Including Causes in custom Facebook page tabs
Posted May 09, 2011 by Jen Burton
A couple weeks ago, we announced our custom Facebook page tab (are you using it? Tell us!), but I wanted to share a few examples of people including Causes in custom Facebook page tabs. Of course, our tab is awesome if you want to fundraise for a U.S. registered 501(c)3 but you may have an awareness raising cause or want more flexibility for your custom Facebook page tab.
Where to start?
If you don’t have access to a developer, designer or even an HTML-comfortable friend you might get a little frustrated with these steps. But! Creating a custom tab for your page is definitely doable and the examples below are cool implementations of both our API and, in one case, simple HTML.
- Install a Facebook static HTML app that allows you to create a custom tab (I’m a fan of Involver’s Static HTML app since it’s free and you can add multiple tabs)
- Follow the app’s prompts to add your custom HTML to your fanpage
- Done!
Disclaimer: If you’re not a developer or comfortable with HTML adding the tab might not quite be so simple (in that case, use our Facebook page app for your page since we’ve done all the work for you). I’m definitely not a developer, though I am comfortable with HTML, and I added a custom tab using Involver’s app in 10 minutes.
On The Nature Conservancy’s Facebook page, fans can donate, invite their friends and even create a Birthday Wish. Their implementation is more advanced (built by a third party company) using our API, but the right developer can easily do the same for your organization.
Pioneer Services is celebrating Military Appreciation Month with both a cause and a custom tab on their Facebook page. In this case, they’ve simply created a custom image, hosted that image on their site and then linked the image to their cause, Operation Building Freedom. This is the most simple implementation as it only requires an HTML app, basic HTML knowledge and somewhere to host an image.
The American Red Cross’ use of our API on their custom tab is similar to The Nature Conservancy’s (they use the same third party developer). Their tab has multiple data sources and donation options outside of Causes options.
Resources
- No development skills needed: Quick and easy fundraising tab using the Causes custom tab
- Basic HTML skills and access to a webhost (for hosting images): Use Involver’s Static HTML app
- Developer: Use the Causes API & an HTML app like Involver.

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