Nonprofit Facebook Fundraising Tools to Utilize This #GivingTuesday

Facebook fundraising is one of the most effective tools for nonprofits today. Facebook is where everyone’s attention lies and millions of active users are using Facebook each day for a variety of different reasons. They may be curious about what is going on in the world, looking for inspiration, or just wondering what their friends are up to. Regardless of user’s motives, it is clear that Facebook stays busy. When it comes to fundraising, users have shown that they are more than willing to contribute to worthy causes when the opportunity is presented to them.

Giving Tuesday and Facebook Fundraising

Giving Tuesday has become a movement, celebrated annually on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, to create an international day of giving. This day offsets the chaos of Black Friday and starts the holiday season in good spirits. Last Giving Tuesday, Facebook fundraising helped raise $45 million for nonprofits. With Giving Tuesday coming up on November 27, now is the time for your organization to pay close attention to Facebook fundraising and test out its key features. To make the benefits even better, for Giving Tuesday 2018, Facebook is partnering up with PayPal to match donations up to $7 million.

While Facebook’s sheer volume of users is the main reason for it being such an effective fundraising tool, Facebook has other key fundraising features that make it stand out amongst other social platforms.

Open Up Your Nonprofit’s Social Credibility

Facebook cares about nonprofits and fundraising capabilities, and this becomes clear with their built-in tools. When using the Facebook platform for your nonprofit fundraising campaigns, you will receive a lot of social credibility. Anytime someone donates on a Facebook fundraiser, they are asked if they want to share it. They are also asked to invite their friends and to subscribe to the nonprofit’s email list. Facebook helps market your nonprofit by building in these networking tools.

Thanks to this added social credibility, RAICES, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, which is a Texas-based nonprofit, was able to raise over $20 million with their Facebook fundraiser when their typical annual budget was only $7 million.

Birthday Fundraisers

Another successful fundraising feature Facebook offers is the birthday fundraiser feature. Users can choose a cause and ask their Facebook friends to donate to this cause as their birthday present. This has picked up in 2018 and helped many nonprofits raise a lot of money without any effort at all. Users are able to pick causes they feel personally connected to, and their friends and family can help raise hundreds of dollars in just one day. There are around 2.2 billion monthly active users on Facebook, which means there are a lot of birthdays to celebrate! When utilized, Facebook’s birthday fundraising tool has the potential to raise quite a bit of money with just one click.

Go LIVE!

Going “LIVE!” has been introduced within the last few years, where users can live stream with their entire Facebook friend list. Anyone can log on to your live feed and watch as you report about your day. This feature is great for organizations because it works the same way cable television does. Nonprofits can go live from anywhere and talk about an event or encourage people to support a cause.  However, now, Facebook is encouraging fundraising by allowing organizations to include a “Donate” button in their live feed.

Therefore, if a lot of viewers are tuning into your organization’s Facebook LIVE, it is now that much easier for them to support your donation efforts, increasing the potential to raise a lot of money for your cause.

Facebook’s Overall Donor Experience

While some organizations have complained about the lack of data and information received from gifts when utilizing Facebook fundraising tools, the overall donor experience is more important in the end, and Facebook continuously exceeds expectations on this front. Facebook’s fundraising features are easy to use and make donating feel effortless. If your organization is leaving this platform out of your strategy, you are simply leaving money on the table.

If you want to optimize your organization’s fundraising strategy, increase awareness, and ultimately raise more money for your nonprofit, you need to have a solid Facebook presence and utilize these fundraising features. People are willing to give when you give them the right tools to do so.

Subscribe and Stay Tuned!

Facebook Fundraising is something that your organization must utilize this coming Giving Tuesday! As November 27 rapidly approaches, make sure your nonprofit has applied for Facebook’s “donate” button and is set to go with social strategies that will help your fundraising efforts.

Cameron Ripley