, such as UNICEF and Save the Children, received higher engagement index scores due to the fact that they have more followers than the other lesser known charities (Rick Lesaar, 2015).

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Figure 1: Gauge of Effectiveness (Rick Lesaar, 2015)

Generally, the charities that are more engaged in social media receive more donations than those with less of a following. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also has a strong following on their blog “Impatient Optimists”. This is where numerous articles are posted regarding different issues such as HIV/AIDS, college-ready education, and family homelessness. Having an separate blog from their website, allows donors to easily access information about where exactly their money is going.

Our Approach

Free the Children is one of the top international aid and development charities in Canada, but they do not have the current usage needed in comparison to other charities. Although Free the Children has almost 100,000 twitter followers, they do not tweet as often as their competitors. In a day the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation tweets/retweets approximately seven times, compared to Free the Children who tweets once or twice a day. Free the Children targets a large audience on their Facebook page. The use of the Facebook, is ideal since it is the most popular and accessible social media platforms worldwide.

Changes to be Made

Free the Children should make updates to their blog more frequently. Donors want to see the work that Free the Children is doing, and the best way to do that is to update their blog frequently to show the progress of villages and other projects that individuals have donated towards. In doing so, donors will feel a sense of ease knowing that their donation is being put to effective and meaningful use.

OVERALL SUCCESS

Competitor’s Approach

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is at the top of Portland Communications list of the top 50 social philanthropists of the world. The Foundation has the opportunity to reach more than any other Non-Profit Organization in the world. Portland’s Senior Partner for Content and Digital Strategy, Mark Flanagan, noted that few studies have been done to show how philanthropists use social media to promote their work (European Foundation Centre, 2015). There is no doubt that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation runs a very successful social media platform. Their status in society, combined with a strong social media presence has allowed the foundation to be one of the most successful Non-Profit Organizations in the world.

Our Approach

Free the Children overall has a successful social media campaign. Ultimately to increase the number of donors, more time will need to be dedicated to improving our social media outlets. This could include partnering with other charities, creating an effective blog, and using different social media outlets to promote Free the Children. Free the Children has seen improvement in their grade from Money sense’s 2015 Charity grades. This can be attributed to the allocation of donation and continuing advocacy transparency.

Changes to be Made

To obtain a social media presence that is overall as successful as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Free the Children must dedicate time and resources to improve the social media platforms. In a survey obtained from a 1710 Communications class at Dalhousie University, studies showed that students who “liked” a corporate Facebook page were twice as likely to have donated $5 or more to any charity in the past 12 months.

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Figure 2: Comparing Social Media Presence and Donations. Source: Primary Data

This data presents an opportunity to reach a younger demographic. If we can retrieve more likes on our Facebook page, there is a possibility of being able to gather more donations due to exposure.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

After analyzing Free the Children’s social media presence and comparing it to the social media presence of the major competitor, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we find ways to improve and grow our company’s social media presence.

Free the Children should be able to improve their social media and obtain more donations by taking these steps:

1. Free the Children must maintain their “inspiring change” approach while also partnering with larger charities to reach a larger audience. Free the Children should follow The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and promote other charities’ positive work to expand their reach of potential donors.

2. Free the Children should make updates to their blog more frequently. Donors want to see the work that Free the Children is doing, and the best way to do that is to update their blog frequently to show