Facebook's Giving Tools allow you to raise money and awareness of your cause on Facebook but how exactly do you get them and what do you do with them after that?
Using social media as part of your fundraising strategy can be an excellent idea, particularly when Facebook note that one of the top reasons given as to why people use their platform is to support the causes and ideas they believe in. Facebook's Giving Tools allow you to connect with these potential supporters and set up quick and easy donation opportunities, allowing you to build effective fundraising campaigns.
Getting started though, can be a little tricky.
What are Facebook's Giving Tools?
Eligible charities have the ability to set up Facebook's Giving Tools which will allow them to not only collect donations through their charity Facebook page, but also for supporters to collect donations on a charity's behalf.
There are a number of tools with which you can raise money and spread awareness including:
- Page and supporter fundraisers
- Post and page donate button
- Live video with donate button
- and Instagram tools including a page donate button and Instagram stories donate stickers.
The donation tools are built into Facebook, meaning your supporters won't have to leave in order to donate to your cause. Even better, Facebook's Charitable Giving Tools relies on PayPal Giving Fund to handle the payment processing of donations, ensuring a seamless fundraising experience for nonprofit organizations and donors.
How do I know if our nonprofit has them turned on?
The easiest way to check is to see if you can create a fundraiser from your Page.
Can you see a Donate button and a ‘Create a Fundraiser’ tab on your nonprofit’s Facebook Page? If yes, then your tools are turned on!
A top tip is to test that it is working properly. If you're on a desktop computer you can use your personal Facebook profile to start a new post, click on ‘...’ and then 'Raise money'. You’ll see a drop-down of charities and you can search for your charity too. If your nonprofit is in the drop-drown, it’s set up and enabled.
You can also do this from your phone - the journey is the same but it looks slightly different to above!
Another quick way to check is to head here where you'll be able to see what your current status is. If you've been approved, you'll see a green tick beside your logo, like below. Not got this? Carry on reading and we'll show you what to do next!
P.S. Incase you were wondering, Society of Kindness to Dinosaurs is not a real charity... sadly.
A step-by-step guide to signing up to Facebook's Giving Tools
To sign up to Facebook’s Giving Tools, first you need to apply to Facebook here.
Before you can request to receive donations and to have the ability to fundraise, you'll need to first verify your page and submit it to a community standards review.
Once those have been completed, here’s a handy check list of the things you’ll need for the donations application process:
- A PDF copy of your nonprofit’s bank statement which covers the last three months. (You will be required to do this as part of the application). Uploading a bank statement which is older than three months will cause problems and result in a delay in your application being approved.
- The name and date of birth of your organization’s CEO or Executive Director.
- Your nonprofit’s tax ID number (EIN or VAT number), which verifies your nonprofit’s exemption status.
It’s worth noting that, as you start the form, you can’t save your progress so make sure that when you go to fill it out you have everything we’ve listed above and that you allocate a good chunk of time to complete the process in one go.
Once you’ve applied it may take up to three weeks to be approved, although most nonprofits report being approved within a week. If you’re setting this up for a specific campaign, make sure that you give yourself plenty of time for the approval process.
Facebook will then send you an email and notify you on Facebook when you’ve been approved.
To complete the process go to the downward arrow next to your nonprofit’s page, then continue on to ‘donations account setup’. Facebook has some FAQ’s on this process and you can also contact their nonprofit support team here.
You can find out if your nonprofit is eligible for the tools and where you can sign up for them here.
They're turned on – now what?
The world is your oyster, that's what!
Now that you have Facebook's Giving Tools turned on, you can start collecting donations via your page, connect with fundraisers and run Facebook Challenges - here's a handy guide on that last one to get you started!
The Facebook data for your new income stream is incredibly valuable but can be quite difficult to interpret (no one likes a spreadsheet full of numbers, do they?). This is where GivePanel can lend a helping hand.
Our dashboard allows you to actively thank all of your fundraisers, collect contact details, track results, and manage your Facebook Challenges all in one place. And it works too, since we get over 93% opt-in rates from fundraisers on our marketing forms. That's a lot of new supporters you can engage with!
Book a Demo
Once you have your Facebook Giving Tools turned on, we're ready to help you maximize your fundraising results. Book your 30 minute demo with one of our awesome Facebook Fundraising specialists today.
