Facebook makes it easy and convenient for donors and their friends to support your non-profit, creating a new stream of revenue. The challenge is to manage and steward the donors that come through these fundraising campaigns.

How it works.

A popular and lovely trend is to create a fundraiser for one’s birthday, directing friends to give to their favorite charity in honor of the celebrant. The donations are processed by Facebook or Network for Good’s Donor Advised Fund and sent along to the non-profit in two to six weeks. Meanwhile, Facebook sends a receipt directly to the donor. To receive the funds, your non-profit does need to register with Facebook which includes providing information about your founder (DOB and address), bank information, and 501(c)(3) documentation. Thankfully, FB removed transaction fees.

Here’s the issue.

You have new donors but you may not know much about them. Facebook provides a daily transaction report listing the first and last name, the amount and if the donor offers, an email address. At best you can acknowledge the gift via email two weeks after it was given; at worst you will be unable to thank your new donors directly. This begs the question - if a donor gives and there’s no way to thank him or her, is he or she a donor? Technically, yes because you’ve received the funds as a charitable gift. Yet, no because you cannot rely on this gift recurring on any periodicity and have no way to thank the donor directly.

Creativity counts.

Sort FB’s transaction reports by donation amount and send thank you notes to your largest donors detailing the impact of their giving on your non-profit. Ask your top donors to post a thank you on their wall to their friends on behalf of your charity (provide the language about the impact of giving). Directly thank the donors for whom you do have an email address. Monitor who is tagging your organization when they give and follow up with thank you notes on their pages. Post thank you messages on your wall and tag the donors you do know about. Be proactive with your best donors and volunteers and ask them to consider launching a birthday campaign for your non-profit. Publicly celebrate them when they do which will encourage others to follow their lead.

Re-solicitation strategy.

Create a segment for Facebook donors in your database by coding the source of these gifts. For those with email addresses, work to retain them by spending time and resources on engaging and educating them about your cause and the impact of their giving. Re-solicit via email giving them two options to give again – a link to your giving site and a link to your Facebook page which has a donate button. If they give on your giving site, you will now have their mailing address. Track the preferred method of giving of this segment to determine future solicitation strategies.

Celebrate your retained donors like it’s their birthday!