Industry: Nonprofit
Company size: 51-200 employees
Headquarters: Arlington, VA
Products Used: PR Newswire Amplify™, SocialBoost, Press Release Distribution
PR Newswire Partner Since: 2010
Summary
The Objective
The National Council on Aging (NCOA) is a national nonprofit helping people age with dignity, purpose, and security since 1950. Through trusted tools, evidence-based programs, community partnerships and advocacy, NCOA works to improve the health and economic well-being of older adults nationwide, while equipping caregivers and professionals with critical resources.
Building on its milestone of improving the lives of 40 million older adults through its evidence-based programs, digital tools like BenefitsCheckUp® and decades of policy advocacy, NCOA is focused on creating the conditions for everyone to age well today and into the future—working toward its bold impact goal of 100 million happier, healthier birthdays by 2040.
To spread its message, educate older adults and caregivers, and help donors understand the “why” behind its mission, NCOA shares content across channels that resonates with target audiences and drives engagement from current and prospective donors.
The Challenge
Increase Brand Awareness & Engage Donors
To reach its goal of 100 million happier, healthier birthdays by 2040, NCOA recognised the need to deepen its community of individual supporters and build a more resilient, diversified philanthropic base—one that could grow alongside the mission and expand NCOA's capacity to serve older adults nationwide.
“People trust messages that come from their colleagues and their peers, and it helps showcase our work, build social proof, and strengthen the credibility of our campaigns and the work we’re doing,” said NCOA Social Media Manager Rebecca Mintz-Colin.
The team knew that in a noisy, fragmented media landscape, social media would be a powerful tool for reaching audiences where they already are, spreading awareness for their resources, events and seasonal giving campaigns, and reaching new donors.
NCOA has partnered with PR Newswire for over a decade for press release distribution and was looking to implement a Multichannel Amplification™ strategy that went beyond a single press release to include shared media. The team expanded that relationship by using SocialBoost, powered by SoSha, to create on-brand, plug-and-play social-sharing toolkits for the website, emails and press releases. These toolkits made it easy for donors, advocates, aging services professionals, staff and board members to share consistent messaging that reached relevant audiences and boosted conversions
The Approach
Create Custom, On-Brand Toolkits to Streamline Social Sharing
To strengthen its community of supporters, amplify its mission and grow its base of individual donors, the NCOA team implemented a multipronged storytelling strategy for both internal and external audiences, including:
- SocialBoost Enterprise Toolkits: The client-focused team utilised the Plan module to proactively identify story angles that would resonate with audiences based on industry trends and popular searches.
- Dynamic Content Strategy: The Distribute module was used for granular targeting— based on industry, geography and even budgetary needs—to ensure each story reached the most relevant media, influencers and decision-makers.
- Email Campaigns: The team accessed comprehensive press release analytics in the Report module to demonstrate impact. Three Rings analysed click-throughs as a lead generation source and evaluated larger trends to help refine and optimise future campaigns.
- SocialBoost for Press Releases: The team embedded SocialBoost widgets in their press releases, securing additional social shares for some of their biggest stories of the past two years.
- Staff Enablement: The team trained staff and board members to use the pre-drafted social posts to quickly and easily share on-brand, consistent messaging via social media. To keep staff engaged, the team also sent regular internal emails encouraging them to share the latest stories with their networks.
The SocialBoost Enterprise Toolkits used built-in AI features that allowed sharers to regenerate posts to match their preferred tone while staying on message. NCOA created dozens of user-friendly, AI-powered toolkits that successfully activated their entire community, including staff, donors, board members and beyond, across social platforms like Facebook, X and LinkedIn.
25x
more press release social shares
15%
of social-share clicks converted to donations
Key Results
Driving Engagement and Donations with Multichannel Amplification™
By implementing social media into their multichannel giving campaigns and news releases, NCOA reinforced their message and saw record levels of engagement:
- A 2024 press release with a SocialBoost widget secured 25x more social shares than other NCOA releases without an embedded toolkit. The press release continues to be shared years later—showing the power of combining a strong message with SocialBoost to extend a campaign's longevity.
- NCOA generated 50+ shares and 25+ clicks to the donation page from a multi-toolkit end-of-year giving campaign. An impressive 15% conversion rate meant the organisation secured more donations without additional marketing spend.
“We’ve never seen this kind of engagement on social with our end-of-year campaign before,” said Mintz-Colin. Based on the results generated from the social sharing toolkits, the team plans to expand their use of the tool for future press releases, awareness campaigns and events. They leveraged the toolkits for event promotion, seeing strong early success—including one toolkit for their 2026 Older Adult Mental Health Awareness Day Symposium that generated 50+ shares and 300+ clicks, demonstrating the approach’s power to mobilise NCOA’s community around mission-critical moments beyond fundraising.
Key Outcomes & Benefits
Brand Awareness and Measurable Results with Solutions from PR Newswire & SoSha
- Used social media to engage NCOA’s community of individual supporters and grow a more resilient, mission-aligned philanthropic base.
- Built brand awareness and attracted new donors with a Multichannel Amplification™ approach that included press releases and social media.
- Increased social media engagement among staff, donors and board members with consistent, on-brand social posts.
- Quickly and easily set up dozens of standalone toolkits for multiple user groups in the user-friendly, AI-powered SoSha tool.
“Building a culture of philanthropy means making it easy for every member of our community — donors, staff, board members, advocates — to become storytellers for the mission. The results from this approach show what's possible when strategy, authentic storytelling, and the right tools come together in service of a larger purpose."
Todd Pittman, Chief Development Officer, NCOA
About the Company
The National Council on Aging (NCOA) is the national voice for every person's right to age well. Working with thousands of national and local partners, the organisation provides resources, best practices, and advocacy to create the conditions for all to age well today and into the future. Founded in 1950, NCOA is the oldest national organisation focused on older adults. Learn more at www.ncoa.org and @NCOAging.
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