{"id":848,"date":"2011-09-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.causevox.com\/?p=848"},"modified":"2024-05-08T17:41:46","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T17:41:46","slug":"the-worst-way-to-fundraise-on-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/blog\/the-worst-way-to-fundraise-on-facebook\/","title":{"rendered":"The worst way to fundraise on Facebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are only two things you need to do to make Facebook not work for you for online fundraising. The first is writing a bad appeal. The second is spamming your friends.<\/p>\n

Let’s start with the bad appeal. Here’s an example of a bad appeal that we’ve found on a Facebook wall (it’s been scrubbed for privacy — grammar errors left for effect):<\/p>\n

“I sure could use your help. This month I will run 30 miles in the Summer Marathon for Charity. It is what I do to raise funds to fight the terrible effects of poverty which affects too many. I would greatly apreciate any donation. You can either online link or mail check payable to Charity to 1600 Social Impact Dr. Please help create a world free of hunger!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s not compelling. It doesn’t make me want to donate. There are three things that make this appeal not as effective:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The writer goes straight to the ask without building some type of rapport. It is clearly a copy and pasted message. He should include a personal touch instead.<\/li>\n
  2. The writer doesn’t describe what the donation will do. An urgent and compelling reason should be given to donate.<\/li>\n
  3. There is no clear call to action. The hyperlink to donate should be clear and instructions to donate via mail should be bulleted out.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In addition to those tips, we have a few tips on writing fundraising appeals<\/a> that can make a fundraising appeal much more effective.<\/p>\n

    The second reason is spamming. In the same example above, we saw the fundraiser copy and paste the same message on his friend’s Facebook wall 52 times<\/strong>. Don’t spam your friends on Facebook. It’s insincere and some friends can find it offensive. Here’s a screen shot of what your Facebook wall should not <\/strong>look like (scrubbed for privacy).<\/p>\n

    \"Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n

    Instead, the fundraiser should have…<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Posted an appeal to his wall once a week<\/li>\n
    2. Identified people that engaged with the post (“liked”, commented, or shared the post)<\/li>\n
    3. Followed up with that sub-group of people to get donations or help raise awareness<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      This helps you narrow your focus on people that are interested in helping. It’ll save you time and help you get more donations.<\/p>\n

      Lastly, I would suggest creating a personal fundraising page so that friends can engage with your appeal and donations can be easily tracked.<\/p>\n

      Make fundraising on Facebook work for you. Write awesome appeals and be respectful on how you message your friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      There are only two things you need to do to make Facebook not work for you for online fundraising. The first is writing a bad appeal. The second is spamming your friends. Let’s start with the bad appeal. Here’s an example of a bad appeal that we’ve found on a Facebook wall (it’s been scrubbed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Rob Wu","author_link":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/author\/rob\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}