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…

You can set up a new Facebook page to publicise your charity event by following this link, which will take you straight to the set-up page. After that you just have to follow our eight-step guide to setting up a Facebook page.

However, if you don’t want to set up a new Facebook page for just one event you can create an event within your main page. If you take this route, then the cover image at the top of the page is a great way of showing off your forthcoming event and letting people know that something new is happening!

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Link from your website

If you have a website 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.

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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.

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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.

Invite people to join in

It’s worth contacting your existing supporters via a mass email using something like MailChimp to ask them to join the conversation on your Facebook page. It’s probably a good idea to leave it for a couple of weeks to give you time to populate it with some content, otherwise you’ll be asking them to like an empty page! 

A ‘Call To Action’ (otherwise known as a CTA) like this can be surprisingly effective; people are generally kind-hearted and more than happy to share ideas or volunteer to help if you give them an easy way to do so. This means it is always worth asking people to ‘Share’ your event with their friends, and asking them to ask their friends to do the same.

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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.

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Photographs

Photographs 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.

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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.

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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.

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