How Nonprofits Can Create and Publish Impactful Thought Leadership on LinkedIn
Every day on LinkedIn, nonprofit leaders start conversations, shape opinions, and offer their problem-solving bests to the communities they belong to. In other words, they practice thought leadership.
Thought leadership is the art and science of sharing your knowledge, experience, and perspective on a specific topic with the aim of educating, engaging, and inspiring your audience. It can be especially important for nonprofits because it’s a valuable way to distinguish your organization’s vision and draw attention to your cause.
Not sure where to begin on your nonprofit thought leadership journey? Explore our tips to help you establish a thought leadership foundation from which your organization can grow and prosper on LinkedIn.
What is nonprofit thought leadership?
Compared to "for profit" thought leadership, nonprofit thought leadership is usually more mission-driven, values-led, and advocacy-oriented, though it doesn't necessarily have to be.
What’s particularly empowering about nonprofit thought leadership is that anyone can be a thought leader. Executives, employees, donors, and volunteers can all participate. And they should, because all can help you build trust and credibility with key audiences who can advance your nonprofit's cause.
"If the industry is under a microscope, there has never been a more important time to invite real people with legitimate expertise to underscore the impact and necessity of those funds. Nonprofit organizations—yours included—have rich expertise on the most pressing societal issues." — Meghan Goff, founder at Onword Communications, on LinkedIn
Executive nonprofit thought leadership is particularly important because these senior leaders are often the best-positioned when it comes to engaging other executives and influencers. Your executives probably have much more thought leadership to contribute than they realize because they are subject matter experts with a deep passion for the cause after all.
But what if your executives are simply too busy to focus on thought leadership themselves? That's where your nonprofit’s team comes in. Creating content for your executives to publish on LinkedIn can be a shared responsibility and can become a part of your team’s content planning rhythm.
Creating and publishing thought leadership as a nonprofit
Successful thought leadership content comes in all sizes and colors on LinkedIn. Start by following established nonprofit leaders—including LinkedIn Top Voices in Social Impact, to see which topics resonate and how they show up on the platform. Leave thoughtful comments on relevant posts, reshare with a brief takeaway, and join LinkedIn Groups aligned to your cause (the LinkedIn for Nonprofits group is a great low‑stakes place to test your voice).
Publish from an individual leader’s profile (not just your nonprofit’s Page) and experiment with LinkedIn features like tagging partners, using relevant hashtags, and sharing short video updates to showcase expertise and spark engagement. As you engage, don’t forget to encourage employees to like, comment, and reshare to extend your reach.
Many thought leaders tend to limit their focus to one or two issues. Trying to tackle too many topics makes it harder for people to distinguish your thought leaders and your organization from everyone else. In addition to being a core tenet of branding, specialization can also reduce your content burden and allow for greater depth of expertise.
It’s important for nonprofit leaders to get strategic and selective when choosing what to address, and to whom. Tactics like targeted posts and reposting on LinkedIn allow nonprofits to address their most critical topics frequently and with relevance. When planning content formats, nonprofit leaders should prioritize video. No matter your organization’s size or mission, video—shared 20x more often than other post types on LinkedIn—can significantly boost reach and engagement.
What do audiences want from thought leadership content?
Research from Edelman and LinkedIn found that three specific qualities can elevate thought leadership from good to great, helping it break through in a saturated content landscape and resonate with busy professionals:
It references strong research and data
It helps me better understand challenges and opportunities facing my business
- It offers concrete guidance and case studies
(Source: 2024 Edelman and LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report)
Setting goals and measuring success with thought leadership
Setting realistic, concrete goals around key objectives doesn’t just help you stay focused in your thought leadership initiative, it also gives your team a target to rally around.
It’s okay to start small and move at your own pace. Focus on tiny wins as you build momentum, and make it clear you’re creating a test-and-learn environment—an approach that often increases resonance. As Kivi Leroux Miller, founder and CEO of Nonprofit Marketing Guide, reminds us:
“People are paying attention to what you’re saying or writing. Now what? Do you want them to advocate for policy changes? Change the way they work on issues you care about? If you can pin down those answers, you can turn raising awareness and thought leadership into legitimate nonprofit marketing goals.”
Once you get going, LinkedIn provides tools that can make it easier to measure the impact and ROI of your thought leadership campaigns.
The LinkedIn Insight Tag and Conversion Tracking, for example, can provide a comprehensive view of how your thought leadership campaigns are performing both inside and outside the platform, in terms of the actions most valuable to your nonprofit: downloads, sign-ups, donations, and more.
“The extent to which you’re able to measure the impact of your marketing campaigns determines the quality of your insights, the effectiveness of your optimization strategy, and the clarity of your results.” — Alex Rynne, Senior Content Manager, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, on the LinkedIn for Marketing Blog
Whatever your objectives, the most important thing is to get started. Round up the team and empower your leaders, employees, and volunteers to start conversations, shape opinions, and bring their problem-solving bests to the community you belong to.
Your nonprofit's approach to thought leadership isn’t going to prioritize itself, so get started empowering your leaders to join the conversation today.
