How to promote a charity event on Facebook

Here are a few tips and tricks to help you make the most of your fundraising efforts!

Getting Facebook set up…

Facebook events can be hosted by individuals using their personal account, or by pages, such as a charity or business page. If you're doing a one-off event, such as a sponsored fun run, fire walk or similar, your personal page is probably going to be good enough. However, if you plan on doing regular events or you plan on growing your fundraising efforts you could create a page.

Creating a new page is easily done by logging into your Facebook account and looking through the menu on the left-hand side. You might need to click the 'see more' button for it to become visible, but you need to click on the orange flag labelled 'Pages', and then the blue button 'Create New Page'. Follow the instructions to set your page up and invite your friends to follow it.

Creating a Facebook event

Creating a Facebook event is easy. You'll just need to know the date, time and venue, and have a suitable image to promote it.

If you're using your personal account click on 'Events' on the left-hand side, then '+ Create New Event' and follow the instructions.

If you're using a business page, click on the Events tab (on desktop it is under the business page name) and you will see an 'Upcoming events' section. Click 'Create New Event' to start.

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Link from your website

If you have a website or blog for your charity then you should add a ‘Like’ button to it that take people straight to your Facebook page.

You’ll need to create a widget via Facebook and then paste that onto your website, so you’ll either need to have admin access to your website or know someone who does.

Add a donate button

You can also add a donate button to your Facebook page that will let people make a donation to you. Clicking the button will take them to your website’s donation page, where it is good practise to give them the chance to donate a relatively small fixed sum as well as an amount of their choice.

Being able to donate easily is a good way to engage people who are willing to give money but don’t necessarily want to take part in the event itself.

The donation button is only available to charities with Facebook Payments set up.

Get people involved

Social media is all about people interacting with each other and one of the best ways to create interest in your event is by creating a conversation around it rather than by just broadcasting information.

So why not ask people for their opinions, thoughts, and suggestions on the event you’re planning? It’s important to reply to every comment too if at all possible; this not only helps keep the conversation flowing, it also stimulates people to join in a conversation that they’ve been following but haven’t yet participated in.

Don’t forget to set the page up so that people can start a conversation themselves by posting straight on to your Facebook page. You can set and check this under the ‘Settings’ tab of the page.

Consider Facebook ads

Most charities are on a tight budget but Facebook ads can be a cost-effective way of reaching out to people who might otherwise not know of your existence. Make sure you read up on how to maximise your tight budget, as you don't want to accidentally promote an event in London to people in Australia.

Share in groups

Facebook is filled with groups for every interest imaginable. Your local town is bound to have several, so see if any of them allow the sharing of events (rules will be different for every group) and promote your event. This is a great way of getting it to a new audience outside of your friend group or people already following the charity.

Photographs and videos

Photographs and videos are an easy way to create interest in an event on Facebook.

Don’t worry about making them super-professional because your smartphone is easily good enough for this. The important thing is to take photos that give a sense-of-place and enable people to live vicariously through them. You might like to consider giving your supporters behind-the-scenes access to the planning stages that just isn’t available anywhere else, for example.

Facebook algorithms do tend to favour video content so if you can film yourself or other people talking about the event and the work the charity or non-profit does you might be able to increase exposure. Again, don't worry too much about it being of professional quality. Authenticity is the name of the game these days.

Show, don’t tell

People like to know where their money is going to be spent but rather than posting a 1,000-word update on what you are up to why not create a gallery that shows them what you’re doing and the progress you’re making instead?

People are much more likely to participate and donate when they know that their money is actually being used to make a difference.

Play nicely

Sharing information and Facebook posts from other charities, organisations, and key players in your field is a great way to build connections and support for your cause.

The world of social media is frequently derided for inciting mob nastiness but love breeds love and playing nicely is a crucial part of building your charity’s brand and spreading the word about what coming up.

After the event

It’s just as important to remember to show people how the event went, how much money was raised and what it was spent on.

Post photos from the event (as long as the participants don't mind their images being shared) and a round-up of how it went. If you already know what other events you want to do now is a good opportunity to start getting your friends and followers interested.

After all, this isn’t going to be a one-off, is it?

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