How to Use Causes for Your Year-End Fundraising Appeal

Posted Sep 09, 2010 by Matt Mahan

Causes Senior Nonprofit Coordinator, Susan Gordon, was recently featured on NTEN (the Nonprofit Technology Network)’s blog.

Planning for the year-end giving season is in full swing throughout the nonprofit sector. In 2009, giving in December alone brought in about 1/3 of the fundraising dollars to nonprofits. And in 2010, online giving is expected to bring in more donations than ever, after having seen a 46% increase in online revenue between 2008 and 2009.

At Causes, the application on Facebook, we’re releasing huge improvements to our fundraising and communications tools just in time for the year-end giving season. Nonprofits have already raised over $26 million using Causes — and to start the giving season off, we recently announced that your causes will soon be able to publish to members’ News Feeds (like a Fan Page can now). Once you’ve built a vibrant online community, the end of the year is the perfect time to make a fundraising appeal.

Fundraising Projects

Facebook users are more motivated to donate to specific projects rather than general fundraising appeals. Causes has just updated their Fundraising Projects feature so nonprofits can effectively do project-based fundraising campaigns through Facebook.

Using this tool, the National Wildlife Federation has raised over $100,000 for their oil spill work in the Gulf Coast. The Humane Society of the United States raised $20,000 in 6 days, all through their cause, to fund a team of journalists documenting the seal slaughter in Canada. And Camfed raised $4,500 to build a roof on a school in Malawi, then turned around and funded another $3,386 project to give shoes to schoolgirls in Zimbabwe.