Facebook donation fees recently went away for nonprofit fundraising campaigns on their social media platform.
Facebook has been a part of many of our lives for some time now. The social media giant was founded in February of 2004 in Cambridge, MA. The organization is currently run by one of Facebook’s original founding fathers, Mark Zuckerberg.
To say that Facebook has a huge following is most certainly an understatement. As of 2016, over 1.8 billion people used Facebook on a monthly basis. Facebook continues to grow and appeals to a wider demographic as time goes on. As of 2017, 53% of users are female and 47% are male.
Facebook users also span across all age groups, as depicted below:
18 to 29-year-olds in the US using Facebook: 82%
30 to 49-year-olds in the US using Facebook: 79%
65+ in the US using Facebook: 56%
The popularity of Facebook and the platform's ability to reach a wide audience has made the tool attractive for nonprofits wanting to gain exposure, connect with prospects, communicate opportunities on a large scale, promote engagement with volunteers and donors, and increase fundraising campaign potential.
According to a study performed by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research, 98% of charities and nonprofits are active on at least one social media site. The same study found that Facebook was favored by 92% of participants.
5 more interesting facts about social media
- Social media users are projected to grow to 2.44 billion users in 2018 (33% of the world population).
- Facebook is the most popular social media site for nonprofits followed by Twitter and Instagram.
- 55% of people who engage with causes on social media are more likely to get more involved.
- 40% of Facebook users log in multiple times each day.
- On average nonprofits only allocate one-fourth of a full-time person to social media marketing.
“By giving people the power to share, we’re making the world more transparent.” Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook Donation Fees and Features for Nonprofits
Over the past few years, Facebook has also seen the value that its social media platform can provide nonprofits. A Facebook press release recognized that there were over 150 million users connected to a specific cause in 2015.
On November 18th, 2015, Facebook released new tools available on their platform for nonprofit organizations. These tools included:
- Nonprofit brand pages
- Community groups
- Event pages
- Fundraising Tools
Facebook’s fundraising tools include donation buttons that can be used as a nonprofit page CTA and P2P fundraising capabilities where supporters can set up their pages, share their stories, communicate your organization’s mission, and contribute to your nonprofit's fundraising goal.
Until recently there was all but one catch…Facebook charged 5% donation fees to nonprofits using these features on each fundraising transaction.
That all changed for nonprofits in late November of 2017 when Mark Zuckerberg took the stage and announced that Facebook would no longer charge transaction fees for donations on their platform and 100% of the money would go to the causes that people care about.
During the same press conference, Zuckerberg also stated that fees for personal fundraisers will remain the same at 6.9% for individuals in the U.S. and 8.8% for participants in Canada.
This is big news for the nonprofit community as other comparable online fundraising tools on average charge 6-8% transaction fees.
Here is a breakdown of transaction fees charged by some of the largest P2P sites:
Kickstarter: 8% transaction fee + .20 per donation
GoFundMe: 7.9% transaction fee +.30 per donation
Indiegogo: 8% transaction fee + .30 per donation
What do no donation fees on Facebook mean for your nonprofit?
It is hard to say exactly what the drop in donation fees on Facebook will mean to your organization as each nonprofit and its goals are different.
It may mean that your nonprofit wants to begin to include Facebook in your fundraising strategy. Or it could mean that your organization may want to leverage Facebook, even more, moving into 2018.
Whatever the change means for you there are plenty of ways that Facebook’s nonprofit features could be useful to your organization today.
Takeaways
The case for nonprofits to use social media as an engagement and fundraising tool continues to grow. Facebook and other social media platforms are continuing to develop new features that nonprofits can use to reach prospects and supporters.
Is your nonprofit planning to use Facebook as a fundraising tool?
