A Facebook Challenge is a virtual event that runs solely on Facebook and leverages the power of social networking through ads, groups, and fundraisers. This means: 

• Lower acquisition costs
• More fundraisers
• And no fundraising platform costs!

In November 2021, Canteen launched their first-ever Facebook Challenge of 100 Sit-Ups a Day in November. 

Canteen partnered with agency, Elevate Fundraising, to run Facebook ads for their Facebook Challenge. These ads used broad targeting for the whole of Australia and were focused on the Challenge, the benefit of joining a Facebook group, and made reference to a t-shirt incentive that would be received by everyone who registered. 

Canteen has both a strong brand recognition and supporter base which meant they could keep fundraising messaging within the ads to a minimum. 

Before the Challenge started, Canteen’s main call-to-actions for their Challenge participants were to register and set their fundraisers up. Once the challenge began, the focus shifted to supporting and encouraging those taking part. Due to the initial group engagement, Challenge participants naturally posted on why they were doing the Challenge and supporting Canteen.

From their experience with 100 Sit-Ups a Day in November, Canteen adapted their next Facebook Challenge in the following three ways: 

• A group posting schedule was created in advance, giving the team a better structure for group engagement and more time to react to group posts. 
• More frequent posts reminding participants of the registration process were added to the beginning of the content schedule to encourage more active fundraisers within the group. 
• They increased their ad budget to allow them to recruit even more people into the group.