Social media is critical to engaging a wider audience and making new connections. Nonprofits in particular, can benefit from using various platforms to connect with donors based on their unique goals.
Our latest data from The State of Modern Philanthropy 2022 found that Facebook is a great place to start building exposure, as this social channel drives 83.4% of traffic to fundraising campaigns.
As you build awareness and steward your community of supporters, it’s impossible to ignore platforms like Meta. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, reports 1.96 billion active Facebook users. To give you some perspective, that’s roughly 29% of the Earth’s entire population.
We’re here to help your organization understand the tools available through Facebook and outline the best ways to weave Facebook fundraising into your strategy.
Below, you’ll find a deep dive into Facebook’s tools and opportunities for nonprofits, essential considerations to make, and how to develop a well-rounded approach for fundraising on the world’s largest social media platform.
When your Facebook campaigns seamlessly integrate with your fundraising software, you broaden your potential for success. We’ll explore this more and how Classy for Facebook makes it even easier to reach your goals.
Meet your supporters in the place they visit daily to interact with others. Explore the specific fundraising tools and donation options Facebook offers nonprofits and individual fundraisers to get started.
Facebook Fundraising Tools for Users
Facebook Fundraisers: Facebook allows users to fundraise for their cause or on behalf of a nonprofit organization. Upon expressing interest, users can search a repository of nonprofits to help them decide which one to fundraise on behalf of.
Once they’ve decided who to fundraise for, users can create their fundraising pages. Personalization tools make it easy to customize items like their Cover Photo and Story. Adding a personal touch helps fundraisers communicate their connection to the cause and motivate their networks to take action.
It’s not uncommon to see people fundraise to celebrate significant milestones, like birthdays or anniversaries. You’ll also find many people calling for donations in response to current events like natural disasters. This is their time to share why they support your cause and how each donation can help make a difference.
To ensure your mission is immediately evident to anyone landing on your fundraisers’ pages, equip each supporter with compelling imagery, videos, links, or stats. These visuals can help emphasize your organization’s urgent need for support and fuel conversions.
Facebook and Instagram Live Donate Button: Meta continuously innovates to help people raise more for the causes they care about. For example, Facebook Live allows users to add a Donate button or fundraiser directly within their livestream.
Fundraisers in Reels: Facebook and Instagram have multiple features working in tandem. People can now donate and create fundraisers directly within their Instagram Reels. Once users add a donation link with a custom URL remain available for 30 days.
Thank You Tools: Expressing gratitude is now easier through Facebook too. The Thank You tool and Automated Thanking feature allow people to recognize each individual who supports their fundraiser. Meaningful appreciation sets a positive tone for donating to your cause and increases the chances that donors will return to help you again in the future.
Fundraising on Facebook for Nonprofits
Nonprofits not only see great success through the fundraisers their supporters set up on Facebook, but they also have access to their arsenal of specific Facebook fundraising tools.
Nonprofits that meet specific criteria, undergo a charity verification application process, and have a Facebook page categorized as a nonprofit are eligible to create a Facebook Fundraising Page.
Donate Button: Make your call to action shine with an engaging, easy-to-access Donate button. When your call to action is immediately visible to your followers, you’re more likely to motivate them to make a gift.
Once donors click your Donate button, determine where you want to direct them. A great option could be your donation website.
Include a Donate button in your organization’s page header, advertisements, stories, or posts.
Facebook Live: Nonprofits can also collect contributions through Facebook Live sessions using the Donate button. Facebook Live is an excellent opportunity to keep supporters informed. You can also use it as an engagement tool during key campaigns. Get creative with visual tools on Facebook Live like filters, themes, and effects.
Nonprofit Page Fundraiser: Make sure your nonprofit signs up to collect donations directly on Facebook and Instagram. That will unlock access to fundraising tools and detailed analytics.
Facebook Fundraising Considerations
Like any technology, it’s best to do your research on Facebook fundraising before blindly adopting it into your strategy. Below we’ll outline a few considerations as you brainstorm your plan.
Donor Data
Facebook fundraising tools are a great way to collect additional revenue, but the greatest potential comes from connecting donor data to your fundraising software. Without that connection, your organization cannot collect the data to follow up with contributors and increase their lifetime value.
Nonprofits using Facebook’s tools can view daily transaction reports. These reports include donors’ first names, last names, donation amounts, and emails if they’re provided. A one-time donation could likely remain that—a one-time donation—if donors on Facebook omit key information.
Using fundraising software alongside Facebook’s tools sets you up for success by filling any donor data gaps. One example is through Facebook Conversions API (CAPI) for server-side tracking of basic user and event data that isn’t captured in a specific browser. It works alongside other analytics tools to provide a complete view of attribution data for your donors. By leveraging this option, your nonprofit will access the best information to nurture donor relationships.
Payment Lags
The time it takes to receive payment after a donation makes a big difference in how you can apply that funding to your mission. When nonprofits use a third-party payment processor to collect donations on Facebook, there are payout lags to consider. We’ll cover these, followed by the benefits of using your payment processor.
Payment timeline for Meta Payments: Donations raised must reach the $50 minimum to be eligible for payout. It can take up to a month to receive payouts from donations to your fundraiser.Payment timeline for Network for Good’s Donor Advised Fund: Donations raised must reach a minimum of $10 to be eligible for payout. Funds roll over until you reach that minimum. Donations can take a month and a half after the last date of the month in which a donation is made to be distributed to the nonprofit.Payment timeline for PayPal’s Giving Fund: If a nonprofit enrolls directly in PayPal’s Giving Fund, donations are paid out between 15 and 45 days from the donation date on Facebook.
Benefits of Linking Facebook Fundraisers Directly to Your Website
Your donation will come through your payment processor if you link a Facebook Fundraiser to a campaign or your website. Nonprofits using Classy Pay as their payment processor can include options like PayPal, Venmo, digital wallets, and cryptocurrency. Donors get more options, and there’s less risk of long payout lags.
Stay Ahead of Algorithm Changes
Algorithms decide what content your followers see on various social media platforms. Meta is notorious for switching things up for both Facebook and Instagram users.
Stay ahead of the latest updates to get the greatest visibility for your campaigns. Think about setting up a business account for your nonprofit so you can see more analytics and sync data and content between Instagram and Facebook.
Meta’s latest algorithms favor original content. To stay ahead of this shift, combine user-generated content with your team members’ or beneficiaries’ images, video, and audio.
Find Consistency in Facebook Groups
Facebook groups are an additional opportunity to consider. Repost your content to boost engagement among a key group of supporters, encouraging them to share it with their networks. If facilitating dialogue is important to your work, a Facebook group may help to achieve this goal in a way that is more safeguarded from algorithm changes.
Build a Well-Rounded Fundraising Strategy
As a champion for social impact, your goal is to create unique and meaningful experiences. Those experiences, in turn, create brand evangelists for your organization.
The right fundraising software provides supporters with the most straightforward path to fundraise on Facebook. On the back-end, you get the sophisticated reporting and data you need to foster long-term donor relationships. Supporters who find you on Facebook could end up being your annual event attendees, volunteers, or recurring donors with the right retention strategy.
We hope this comprehensive breakdown has helped you understand how your Facebook campaigns can work alongside your fundraising software. Now, get ready to build your holistic strategy and drive real results.
Classy’s Fundraising Suite
At Classy, we’re always looking to help organizations collect and marry their donor data worlds. To learn more about the platform and what it can do for you, check out our latest donation trends report with over 130 new insights into how organizations like yours effectively attract, convert, and retain donors based on specific goals and campaign strategies.