In this blog, we will dive into the top nonprofits on Facebook and look at how they are maximising the platform to advocate their cause further.

We’ve gathered data from each of the top nonprofit accounts for 28 days (February 9 to March 7) to help give a better look at how these nonprofits are working with and benefitting from Facebook.

Top 10 Nonprofits On Facebook

The World Health Organization (WHO) is leading the social media race by being the nonprofit with the most followers on both Facebook and Instagram, with 38 million followers on Facebook and 12.1 million on Instagram.

Meanwhile, UNICEF is just shy of 8 million followers to reach the top spot, but still has an impressive 30 million follower count and TED jumps down to third on the list with 17 million followers.

Here’s how the rest of the accounts fared with their followers:

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has a hefty audience of 8.9 million.
National Public Radio (NPR) and the United Nations (UN) share the 7 million milestone with 7.6 and 7.5 million followers respectively.
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) reverses the UN’s numbers with 5.7 million followers,
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has a solid 4.5 million following,
While Team USA [they have been representing the nation's elite athletes in Olympic and Paralympic competitions since 1895], and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) take the last two spots with 4.2 and 3.9 million supporters

How Active Are These Nonprofits?

The first metric to consider is how frequently each organisation posts per day. It gives us a good insight into how active they are and later on, we can determine how this affects their engagement and popularity on Facebook.

Frequent activity on social media platforms gives accounts a better chance of reaching a wider audience and growing.

These nonprofits post on Facebook an average of 8 times per day.

The National Public Radio (NPR) is the most active with an average of 35.3 posts a day and a total of 989 in just 28 days.

They post about anything from pop culture,

to reports of hard-hitting news

And of course, their signature Tiny Desk Concerts.

NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts feature intimate performances by musicians from various genres, often held at a small desk in the NPR Music office. These stripped-down sessions showcase artists in an acoustic setting, offering a raw and personal experience for both performers and listeners.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) follows suit with 21.8 per day and 686 in less than a month.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has the third highest post frequency with roughly 5 posts per day followed by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) with an average of 4 per day.

PETA has a knack for posting witty photos or memes with punchy taglines promoting their cause that are sure to capture your attention audience. Here’s one of their recent posts:

Surprisingly, the top nonprofit accounts World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and TED post less often with about 2-3 posts per day.

The United Nations (UN), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and Team USA go last on the list with an average of 1-3 posts in a day.

What Are Nonprofits Posting On Facebook

We know that to thrive on social media, you have to have effective posts that encourage engagement. So, what are these organisations posting?

Another key factor to consider is the type of posts that do well on Facebook and how often are these nonprofits using them. The graph shows a strong preference leaning towards photo posts with it taking up almost half of stats with a staggering 47.7%.

WHO is a great example of this as it is the account with the most followers and the most photo posts.

They keep their content eye-catching and interesting by using colorful and jampacked infographics.

Link posts also seem to be doing well with the second-highest percentage of 25.2%. Video posts come to third place with 17.6% and texts are last with 9.4%.

The World Health Organization also spreads information through its videos. They share conferences and interviews with healthcare experts and informative explainer videos like this one:

Now, let’s explore how each organisation uses different media types.

From the graph, we can see that photo posts are popular among these organisations and make up most of their content.
In total, about 48% of their Facebook posts are photos. Considering how most users quickly scroll along the platform, pictures and illustrations are a great way to hook their viewers and deliver their message in a snap.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) posts the most photos (384 in 28 days). Their pictures usually represent data from financial reports or world events.

However, the National Public Radio (NPR) posts links more than any other type of media and more than the other organisations. This allows them to redirect their followers to their website to gain more traffic and engagement on their main platform.

The graph also shows how most of the top nonprofits use text only posts the least.

Engagement Indicators: Average Reactions, Shares, And Comments

A high follower count should yield a high engagement rate to ensure that users aren’t simply scrolling over posts. One of the ways to measure user involvement is through their reactions, shares, and comments.

Average Reactions Per Post

For average reactions per post, these nonprofits gathered an average of 847.

TED takes the lead with about 2,500 reactions per post while the World Health Organization (WHO) follows with 1,500 reactions per post.

TED is not just a popular nonprofit but they are also a well-known content creator that consistently produces high-quality videos with inspiring speakers from all over the world. As a result of this media specialisation, their posts have higher engagement rates compared to the other nonprofits with a large following.

Similar to WHO, they focus on featuring experts on specialised topics and create several thorough animated explainer videos as well.

Here’s a recent repost on their Facebook page that referenced one of their older explainer videos discussing the behavior of cancer cells:

They’ve really mastered the art of creating highly immersing and informative nonprofit videos.

Average Shares Per Post

TED bolts to the top again with 602 shares per post and the World Health Organization (WHO) isn’t too far behind with an average of 432.

We can also see from the graph that the rest of the organisations have a low share per post rate that doesn’t even exceed the 200s.

The average for all of these nonprofits comes to about 170 shares per post.

Average Comments Per Post

The World Health Organization (WHO) regains its top status with the most number of comments per post amounting to roughly 465.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and National Public Radio (NPR) have also encouraged much discussion under their articles with an average of 249 and 245 comments per post, respectively.

Conclusion: A Profile Of Potential

Facebook still proves to be one of the top social media platforms in terms of reach and engagement. With not only active organisations but also interactive users.

Upon examining all the data gathered, we can say that visually engaging content, such as pictures and videos remains supreme and is key to thriving in this digital reign. Even accounts that have link-heavy posts, such as the National Public Radio (NPR) utilise eye-catching header images to encourage clicks.

In conclusion, the analysis of the top nonprofits on Facebook sheds some light on the strategies employed by organisations to engage with their audience and drive meaningful influence.

Different organisations will benefit from different content strategies. However, we can determine that engaging visuals such as photos and nonprofit videos do extremely well and are used extensively across each account.

As valuable as these information are and although they can serve as benchmarks for progress for nonprofit accounts, the data is still inconclusive.

We’d love to hear your insights on this topic. What do you think? Are you a nonprofit marketer? Do you have anything to share about Facebook strategies and nonprofits? Anything you can share will contribute to our research and understanding of the subject.

Let’s discuss! Email us to share your thoughts and ideas.

The Top 10 Nonprofits on Facebook And Their Metrics