facebook fundraising

How to Leverage Facebook Fundraising

In the last year or so, Facebook has rolled out numerous updates for nonprofits. From launching their own Facebook for Nonprofits website to introducing the donate button and crowdfunding “Fundraisers” pages.

It’s great Facebook is finally paying attention to nonprofits and giving them the attention they deserve. With any new tactic or tool, you should always have a clear goal, strategy and usage rules.

4-1-1 on Facebook’s Donation Button

    • You can apply here. As of December 2017, there is no transaction fee for nonprofits!
    • Donations happen right on Facebook. A user never has to leave the page.
    • Facebook allows you to export two reports: payout report and transaction report.
        • Payout report: Provides you with the total amount raised in a given time frame.
      • Transaction report: Tells you who exactly gave, when they gave, and how much.
  • The button lives on the top right corner of your page or it can be added to individuals posts on the page.

New Features in 2018:

After a successful roll-out of Facebook fundraising and Page donate buttons, Facebook has added new features that can really take #GivingTuesday fundraising to the next level.

  • Pledge to Match (available to nonprofits in the US with verified Facebook pages)
  • Recurring donations: Donors can now either choose to make a one-time or monthly recurring donation!
  • Go Live Video with Donate button (Live Donate)
  • Fundraiser Thank You: Nonprofit Page Admins can now easily post thank you messages to supporters raising money on their behalf.

FAQs

  1. Do I receive a donor email for every donation?

No, you will only receive an email address for individuals that opt-in, otherwise you will not be able to directly communicate with your donors.

  1. What information will I get?

You’ll receive basic information from Facebook: first name, last name, location of gift, and email if they opt-in.

  1. How do I know where the donations are coming from?

In the transaction report, you will see where the user gave and it will supply a URL to the post or fundraiser page. If it was a fundraiser page, you will also receive the name of the individual who started the fundraiser page.

Should I be using Facebook fundraising?

We’ve seen tremendous amounts of success using Facebook fundraising. The ease of giving and payment options truly makes it effortless for an individual to give. Not to mention, you are capable of capitalizing on timely, actionable news in a way you couldn’t before on Facebook.

Now when there is a breaking news story that needs donations for your organization, you can attach a donate ask directly to the post and the Facebook user never has to leave the platform to give.

What you’ll need to set it up:

Facebook will require you to setup the account through your organization’s bank and ask you to verify the CEO or President’s identity of the organization. In order to do this, they will ask for the date of birth of the President.

    1. Your organization’s official name, address, contact info, tax ID, and nonprofit category
    1. Your CEO or executive director’s name, date of birth, and business address.
  1. A legible bank statement or official bank letter dated within the last 3 months.

The biggest question you should ask before adding the donation button to every post is do you have the resources or a strategy? Someone should follow-up with each donor after we’ve received their gift, as well as add them into your CRM. There is no automated back-end setup with Facebook.

Do’s and Dont’s

    • Don’t use it every time you post something.
    • Do try testing it. See what works and what doesn’t work. Maybe a weekly ask works or maybe timely breaking news content drives donations. TEST, TEST, TEST!
    • Don’t turn on Facebook fundraising and forget about it. Supporters are contributing to your organization and they deserve to be acknowledged for their gift.
  • Do coordinate it with ongoing campaigns. If you are running an email campaign, try cross-promoting it on Facebook and using the donation button.

BONUS: PayPal will be matching up to $7M in gifts on Giving Tuesday via Facebook. Here’s how to sign-up.


Looking for support in leveraging your Facebook fundraising strategy? Get in touch! We’d love to help.