In an era where digital platforms shape visibility, fundraising, and public narrative, many nonprofits have come to rely heavily on social media. It’s fast, accessible, and often effective. Until it isn’t. Recent events across the sector serve as a reminder of a critical truth nonprofit leaders cannot afford to ignore: social media is rented space, not owned infrastructure.
Understanding that reality, and planning accordingly, is important for all story-tellers.
Social Media Is Rented Space
No matter how carefully curated your content or how loyal your following, social media platforms ultimately control access. Accounts can be suspended, posts removed, or visibility throttled without warning or recourse. Terms change. Algorithms shift. Entire organizations can disappear from a platform overnight.
For nonprofits, this means social media should be treated as a tool, not a foundation. Your organization’s credibility, donor relationships, and community engagement should never live exclusively on platforms you do not control. Owned assets: your website, email lists, CRM, and direct relationships, are the only spaces where your organization retains true agency.
Operational Risk Is Part of Digital Strategy
Digital dependence isn’t just a communications issue. It’s an operational one. When platforms malfunction, make unilateral decisions, or offer no human support, organizations can be left dealing with real financial and administrative consequences. A practical lesson for nonprofit leaders and small organizations alike: protect yourself operationally when engaging with third-party platforms. Simple safeguards like using virtual credit cards for subscriptions and digital services can prevent months of frustration, financial loss, or lack of accountability when systems break down.
This isn’t about mistrust; it’s about risk management. The same discipline nonprofits apply to grants, contracts, and vendors should extend to digital platforms.
Values-Based Leadership Comes With a Cost
One of the hardest lessons in nonprofit leadership is that doing the right thing is rarely free. Standing up for values, naming harm, or challenging dominant narratives often brings discomfort, backlash, or loss of access, especially when power is involved. This can be jarring in a sector that is often told to remain “neutral” or “safe” to protect funding and visibility. But values-based leadership is not about convenience. It is about integrity.
Nonprofit leaders who speak up (and you should speak up) should expect friction. Every time someone chooses principle over comfort, they make it easier for the next person to do the same.
Reframing Loss as Impact
It’s natural to feel anger or grief when access is taken away, especially when years of work disappear with the click of a button. But there is power in reframing these moments. If a message was strong enough to provoke a reaction, it was strong enough to be heard. Even limited reach can land where it needs to. Influence is not always measured in followers or impressions; sometimes it’s measured in who noticed and why.
For nonprofits, this perspective matters. Advocacy, truth-telling, and leadership are not validated solely by applause or platform approval. They are validated by alignment with mission and impact on real people, even when that impact is unseen or uncomfortable.
What This Means for Nonprofits
The takeaway for nonprofit organizations is not to abandon social media, but to use it strategically, responsibly, and without illusion.
- Build and protect owned communication channels
- Treat digital platforms as amplifiers, not lifelines
- Plan for operational risk, not just messaging risk
- Lead with values, knowing there may be a cost
- Measure success by integrity and impact, not access alone
Power, Platforms, and Standing Firm
Nonprofits exist to serve missions, not platforms. In moments when access is revoked or systems fail, organizations have an opportunity to reaffirm who they are, what they stand for, and where their real power lies.
Platforms come and go. Values endure.
Contact The Snapshot
The Nonprofit Snapshot exists to help organizations see these vulnerabilities clearly, and build resilience where it matters most. Please share your questions and comments on our Nonprofit Snapshot page on LinkedIn.