How to Get People to Raise Money for Your Nonprofit Using Facebook

In last week’s post, 3 Facebook Features Designed to Help You Fundraise, I highlighted just three of the Facebook features that are making social media fundraising a little bit easier for your nonprofit.

These features are:

1)  Donations option in personal status updates,

2) Fundraisers on Facebook,

3) The Donate button for your nonprofit Facebook Page.

To read more, be sure to check out that post here.

In this post, I will give you a detailed step-by-step guide to get your online community excited about raising money for your nonprofit using Facebook.

Step 1 – Make your supporters aware that these features exist.

Can you guess the #1 reason that people don’t give to certain charities online? They don’t know that they can!

My clients often say to me, “No one has raised any money for us using Facebook. Facebook is such a fail and not worth pursuing.”

To which I always ask, “Have you told them about it?”

And the answer, more often than not, is NO.

If people are not aware that they can use Facebook to raise money for their favorite cause, they are certainly not going to go out of their way to figure it out on their own.

Sometimes in this sector we get so wrapped up in our message and what’s in front of us every day that we fail to see that our supporters have other priorities taking up their time.

So how do you make your supporters aware? That’s the next step.

Step 2 – Create a multichannel campaign to educate your supporters about these fundraising tools.

Think about creative ways to use all the channels at your disposal – website, email, blog, social media – to promote the exciting news that individuals can raise money for you using Facebook.

To start, create as much content as you can, based on your capacity and budget, with the focus on educating and exciting your community about these Facebook features.

Think about making several short videos, infographics, blog posts, emails, and social media posts all focused on this announcement.

I created a simple infographic below – feel free to copy this and share with your supporters:

Step 3 – Provide your volunteer fundraisers with the training and tools to succeed.

You can’t just expect to excite your supporters about these tools and not provide them with more information.

Many of your supporters are well-meaning with big hearts, but they are not necessarily well-versed in how to carry out a successful online fundraising campaign. (They are also very busy and easily distracted – aren’t we all?)

Give them the tools and training necessary to succeed! Their success benefits you, but it will also empower them and provide them with a great experience they can be proud of and talk about for months to come.

Here are just a few ideas to help your volunteer fundraisers create and execute a killer Facebook fundraising campaign:

Create a short video using basic screen-capture tools like Camtasia or Snagit to walk them through the process of setting up their Fundraiser on Facebook, or using the Donations in their personal profile. Video is by far the most popular type of content on Facebook, and if you spent a little bit of money to promote it, even more people will see it and learn how to fundraise for you.

Put information on your website on a special page. Add your logos, videos, photos, stories – anything that will help them craft a compelling case for support.

Host a live webinar to walk people through the process of starting their very own fundraiser for your cause, and answer questions during the webinar. During the webinar, provide strategic fundraising tips, storytelling best practices, and examples of fundraising appeals that have worked for your organization.

Develop a series of emails to go out at set times, designed to excite, educate, and encourage your volunteer fundraisers before, during, and after their fundraising campaign. If their campaign runs for more than a few days, there will often be a lull in donations, and many fundraisers will get discouraged. Your email series will provide the necessary motivation to have them see it through.

To recap:

• Make your supporters aware that there are Facebook fundraising features available for their use.
• Create a fun, multichannel promotions campaign showing them what’s possible.
• Provide them with the tools and training necessary to effectively use the tools.
• Follow up and thank them profusely!

NOTE: The best way to stay on top of all the changes being made daily to Facebook, fundraising on Facebook, and Facebook Pages, is to follow Nonprofits on Facebook and to frequently check Facebook’s nonprofit resources website. Also, these features are, for the moment, only available to US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofits.