Content Creators: A New (Mostly Ignored) Revenue Channel for Social Good

Livestreaming has given way to content creation as the newest, biggest opportunity for nonprofit fundraising on the web. “Content” typically means pre-created, edited content posted on multiple platforms. Content can be video, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), art, poetry, written, livestream and more. Anything one can deliver through the internet is content. 

Content creators are like Canadian geese: They are in every pond, and maybe there’s one in your bathtub. If you run a walk series, you have content creators in your program. There are content creators on your board, in your caregiver support network, as major donors and as walk team captains. 

How big might our miss be if we ignore content creators? Consider that there are 200 million creators worldwide, 89% of whom are pro or semi-pro and have 1,000 or more followers, according to "The 2022 Creator Report." These content creators cross national boundaries and many operate in the U.S. 

In the U.S. alone, the study found there are more than 40 million content creators — each of whom has between 100 and 1,000 followers. If and when invited to help our missions, content creators turn to what they do best — leveraging content. 

The problem is that we have not transitioned to helping constituents who create content with the tools to give the best of themselves to the mission — their content followers. Potentially, your platform and program design are not friendly to that effort. Download any team captain or fundraiser tool kit, and you’ll find it usually reads right out of 2005. There’ll be no acknowledgment of the presence and sophistication of this group of constituents, who exist in every revenue channel. 

Livestream and Gaming Are No Longer Creators’ Most Widely Produced Content

From Stephen Colbert's interactive Dungeons & Dragons adventure, where viewers shaped the narrative through their contributions before the recorded content, to Ryan Trahan's weekly video series, this content is meticulously crafted to engage and entertain audiences. These influencers, who nonprofits often recruit to fundraise, no longer limit themselves to livestreams. They create content, edit it and post it to various platforms — all on your behalf. This is celebrity fundraising at its finest, perhaps finer than before. 

“The realm of content creation has expanded far beyond the confines of live broadcasts, encompassing a diverse array of formats and platforms, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Michael Wasserman, co-founder and CEO of Tiltify, said. “From short-form TikTok videos to long-form YouTube content, creators of all ages and backgrounds leverage their influence to support causes they care about.

Wasserman reports an average of $1,100 per content creator, excluding those fundraisers over $100,000 and at $0.

“Livestream raises the most immediately because it’s live and synchronous,” he said. “Recorded content fundraises at lower amounts over a longer time span, which is typically the greater amount of fundraising in the end.” 

At Share Our Strength, the nonprofit is preparing for its Get Fit Live campaign in January in which creators can choose between livestreaming or participating in a month-long content creation strategy. 

“I think certain creators still see value in doing livestreams because of their potential reach, but we're hearing from some that viewership has decreased a lot since the pandemic — and therefore the livestream fundraising opportunity along with it,” Carla Warner, senior director of revenue innovation at Share Our Strength, said. “We've always seen the bulk of our Get Fit fundraising happening before our hosts even go live because of their social promotion. So this extension of the strategy makes a lot of sense for us."

A hyperfocus on livestreaming and gaming can inadvertently exclude potential fundraisers, Forbes’ Top Creator 2023 list showed. 

“Of those top 50, only seven are livestreamers,” Wasserman said. “Only one — at least that I know of — raised money last year for charity by livestreaming gaming-related content, and only three by livestreaming at all. The others who fundraised used other types of content and strategy.”

The Changing Definition of an Influencer

The change in the landscape even changes how we define influencers. Whereas once, “influencer” meant someone who has a huge following, now it means something different. 

“For our organization, an influencer is anyone who will set up a content creation, livestream, gaming volunteer fundraiser,” Kirsten Carlile, senior director of philanthropy and partner experiences at Child’s Play, said. 

Others define influencer as having a critical mass of followers, a different number for every program. 

“Influencers are those which have impact and engagement over their following,” Erika Jones, lead associate of livestream fundraising for Save The Children, said. “A large following does not make an influencer — it is how that influencer can utilize that audience.” 

The Nonprofit Organizational Structure Must Adapt

We in nonprofits got stuck in our organizational charts and silos and didn’t respond to what was happening in the environment. We now don’t match what is happening in real life. Content creators cross all silos in our organizations. 

The livestream fundraising person in the organization is still potentially focused on a small portion of the content creation audience. Yes, that person may understand the world has evolved. Still, in many organizations, that person is a lower-level employee without the power to affect a change to an organizational chart and lines of authority. Do you know what this means? Your chief development officer must be in this conversation. 

Case in point: Wasserman noted that 70% of Tiltify’s clients came to the company because a content-creating fundraising volunteer asked if they could use the content creation tool, not because the nonprofit anticipated the constituent’s need. Our constituents are asking us for change. 

The preceding post was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.