Facebook Causes Case Study: World Wildlife Fund

Since the dawn of the social-media era, fundraisers have been looking for ways to solicit donations on the medium. Facebook Causes is one way for them to do just that.

In a Common Knowledge webinar last month, Facebook Causes Case Study: World Wildlife Fund, President Jeff Patrick and Sarah Desilets, online marketing associate at World Wildlife Fund, discussed the fundraising capabilities of Facebook Causes and tips on how to use the application for your organization.

Facebook Causes statistics
Patrick kicked off the presentation by displaying the scope and reach of Causes. Causes has:

• 100 million installed users;
• 400,000 user-created causes;
• 13,000 official nonprofit partners;
• $22 million donated in 2.5 years;
• 1 million media views per day;
• distribution to 400 million active users on Facebook; and
• donations supported to all 1.5 million-plus U.S. nonprofits.

Furthermore, the statistics show that Causes is actually able to raise money, Patrick said. After a slow start in 2007 and 2008, fundraising via Causes took off in 2009, raising more than $14 million. That number is expected to be even larger once the final 2010 tallies are totaled.

Any individual or organization can create a cause. For organizations, the cause is branded as coming directly from the nonprofit's Causes page, while individuals can set up their own causes that then have proceeds donated to a nonprofit of their choosing. This allows individuals to raise money for a cause all on their own.

"Individuals interested in my organizations that want to support us can use Causes to raise some money for us without coming to us. That's pretty cool," Patrick said. "It's called intermediation — donors can be in control and in doing so still benefit the nonprofit."

Also, nonprofits can affiliate with individual causes that support their organizations.

Patrick gave a few examples of Causes. Camfed's Educate Girls in Africa. Fight Poverty and HIV. cause hit several best practices: branding of the organization with the logo, several different tabs to display its information and a donation thermometer to highlight donating. The University of California San Francisco Foundation had a challenge to raise $100,000. The donation page looked just like any online giving form, with choices of $10, $25, $50, $100, $500 and other along with the choice to make the donation once or monthly.