Beth Kanter

Beth Kanter is a consultant, author, influencer. virtual trainer & nonprofit innovator in digital transformation & workplace wellbeing.

Humor As Part of Nonprofit Social Content and Engagement Strategy: Hilarious Examples

Filed Under: Digital Strategy


According to a recent survey by OTX, 43% of respondents say they have shared content on social media sites because it is funny.   And the reasons are not a mystery — people remember how you make them feel and making them chuckle, giggle, and laugh reduces stress and makes people feel good.   There are tips for using humor successfully and methods for creating funny content as well as how to avoid a big fail .   Nonprofit technology professionals know how to converts laughs to donations and devoted an entire session to sharing tips, techniques, and examples during a NTEN conference.
When I saw this YouTube video to promote a conference on measurement and outcomes, I couldn’t resist sharing it.   It is the second installment of a series about the adventures of “Data Girl and Measurement Boy” that promotes a conference on data and improving outcome measurement for nonprofits.

Just because it is Friday and sometimes we need to let off a little steam, here’s six funny nonprofit spoof accounts that make fun of philanthropy, fundraising, and the nonprofit sector.
1. Bruce Wayne of the Wayne Family Foundation

2. Nonprofit Hulk Smashes Nonprofit Jargon


3. Fundraising Yoda Shares Fundraising Wisdom

4. Big Scary Fortress Nonprofit with a Command and Control Culture


5. The Whiny Donor who complains about nonprofit fundraising mistakes


6.  Nonprofit Humor Blog chronicles funny (fictional)  stories about nonprofits
What are some of the best examples of nonprofits using humor in their engagement and content marketing? Or, have any favorite nonprofit humor spoofs?
Update:
Joe Waters pointed me to a pinboard of examples of Cause Related Marketing Campaigns that use humor.
When You Work A Nonprofit Blog – and a case study about and why it got started

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Thanks Beth! You bring up some great examples of how a little humor goes along way. I love that Bruce Wayne bit. 🙂 Not only does laughing burn calories but it is great for marketing.
    I also really appreciate that you point to our blog post on creating funny content.

  2. Hi Stephanie: I loved your post! The examples – except for the Data Girl and Measurement Boy are just for fun, don’t seem to be connected with a marketing strategy – but for those of who work with nonprofits – they provide some stress relief.

  3. That makes sense. However, I think a social employee can still benefit the overall goal. A little humor does go a long way. It’s good to have a few laughs a day. Thanks for this!

  4. I started something called Stupid Bird Humor at my org, Audubon California, and it has helped us reach a broader audience of bird lovers.

  10. Ms. Kanter,
    I really enjoyed your post and thought it to be very insightful. It provides great advice for nonprofit organizations, stressing the importance of using humor as a tool for social media success. It is, no doubt, the end goal of a nonprofit to have followers and donors spread the word about a cause, and employing researched methods of generating more views and shares is important to achieving increased buzz. With the amount of social media being used and shared each moment of everyday, your article is not only timely but a discerning addition to how nonprofits should be better reaching their audiences and potential donors. It certainly was not hard to find other organizations using comedy, like for instance the Human Society’s upload of cute and funny video with a talking cat. This is just one example of the many videos that skillfully use wit that I found after reading your post. I noticed your article from the summer about Nonprofits using Vines and I think that they are another great medium for nonprofits. I believe the organizations could benefit from adding comedy to the Vines that are already spreading the word about different nonprofits and causes.
    You mentioned humor fails and the article that included the Evansville, Indiana’s Airport humor mistake, and it is true that there are so many ways a joke can go wrong. I for one have read cringe worthy PR disasters like Kenneth Cole’s tweet making light of Egypt’s riots, along with many other public fiascos that tend to include distasteful jokes. But, moreover, one of the easy down falls I see in using humor is that many nonprofits’ mission and causes are of more sensitive issues. Despite a nonprofits’ thought out and innocent attempt at humor, impolite followers and Internet trolls can spoil these efforts. It would be naïve of nonprofits to not carefully monitor the uses of their humor to ensure no large PR nightmare or more importantly protecting those they serve. In addition, as the Airport example proves, limiting the open-endedness of the post with lack of a question or engagement (other than sharing, liking, or retweeting) is a good way to avoid inappropriate comments. I furthermore think it is incredible essential that the use of the comedy is consistent with the brand and follows suit with other posts made by the organization. Straying from the style of the brands’ past posts may come off as forced, disingenuous and cause the joke to fall flat. Overall, I completely agree that humor is a ideal way to stand out in the ever-increasing crowd of posts in all social media mediums. The more nonprofits utilizing this statistic about humor and media, the more followers they can encompass.

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  2. […] CONTENTAccording to a recent survey by OTX, 43% of respondents say they have shared content on social media sites because it is funny. And the reasons are not a mystery — people remember how you make them feel and making them chuckle, giggle, and laugh reduces stress and makes people feel good. There are tips for using humor successfully and methods for creating funny content as well as how to avoid a big fail . Nonprofit technology professionals know how to converts laughs to donations and devoted an entire session to sharing tips, techniques, and examples during a NTEN conference. (…)  […]