BlueSky Thinking Summary

The following article explores how charities can get donors to share their donations on social media effectively without seeming self-serving.

Sharing donations on social media could increase awareness and bring more donors, but people are always wary of sharing because they don't want to boast about donating.

Research by Kellogg School's Ike Silver and Yale's Deborah Small shows that, simply by reframing the request for sharing to be about the cause, rather than donating per se, will raise the likelihood of sharing and downstream donating.

The researchers demonstrated this, in an experiment with DonorsChoose.org, by showing that this simple messaging tweak increased downstream donations 16%.

This approach shifts the donors' focus from personal reputation toward the cause's impact and hence overcomes the possible discomfort associated with sharing.

Equally, promoting causes through social media helps charities and people alike in carrying out huge positive actions for the sake of altruism.

Ready to amplify your impact? Share your cause, not your credit!