AdEspresso

Facebook Advertising Optimization Tool

  • How it works
    • For Agencies
    • For e-Commerce
    • For Small Medium Businesses
    • For Every Advertiser
  • Features
    • Create
    • Manage
    • Analyze
    • Collaborate
    • Learn
    • All Features
  • Academy
    • Blog
    • Guides
    • Webinars
    • eBooks
    • Facebook Ad Examples
  • Pricing
  • Signup
  • Login
You are here: Home / Blog / Facebook Marketing Tips For NonProfit Organizations

Academy

  • Guides
  • eBooks
  • Webinars
  • Blog

Facebook Marketing Tips For NonProfit Organizations

June 2, 2015 13 Comments Dan Virgillito

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest

Nonprofit organizations need exposure for a variety of reasons… not the least of which is to secure funding. When you rely on conventional online marketing tactics to draw in donors, you’ve only taken the first step. Beyond that, you need to fine tune your marketing approach to gain wider coverage and recruit more volunteers for your cause.

So how can you get enough attention to achieve your goals? Social media marketing is the solution. This approach to marketing has a lower cost and enables organizations to connect with potential volunteers, sponsors, donors, etc. on a much wider scale.

Marketing for nonprofit organizations

Though there are too many social media platforms to focus on, we’re going to talk about Facebook marketing for nonprofits. There are certain aspects for which Facebook is ideal, including the following:

  • Making it easy for your ambassadors to share your vision with their social circles.
  • Showcasing your efforts – the people you help every day, the reason behind your goal, and the change you want to make in the world.
  • Building a vibrant online support community, which leads to increased credibility and trust.

Tyson Hunger Relief is one of the many examples of nonprofits that have been successful with Facebook marketing. In one of its campaigns for the food donation to the Monterey County Food Bank, it offered 100 pounds of food donation for every like it received on Facebook. Not only Monterey County Food Bank earned a truckload of food, but it also ended up adding 900 new community members to the Facebook page who further expanded the organization’s efforts.

What can you do to capitalize the opportunity offered by this social network? Here are 5 tips that should prove useful to you:

1. Create engaging content with tools and apps

According to a report, the average Facebook user has 1,500 items in their News Feed competing for their attention. The number goes up to 15,000 for some people. That’s a lot of competition for user attention, and unless you’re creating content that is relevant and engaging to your target audience, you would be wasting time and resources.

Finding creative ways to engage your target audience with content is a vital aspect of creating a lively community that spreads your voice from the virtual to the real world by actively being a part of your cause. You can do this with the help of tools and apps that also allow your audience to invite their social circles to take part in the cause.

For example, a nonprofit could use AgoraPulse to run a social contest for its audience to participate in. Photo contests are one option as they appeal to emotions and have the potential to go viral. You can further create a buzz by putting the option to vote on photos, which can create an exponential amount of sharing for your brand and cause.

Pro Photo Supply and Regence BlueCross BlueShield utilized a photo contest to help raise money for grieving kids and their parents.

1

With this strategy, they were able to triple their reach and also drive traffic between their own pages.

2. Use the ‘Donate Now’ button

The Donate Now button, when integrated into a Facebook page, will appear beside the ‘Posts’ in the News Feed and also at the top of the Facebook page. When a user clicks this button, they can enter the desired payment and the donation is processed immediately.

This button also enables people to share your post with their friends. This should be of great benefit considering that 68 percent of people go online and learn more about causes and charities that their friends support when they discover them on Facebook.

Nonprofits interested in using the feature just need to fill out the Donate interest form in the Facebook Help Center to get started. The Donate Now button appears as a pop-up; an ideal way to boost conversions.

2

The good thing is that Facebook doesn’t charge a fee to process donations and instead pays the fee itself. As a result, 100 percent of the donations goes to your organization.

