Facebook Donations: A Potential Game-Changer for Higher Ed

For a long time when it came to fundraising, Facebook was good for raising awareness but not much else. There wasn't any built-in way to get people to donate to your cause, and - for pages - you had to pay for followers to even see the posts about your campaign.

A few months ago, Facebook rolled out a feature to help address this problem, allowing certified non-profits to put a "Donate" button on their page, and to create a "campaign" page where users could give money directly on Facebook. Which is great and all, but again this presented some challenges for pages. Very few people even go to a page, let alone passively click a "donate" button. And if you do set up a "campaign" page, you still run into the problem of having to pay for people to see it. Not really an ideal situation, especially since most social media fundraising is small denomination/high volume.

But last week, Facebook released a new tool that could be a total game-changer for non-profits, particularly colleges and universities. It will allow individual users to solicit donations from their friends for whatever cause they are supporting. (Yes, prepare yourself for LOTS of posts about jogathons and charity races and all that.) Currently this feature is available to only a small percentage of users, but Facebook says it will be rolled out to all users in the coming weeks.

Here's a sample of what one of the individual fundraising pages will look like:

Why is this such a big deal for higher ed? Because colleges and universities have such a high number of passionate, dedicated alumni, students, and parents who - with the proper outreach and stewardship - can reach way more people than the school's individual page can. Particularly people who are not otherwise connected to the school and would be highly unlikely to give without a personal request from someone they know.

Imagine a scenario where a beloved professor passes away unexpectedly. Using this new feature, a school creates a fundraiser to create a scholarship in the professor's name and reaches out to former students (on social or via email) and ask them to help spread the word. A young alum then posts something on her own page, saying something like "This professor was my mentor and is the reason I am now a teacher. Please help me create a scholarship in her name." Then aunts/uncles/family friends give to the scholarship - not because they have any connection to the school, but because of the personal appeal from someone they care about.

Pretty powerful stuff, right?

This new feature could also be a great way to get donations from young alumni and get them into the habit of life-long giving. I don't have the stats in front of me, but I know that if you can get a young alumni to give within the first few years after graduation, they are significantly more likely to give later in life - and in greater amounts - than alumni who do not give when they are young. Doing the donations on Facebook hits people where they are (yes, young people still use Facebook every day), and it is quick, easy, and mobile-friendly - perfect for younger people that might not have the patience to deal with some of the clunky online donation systems that many schools use.

Finally, it could be a really neat way to do small-scale crowdfunding-type campaigns that allow young alumni to give directly to programs, professors, organizations that had an impact on them, rather than to the "faceless" organization. The school paper needs some new computers? Set up a campaign, reach out to a handful of former staffers, and see what happens. It might work, it might not. But even if it doesn't... it's a really neat way to involve and activate passionate alumni.

Good things don't come free - especially when Facebook is involved - so be aware that FB takes a 5% cut of all donations given.

To sign up for the program, colleges will need to register with Facebook. Note that this also requires your page to be categorized as a non-profit rather than a business or school or whatever else.

It's always possible that this new feature won't pan out and users will be skeptical about it, but I have the feeling that if it's as easy to set up and as seamless to give as it seems, a lot of peer-to-peer fundraising will start happening on Facebook sooner rather than later.

If your college tries it out, please let me know how it goes!