It's hard to believe Giving Tuesday is tomorrow and if this year is anything like past years, it’s trending upwards. Just last year gifts made on Giving Tuesday increased by 106 million. That’s almost a 39% increase from the prior year. In fact, Giving Tuesday has seen a solid increase since 2012.
Giving Tuesday like any fundraising campaign is what you make it. The good thing is Giving Tuesday has brand awareness and it’s an online campaign. For those reasons your organization’s Giving Tuesday campaign can be pretty turn key. For this post I want to focus on Facebook’s impact on Giving Tuesday and the ways it might impact your organization.
In 2018, 125 million dollars was raised on Facebook on Giving Tuesday. 380 million was raised TOTAL on Giving Tuesday. Let that sink in. Like Giving Tuesday, Facebook Giving Tuesday campaigns are on the rise as well. Meaning there is a huge chance your supporters will likely create a campaign on Facebook to support your mission on Giving Tuesday. Facebook is an easy go to for your supporters - considering the frequency which most are on social media and they have a captive audience there. Also, Facebook is promoting their users to host their Giving Tuesday campaigns on their site.
While Facebook is a great option for your supporters it will provide your organization some issues. First, you can’t access a donor’s information who has given through Facebook. Meaning all the folks your supporter reaches to give to your mission you can’t steward, you can’t engage, you won’t know who they are. Another issue is that Facebook will send checks in lump sums. Therefore, you won’t know how much your supporter raised unless you are following their campaign. Also, if you’re setting a specific goal for Giving Tuesday a lump sum check can be particularly challenging to know which funds were raised in honor of Giving Tuesday or for another reason.
In the past with organizations I’ve worked with, we tried to steer our supporters away from Facebook campaigns and turned them to our own 3rd party fundraising site. But, I understand not all nonprofits have the budget for a personalized 3rd party crowdfunding site. Regardless, every organization will have supporters use Facebook campaigns so here are my suggestions:
Communicate
If you have supporters who have reached out wanting to support your mission for Giving Tuesday and are going to use their Facebook, let them know the drawbacks. Many supporters won’t realize your organization can’t send a personalized thank you due to lack of information and become frustrated. To alleviate this issue you can ask your supporter to collect their donor information separately so you can add them to your database. Also, ask your supporter to keep you posted on their fundraising total.
Keep an eye on your organization’s Facebook account
If your organization has a Facebook account (which if you don’t you should create one), Facebook should send you a notice when someone creates a fundraising campaign in your honor. Your level of monitoring should be peaked this time of year looking for campaigns. When you see someone is raising money in your honor, reach out and say thank you. Also, increased monitoring will allow you to match campaigns with the checks you’ll receive from Facebook.