3. Expand your reach with Facebook Ads

While nonprofits don’t have a huge advertising budget, ads can be a cost-friendly way to expand the reach of your brand, especially if you don’t have a large number of followers to begin with. When you choose bidding such as cost per click (CPC) or cost per thousand impressions (CPM), you only pay for clicks or impressions received by your ad, and this can be very effective if they are targeted well.

You can use the ‘Custom Audience’ tool to target a specific set of Facebook users and direct your ads towards them. For instance, you can target influential bloggers and journalists so that they can report about your cause. This can be done by adding their Facebook ID numbers and email addresses.

3

Tools like AdEspresso can be used to optimize ad campaigns by A/B testing Facebook ads. You can remove low-performing ads and run your nonprofit campaign with ads that lead to more conversions.

4. Talk to your community

If you’re trying to get your audience to spread the word on Facebook and offline about your cause, you need to engage them in conversations by talking back. This would also portray your nonprofit as an organization with a voice rather than an organization that is just filling the News Feed for donations.

You don’t have to reply to every single comment posted by your fans, but occasionally talking to them will show people that the organization is interested in their opinion. This is important as communication is at the core of a nonprofit and determines how many people would be interested in helping its cause.

4

Above is an image from the page of Cancer Research UK Race for Life. The charity organization talks to its fans and appreciates their stories to keep them engaged.

5. Take advantage of the cover real estate

The cover image is the most important real estate for nonprofits trying to be successful with Facebook marketing. It some cases, it alone can be the difference maker in determining whether people will be interested in contributing to your cause or otherwise.

The first thing visitors will see when they land on your Facebook page is the cover image. It is worth spending the time to select an image that visually demonstrates the purpose of your nonprofit and the impact it wants to make.

For instance, take a look at this cover image:

5

The cover image of Charity: Water depicts its cause; to bring clean and safe drinking water to households in developing countries. Choose a cover image that best represents your organization to spark interest from visitors who land on your Facebook page.

Final thoughts

As your organization gets strategic about Facebook marketing, the tips mentioned above will enable you to expand your reach, build more brand advocates, and find new donors. Understanding the best way to use the platform will allow you to reach your overall objective; i.e. to spread awareness about a cause.

Do you know any other tactics that could help nonprofits with Facebook marketing? Feel free to leave comments.

  • 27Shares
  • Facebook0
  • Twitter9
  • Google+5
  • LinkedIn0
  • Pinterest0

You may also like reading:

  • 4 Ways Automation and Machine Learning Will Change Google Ads in 2019
  • Google Ads Attribution Models: Which Is Right For Your Campaign?
  • How To Find The Best Audiences To Target On Facebook
  • How to Create a Google Ads Strategy Plan That Drives Results

Comments

  1. Doro says

    June 3, 2015 at 8:06 am

    Great article. We agree that non-profit organisations do need to be able to reach out to people to communicate their cause and their initiatives, and social media offers great possibilities to do so. We have written on the topic as well hoping to give charity managers the tools and ideas they need to get the word out at a low cost http://www.fingo.co.uk/blog/detail/internet-marketing-for-charities/

    Reply
  2. Kelly says

    June 15, 2015 at 11:03 am

    After reading your article, I applied for the Donate Now button on Facebook and received this email:

    Hi,

    Thank you for submitting your nonprofit. As the test expands, we’ll be contacting nonprofit organizations to become a part of this program.

    Thanks,
    The Facebook Team

    So, is it not a live function yet?

    Reply
    • Massimo Chieruzzi says

      June 15, 2015 at 2:03 pm

      Hi Kelly, I think it still requires Facebook Approval so they can guarantee scammers cannot ask for donations but only legit ONG!

      Best,
      Max

      Reply
    • Steven Page says

      July 2, 2015 at 8:47 am

      Hi Kelly,

      If you have an online donation form you can add it to a tab in Facebook in the mean time using the Static HTML: iframe tabs.

      Once you add this app to your Facebook page you can add your donation form right on your Facebook page.

