As the clock struck midnight on March 22, 2022, Mercury Stardust settled into a hard metal chair in a friend’s empty dance studio and went live.
The Wisconsin-based TikToker — who goes by the moniker the Trans Handy Ma’am — has garnered more than 2.6 million followers on the platform for her helpful repair and maintenance tutorials. This time, however, she wanted to see if her audience would tune in for something different.
Nonprofits of all sizes are partnering with social-media personalities to reach new donors.
What started out as a 24-hour TikTok-a-Thon for $24,000 in honor of National Trans Day of Visibility ultimately raised more than $1 million for trans organizations like Point of Pride, which provides financial assistance for gender-affirming health care.
In 2023, Stardust leveled up the TikTok-a-Thon. She got a more comfortable chair, added a fellow trans TikToker as co-host, and worked directly with Point of Pride. Their collective efforts raised $2 million.
“We’d never had anyone raise or donate that amount of money in one sitting before,” says Aydian Dowling, co-founder and chief advancement officer for Point of Pride. Dowling estimates the first fundraiser brought in more than the grassroots nonprofit raised on its own in six years. It also vastly expanded the group’s reach by attracting more than 55,000 donors. Many of the donors were young, first-time contributors, and the average gift size was $40.
Nonprofits big and small are collaborating with social-media influencers to boost their fundraising — raising millions for charity while also building coveted connections with new donors. About half of the 225 organizations surveyed for M+R’s 2024 benchmarks survey said they worked with social-media influencers in 2023.
But organizations looking to harness the power of digital clout need to carefully weigh the risks and benefits, experts told the Chronicle. Events on platforms like TikTok have been derailed by account suspensions, and concern about an imminent ban of the app loom. There’s also the potential for reputational damage when creators go off script. Some of YouTube’s biggest stars — and fundraisers — are mired in controversy for their business practices, off-hand comments, or shocking stunts aimed at drawing viewers.
While Stardust’s first two TikTok-a-Thons went largely as planned, 2024 was a different story. “We got banned on TikTok Live the first hour and again and again,” she recalls. “We got mass reported by people; it was devastating.” The fundraiser faced at least a dozen bans on the platform due to what Point of Pride called “anti-trans brigading.” They ultimately raised more than $2 million, but fell short of an ambitious $4 million goal.
Dowling says the plan this year is to host a 30-hour livestream with a goal of $1 million. They will also be prepared to pivot to alternate platforms as needed.
Currency of Trust
Having a Plan B for when things go south is key, says Tory Martin, director of communications and strategic partnerships at the Johnson Center for Philanthropy. “The internet is a wild and frenetic place, and things can go wrong very quickly. Social-media memes can live forever.”
Martin recommends nonprofits ensure they can communicate directly with stakeholders in case of unpredictable platform snafus. One tip: Keep an email list or use an alternate platform to provide updates. Even more important, Martin says, is the influencer. “I would only personally choose an influencer I follow for a while and understand more about what their brand is and know how they typically react to things and how their audience works.”
Dowling agrees. “If you know the integrity of that individual is true and is in alignment with your nonprofit’s values, you’re going to be as safe as you can be given the arena you’re entering.”
He speaks from experience as a former full-time content creator. His YouTube channel has been chronicling his journey as a trans man since 2009.
The success of the TikTok-a-Thons, while greatly appreciated, has not changed Point of Pride’s overall fundraising or social-media strategy. “We want to make sure there’s a clear line between us as an organization and the influencer as a creator and entertainer,” Dowling says.
Before the TikTok-a-Thons, Stardust had never worked consistently with a nonprofit, preferring direct mutual-aid initiatives instead. “My mentality of mutual aid could not translate completely to a large platform,” she says. “There is no mutual aid that is direct that is also protecting people from scams, protecting people from abuse.” She still gets occasional comments from viewers who balk at the idea of working with a nonprofit.
What made her comfortable working with Point of Pride was the nonprofit’s transparency detailing how every donated dollar is spent as well her familiarity with Dowling. “We could talk to each other as influencers and only as two trans content creators can talk to each other,” Stardust says. “As a content creator, I believe your currency is not the products you sell or the words you say, the currency you work off of is trust.”
Martin says she often gets questions about the ethical implications of working with content creators who are primarily focused on expanding their personal brands. While working with influencers is new, questions about donors’ motivations for giving are not, she says, pointing to the long tradition of philanthropists putting their names on buildings.
“It’s not like reputational burnishment is new to philanthropy,” Martin says. “This is an updated version in the new world order.”
Setting clear guidelines ahead of time is key, Martin says, including whether or not compensation is a part of the agreement. “If you’re considering working with an influencer that wants to take a fee, you would need to ask the same question you’d ask in a sponsorship scenario or event scenario.”
Nonprofits should also set clear budgets and consider any legal issues when working with content creators. Certain rules prohibit contractors from being compensated using donations that come in through the event, and gaming events like raffles may require permits.
A Network of Influencers
The American Heart Association treats all of its collaborations with content creators as an extension of the nonprofit’s long history of working with volunteers. The nonprofit’s LIIVE initiative encourages content creators to “go live to save lives” by not only promoting fundraisers but also taking part in educational campaigns.
Dr. Mauricio Gonzalez, a Spanish-speaking content creator known as Dr. Mau who has more than 2 million followers across multiple platforms, helped the association launch R.Á.P.I.D.O., a campaign to teach people to recognize the signs of a stroke using a Spanish acronym.
Last February, the association teamed up with 17 creators on TikTok Live to promote CPR awareness — including Dr. Mike Varshavski, a board-certified physician in New York. Known on social media as Doctor Mike, he has more than 13 million subscribers on YouTube and over 6 million followers across Instagram and TikTok.
The association was introduced to Doctor Mike through J.T. Laybourne, a TikToker who chronicled his open-heart surgery amid the early days of the pandemic.
The success of the nascent LIIVE program has been the result of cultivating relationships with creators like Laybourne, who in turn act as ambassadors that recruit other like-minded influencers to the cause, says Katrina McGhee, chief marketing officer of the American Heart Association.
“It’s really important to engage with people’s content before you ask them for something,” McGhee says. “When we slide into a person’s DMs, it’s not with a request but just to introduce ourselves.” The association first got Laybourne’s attention by “duetting” one of his TikTok posts, which is when a user reacts to another video in a split-screen format. “We literally engaged with his content over months before he did anything for us.”
Laybourne has since led several campaigns for the association, at one point teaming up with Backstreet Boy singer A.J. McLean and the comedian Wayne Brady in an effort that raised over $400,000.
‘Anyone Can Be a Fundraiser’
The idea of brokering partnerships with big, household names can seem out of reach for most nonprofits, says Martin, at the Johnson center. “When individuals think about working with influencers, they think about Oprah.”
Instead, most nonprofits should think small and local.
The internet is a wild and frenetic place, and things can go wrong very quickly. Social-media memes can live forever.
At Share Omaha, plans are underway for a new campaign to get local social-media users to promote the website, which acts as a central hub for more than 600 nonprofits in Omaha, Neb.
The goal is to gain more insight into the nearly one-third of Share Omaha users annually who are new to the fundraising platform, says Teresa Mardesen, the group’s executive director. “Whether it’s on a large or small scale, the more connections, the more fundraising happens.”
The nonprofit has begun putting together lists of local micro influencers and existing Share Omaha users to promote the platform to their audiences. In exchange, Share Omaha will make donations in the influencer’s name to a charity of their choice.
“We’re turning up new conversations with the goal of connecting with new demographics,” Mardesen says. By focusing on micro influencers, she hopes to cultivate more authenticity and foster community ties.
The 2024 M+R survey found that more organizations reported working with lesser-known content creators. Of nonprofits that partnered with creators in 2023, 77 percent and 85 percent reported working with nano (less than 10,000 followers) and micro influencers (less than 100,000 followers). Less than half of surveyed nonprofits reported working with macro influencers (more than 500,000 followers).
McGhee at the Heart Association encourages nonprofits to embrace smaller creators. “I’ve seen people with some of the smallest followings do the most fundraising,” she says. “Many of these nano and micro influencers have higher levels of engagement than influencers with larger followings. We are at the point now where anyone can be a fundraiser.”
She recommends nonprofits target local influencers in their geographical area, who tend to be passionate about regional issues and more willing to share messages soliciting support more often. Influencers will also be plugged into local social networks in a way that many nonprofits are not. “You want to create this model where the groundswell starts to grow on its own,” McGhee says. “You’re not dependent on constantly cold-calling people.”
Dowling of Point of Pride says he contacts everyone who hosts a fundraiser on the nonprofit’s behalf, regardless of the size of the gift or campaign. The message serves as both a thank you and a friendly invitation for future support should they choose to repeat the fundraiser.
Point of Pride has also taken a relaxed approach to the influx of new donors, being careful not to inundate them with appeals. “You’re tapping into a donor pool that nobody knows about yet,” Dowling says, but “we’re also acknowledging that they came to us from a platform where the attention span is very short. Our goal is to get them to repeat, or double their impact one time a year.”
Dowling encourages other nonprofits to try their hand at using social media for fundraising. “I encourage people to try. You’re only going to raise money, you’re not going to lose money.”
