Raise Funds on Facebook
Social networking communities are a powerful way to build awareness of your favorite cause or charitable organization. A Facebook page can establish a sense of transparency, legitimacy and trust among supporters. Every time you share news about your organization, show who it helps and how donors' money is being spent you are building loyalty that can result in additional donations. Keeping your page current and showing where contributions are applied can create an ongoing relationship with your audience while encouraging them to give again, provided that your Facebook page has an application that enables cash donations on the spot. Here's how to raise funds on Facebook:
Steps
- Set up a Facebook page for your fundraising cause. Whether you want to raise money for a certified non-profit charity or help pay for someone's medical expenses, you can raise money on Facebook by creating a compelling Facebook page to share your story through pictures, video and words.
- Add a donation application to your Facebook page. Fund raising apps such as GoGetFunding.com and FundRazr make it easy for people to give online.
- Enable donation applications to access your page's profile information. This ensures it will appear on the pages of every Facebook fan you currently have. Once installed, a special box will appear on your Facebook wall. This allows people to make charitable donations to your group without ever leaving Facebook.
- Create a budget to pay for for fund-raising applications. Some will charge a fee of a few cents each time a transaction is processed. This fee is usually less than if you had a credit card processing merchant account that enables organizations to take credit cards. Most fees are based on a percentage of the total cash transaction but sometimes a monthly fee is charged instead.
- Investigate additional Facebook compatible fund-raising applications. Look for software that integrates your group's page into other devices like mobile devices. Applications such as mGive are built specifically for non-profit charities to make it easy for them to reach out to donors and easily raise money through cell phones and social networks.
- Utilize applications that save your organization money. Many are free. They can provide an interface that integrates into your Facebook fund-raising page and enable users to donate through PayPal. In return, you only pay a small fee to PayPal based on the transaction amount.
- Promote your page within Facebook. Search within Facebook for people in your existing contact list. Strategically choose those who seem close to your cause, then send a personalized message through Facebook that asks them to "like" your page.
- Bring your target audience to your Facebook page.
- Get active in social networks that are close to your cause. Look for discussion groups, newsletters and other places where people who may be interested in your group gather.
- Actively promote your campaign on social networking websites such as Twitter. Present concise descriptions of your most compelling news and always provide a link to visit your Facebook fund-raising page.
- Monitory your Facebook fund-raising page activity. Facebook's free data analysis tools, called "Insights" will page administrators what people are doing on your page and how long they are staying there.
Warnings
- When sharing your ideas about issues related to your causes, do not solicit donations until you have built a good relationship within the community. Being too aggressive about fund-raising in discussion forums and other social networking communities can result in being banned from the website.
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