      We just created an ebook on how to do this that you can download here: https://www.mobilecause.com/facebook-fundraising-ebook/

      Reply
  3. Stamford says

    December 21, 2015 at 9:59 pm

    Interaction with the community is important and a non profit organisation can definitely gain exposure by interacting with the audience. The content however needs to be great. Great content means great audience and great audience means great funding.

    Reply
  4. Meagan says

    February 29, 2016 at 7:16 am

    This is great content for a nonptofit who is looking at using facebook to help with their fundraising efforts. I really like the idea of engaging with the community. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  5. Arun kumar says

    April 19, 2016 at 1:33 am

    Nice article this information helps to our web site http://www.saioralhealthfoundation.com it is a NGO organization. thank you so munch!

    Reply
  6. Facebook Course for Business says

    February 28, 2017 at 4:09 am

    Facebook is one of the best medium to communicate as well as for marketing. The facebook marketing is can help to generate huge donation for an non commercial organizations. You just need be original and must target required audience. The facebook ads is one of the most effective way to expand your reach.

    Reply
  7. ASSI India says

    April 27, 2017 at 2:06 am

    Fun reading the article
    also we are also trying to get a verification on Facebook page to get the donation button but we have not succeeded . please let us know which channel we should follow to get the verification . Thank you

    Reply
  8. Lauren Squire says

    October 4, 2017 at 3:43 am

    Facebook is a great avenue for non-profit organisations as with the Donate Now button it allows people to donate straight from your page. Not only does Facebook help decrease the number of steps/clicks it takes for people to donate but it also helps you interact with your audience and create an online persona your followers can engage with. Great article!

    Reply
  9. Non profit organization Mumbai says

    April 15, 2018 at 9:33 pm

    I am very glad I found this blog in 2018, although these tactics are still working. I have been working for http://bit.ly/2IWwRRg this organization and I am getting the good response from Facebook.

    Reply
  10. Robert James says

    July 2, 2018 at 5:56 am

    After checking out a handful of the blog articles on your website, I really appreciate
    your technique of writing a blog. I saved it to my bookmark webpage list and will be
    checking back in the near future

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Facebook Marketing Tips To Help Nonprofits says:
    June 17, 2015 at 9:26 am

    […] Read the full article […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Top Resources

Your 6 Easy Steps to become a Facebook Ads Pro

  1. Beginner's Guide to Facebook Ads
  2. Facebook Ads DOs & DON'Ts
  3. The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Custom Audiences
  4. Discover how to save time & money with AdEspresso!
  5. Start your 14 Day Free Trial Now!
  6. Join our Weekly Webinars to get started!

Popular Resources

  • Facebook Ad Examples From Every Industry
  • The Complete Guide to Facebook Ads Cost
  • Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Ad Types
  • How to Set Up Your Facebook Advertising Account
  • 12 High ROI Facebook Advertising Strategies

Don’t miss our next Webinar!

How To Master Google Bidding Strategies

March 22, 10:00 am PST

Register now

Start your free trial now!

Start Your Free Trial Now

Learn more

  • About Us
  • FAQ
  • Work with Us
  • Press
  • Contacts
  • Support
  • Marketing Services
  • What’s new

Education

  • Blog
  • eBooks
  • Guides
  • Webinars
  • Examples
  • Facebook Ads Beginners Guide
  • Google Ads Beginners guide
  • Academy
  • Facebook Pixel for WordPress

From the Blog

  • 5 Top Instagram Ads Mistakes Advertisers Make (and How to Avoid Them)
  • 4 Ways Automation and Machine Learning Will Change Google Ads in 2019
  • Google Ads Attribution Models: Which Is Right For Your Campaign?

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin
  • Twitter
Facebook Marketing Partner Instagram Partner Premier Google Partner

© 2019 · AdEspresso, Inc. · Terms & Privacy Policy · Copyright

  • 27Shares
This site uses cookies and other tracking technologies to assist with navigation, monitor site usage and web traffic, assist with our promotional and marketing efforts, and customize and improve our services, as set out in our privacy policy