3 Reasons Your Nonprofit Should Absolutely Be Interested In Pinterest

I’m sure that by now someone has brought up this question – either at a Board meeting, marketing meeting or just in passing:

Should our nonprofit be interested in Pinterest?

The short answer is – YES!

Note: Before jumping on any social network, your nonprofit should think about overall fundraising and marketing strategy and staff capacity first, and the tools second (Pinterest is a tool, not a strategy).

That being said, there are many compelling reasons why you should at least be interested in the fasting growing social network out there.

Here are my top three reasons why your nonprofit should absolutely be interested in Pinterest:

1.  Pinterest is growing leaps and bounds. Pinterest has almost caught up with Twitter in terms of adult U.S. Internet users (15% compared to Twitter’s 16%).

Pinterest has almost 25 million monthly unique visitors. Nothing to sneeze at when you want more eyeballs on your cause and more donors to add to your database!

2. Pinterest is where the women are. As a general trend, women make up more of the population on most social net working sites – but they make up 82% of active users on Pinterest.

And, according to numerous studies, women at virtually every income level are more likely to give to charity (in some cases, nearly twice as much).

And, when women give, they are more likely to give more and to be more loyal donors (think, donor retention).

3.  Pinterest is aspirational, not of the moment. What we pin reflects what we covet, what moves us, what we desire, who we want to be.

It works more like a Vision Board, rather than an off-the-cuff, in-the-moment statement of what we are eating or where we are hanging out.

Of all the social networks out there, Pinterest posts (called pins) last much longer.

Pinterest pins have a half life of over one week! (A tweet is 5-25 minutes; 80 minutes for a Facebook post.)

People pin photos on Pinterest to share with friends and to save for later.

Personally, I pin things that I want to remember and refer to later – fun ideas for crafts and gifts, things to do, articles to read.

You can’t save Facebook posts or tweets (other than the favorite function). In this way, Pinterest is unlike every other social network.

Do you want to learn more ways that nonprofits can use Pinterest to promote causes, to gain a dedicated following and to raise more money?

Register for my free webinar on March 26, where I will be going more in-depth into these topics, including: Why your nonprofit needs to get on Pinterest, now; the difference between a personal Pinterest profile and a Company profile; examples of nonprofits are kicking butt on Pinterest and why; the nuts and bolts of viral pinning; the qualities of a highly re-pinnable image; and the ways to integrate your efforts on Pinterest with your other social media platforms.

Sign up here! Thanks for reading, and I hope to “see” you on March 26^th!

photo credit: mkhmarketing via photopin cc