What to Know about Facebook and Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

December 6, 2018/ Mark Becker / Fundraising, Peer-to-Peer Fundraising / 1 comment

Social media is important to peer-to-peer fundraising, and Facebook remains a relatively popular social media platform today. Facebook fundraising, which allows you to leverage the Facebook platform for peer-to-peer fundraising, has a lot to offer nonprofits. But, it isn’t really a stand-alone peer-to-peer fundraising platform, and it has some downsides.

So as you look for the right tools to support your peer-to-peer fundraising program, here are a few important things to know about Facebook fundraising:

• It’s free and easy. Facebook fundraising offers some valuable benefits, including no service fees and minimal setup required, with funds raised going directly to your nonprofit.
• Peer-to-peer platform software vendors are beginning to integrate with Facebook. For example, earlier this year, Blackbaud announced that it now enables the publication of TeamRaiser fundraisers to Facebook, allowing event supporters to simultaneously solicit donations directly via their own social networks and their TeamRaiser web pages while helping nonprofits view and manage Facebook transactions within TeamRaiser. We expect to see more integrations like this in the future.
• Facebook is only ONE social media channel. Facebook fundraising reaches only users of Facebook. And, while many people still use Facebook, Generation Z and Millennials are spending their time with other tools like Snapchat, Instagram, Whisper, Vine, and others. Plus, weak responses by Facebook to securing user data have further reduced the trust many people have in Facebook. In turn, people are expanding into previously-uncharted corners of the web.
• Facebook provides limited donor data. With Facebook fundraising, the only user data shared with your nonprofit is first and last name and donation amount; donor email addresses are shared with your nonprofit only in the unlikely event the donor has approved it.
• You still need to take time to follow up with participants and donors. While Facebook fundraising pages can be easy to set up, it’s important to plan time to follow up with participants and donors to learn more about them and get them into your constituent relationship management (CRM) system and regular engagement strategy. You don’t want to be embarrassed when a longtime supporter that raised $5,000 for your organization via Facebook fundraising receives a “we noticed you haven’t donated recently…” email through your other systems.

Here’s my bottom line on Facebook fundraising: It offers enough benefits to nonprofits that it would be wise not to dismiss it. At the same time, it’s important to keep Facebook fundraising in perspective — it should only be one part of your overall peer-to-peer fundraising program.

Want more tips on how to find the right peer-to-peer fundraising software for your nonprofit? Read The Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Technology Landscape: An Overview Of Leading Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Software Platforms and Their Functionality