Will Facebook fundraising ever really deliver? We ask a panel of charity leaders their views.

Mike Niles, social engagement officer, Breast Cancer Care

We use Facebook advertising for many of our fundraising campaigns and have seen a significant increase in Facebook ‘likes’ as a result.

Although our ads have generated a great many click-throughs, we’re still unsure as to their financial implication; it’s very difficult to track whether they result in actual registrations for our events.

Facebook does help us to engage fundraisers – and improve retention. For example, 2012 London Marathon runners have said that interacting with us on Facebook meant they felt engaged and are open to supporting us in future. We produced videos where the entire office thanked our Pink Ribbonwalk participants and a result we’ve seen some of those sign up to other fundraising events.

Our use of Facebook for fundraising has been more about relationships than numbers. Rather than just publicising our content, our page has become a place that fundraisers use to gain support, encourage other fundraisers and feed back on their success.

Danielle Atkinson, head of digital & individual giving, Merlin

A wise man once said: “It's easier to press ‘like’ on Facebook than pick a thread off your lapel.” And that’s the problem with Facebook – it’s lazy, and we use it in a lazy way.

Will it ever deliver? One day it will deliver more than it does now. When that will be, however, is hard to tell – but I’m not sure that it will happen in my lifetime as a fundraiser. Given the choice of Facebook or face-to-face, I would take the latter every time.

Facebook fundraising will work best for communities or for personal fundraising between friends. But I doubt it would work as a major acquisition channel for charities.

As with offline, Facebook fundraising will be just one of the channels that we will use in the future to raise money online. The day it delivers above other methods I will eat my fundraising hat. If Facebook still exists. Remember FriendsReunited? No, didn’t think so.

(And that’s from a head of digital....)

Scott Gray, managing director, Rapidata

Until now, there’s been much ‘liking’ of a charity or campaign, which is great for awareness but not so for raising money.

The trick is to see Facebook for what it is and how it’s used – a community of friends that are interested in seeing and sharing what each other is doing. This naturally extends to mutual support, especially for sponsored charity events.

Recently, we asked what motivated people to give to a new charity and the number one reason was “I was asked by a friend”. We’ve experienced responses for a friend making the ask reaching typically 30 per cent higher than a direct ask from a charity.

So we need to recognise the power of friendship and adopt new tools like the Friendship Powered Fundraising app. It is the first to enable donations inside Facebook, making it easy for Facebookers to give money and promote fundraising campaigns among their family and friends.

Charlotte Beckett, head of digital, The Good Agency

Facebook is already effective as part of an integrated fundraising approach because social media gives us the opportunity to deepen relationships with supporters. It allows us to be transparent, to tell stories, to be human.

If we get this right, then we can inspire people to donate and encourage others to do the same via their social networks. This is traditional community fundraising amplified online.

Can Facebook deliver as a stand-alone fundraising platform? There are already cases of this happening as a cash donation model (for example Unilever’s joint project with Facebook, Water Works). However, as fundraisers we face various challenges. Facebook regularly changes the way it works. What we develop today may not function tomorrow. And Facebook always owns the data. How will we convert those donors to engaged supporters and regular givers?

The real question is: “How can social media deliver more as part of an integrated fundraising strategy?”

Bertie Bosrédon, associate consultant, Purple Vision

Can you go on Facebook, ask for a donation and expect a large number of donations? Certainly not.

Online journeys are a little more complicated than shaking a bucket at Waterloo station and getting lots of coins. People have to leave Facebook to go to the charity website, go through a donation form (often not well designed) and then be sent to a third party payment provider, get the credit card out, etc.

Add to this the increasing web access from mobile phones and tablets (predicted to overtake desktop in 2014), yet most charity websites are not designed for mobile phones.

So what sort of fundraising can you do on Facebook? In my opinion: integrated campaigns; recruitment of event participants; competition with corporate partners; and donations if the charity has a built-in app.

But where do you start? I recommend taking small steps. Define what you want to achieve on social media, prepare clear guidelines, and identify and train your social media champions to engage and report back.

This article first appeared in The Fundraiser magazine, Issue 23, November 2012