Click to Donate: The Basics of Fundraising on Facebook

Ilia Jones | December 2021

click-to-donate

Having a Facebook page is an excellent first step for promoting your nonprofit organization. As the largest social media platform, touting 2.89 users in the second quarter of 2021, Facebook gives you access to reach your target audience and an active and engaged user base.

Having a presence on Facebook allows you to reach users across demographics and geographies.

Go Beyond Brand Awareness with Facebook Fundraising

You’re probably aware that Facebook can help your nonprofit grow brand awareness and gain credibility. Sharing content, posts, and stories with your followers is a fantastic way for them to get to know you and learn more about your cause. They also have business tools that you can use to manage your page, ads, and posts. 

Did you know that you can also use Facebook for fundraising?

As with any social media marketing, making fundraising on Facebook work for you requires strategic planning and consistency. While individuals can start fundraisers using the Donate button, nonprofits can promote their causes in other ways. 

Using Facebook can be a highly effective fundraising strategy to reach your followers and audience and enable them to share your content with their networks easily. This organic, peer-to-peer sharing can expand your reach and get your content in front of even more potential donors. 

Set Up Your Nonprofit for Fundraising on Facebook

The first thing you need to do to get your nonprofit set up for fundraising on Facebook is apply for Facebook Payments.

To qualify for fundraising on Facebook, your nonprofit must:

  • Be certified 501(c)(3) organization
  • Be registered with the IRS
  • Have a Tax ID number
  • Have a bank account registered with a licensed financial services institution

There are no fees for the application, and enrollment means that your organization keeps 100% of the charitable donations you collect. This application also enrolls your nonprofit in Facebook’s Charitable Giving Tools. 

The enrollment process can take up to three weeks, so if you’re not registered yet, it’s time to get started. The application also validates that your organization is a legitimate nonprofit and provides credibility, so users that find you know that you can be trusted. 

Set Up Your Donate Button

Once your nonprofit has been verified, follow the steps on Facebook to set up the Donate button on your page. Adding a Donate button to your nonprofit’s Facebook page gives any of your followers on the platform a place where they can easily donate. And you can leverage it for fundraising campaigns by adding it to your posts, stories, and ads on the platform.  

No matter where you use it, this button funnels all payments through Facebook’s payment processing platform and all of the proceeds will go directly to your organization. 

Start Fundraising on Facebook

Now that you’re all set up, it’s time to start fundraising! 

As with any fundraising campaign, it is most effective when backed up by a plan, tied in with an event or virtual event, or is part of a more significant effort across all your social channels and marketing outlets. 

Your Facebook Fundraising campaign can be a series of posts or stories, an ad campaign, or can be tracked on a dedicated landing page. You can also create a custom hashtag for the fundraiser and encourage users to tag you in their posts or stories related to your fundraiser or cause. Individuals can also start their own fundraisers on your behalf. 

Creating Facebook Fundraisers

Setting up a fundraiser from your nonprofit’s Facebook page is easy and just takes a few clicks. Your fundraiser will have its own landing page, which you can customize with photos and descriptions. You can also set a goal amount and a date span for your fundraiser. 

Facebook Fundraisers include options for matching and recurring donations, thank you tools, and payment and reporting that allows you to track progress and manage payouts. 

Encourage Supporter Fundraisers

Your followers on Facebook can also set up their own fundraisers on your behalf. It’s become commonplace for people to set up fundraisers for causes near and dear to their hearts for birthdays or other holidays. Once you’re set up for fundraising on Facebook, your nonprofit can accept donations this way as well. All they need to do is set up a fundraising page for your nonprofit and share it with their friends. 

Facebook makes it easy for users to start fundraisers. They allow individuals space to share their story and connection to your organization’s cause or mission and set a fundraising goal. 

Fundraising With Posts, Stories, or Ads 

If you want to spread the word about your fundraiser, you can do it by adding the Donate button to posts, stories, or ads. While it helps to have a cohesive social media campaign behind any effort, your promoted posts or ads could also be evergreen content. 

The Donate button makes it easy to create a variety of content on Facebook so you can track and see what’s working and what isn’t. For example, you can do A/B testing for ads or try different formats or content combinations in posts and stories to see what gets the most traction.  

Remember Fundraising Best Practices

As with any fundraising effort, using Facebook to collect donations will only be as effective as the strategy and mission behind it. As with any interaction with your audience, fundraising on social media should reflect the mission and goals of your nonprofit organization.

Remember to:

  • Tell your unique story
  • Explain the impact of every donation
  • Focus on the solution, not the problem
  • Use imagery that is inspiring and emotional
  • Interact with your donors and followers
  • Say Thank You!

In particular, social media makes it easy to connect and interact with your audience. After all, it was created to connect people! So, be sure to use the social tools available to encourage and thank everyone who participates in your fundraising efforts. 

Fundraising on Facebook

Fundraising on Facebook makes it easy for your followers to donate right where they are already spending their time. And with no application fee and 100% of the donations going to your organization on a platform where you already have a presence, adding the Donate button to your page is well worth the time and effort. 

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