Facebook is continuing to expand its influence on the peer-to-peer fundraising world after a pair of announcements that aim to make it easier for nonprofits to raise money on the platform.
The world’s largest social networking platform announced last week that it will eliminate its 5 percent transaction fee for charitable donations made on the site — meaning that every dollar raised through Facebook will go directly to nonprofits.
It also announced a partnership with Blackbaud that will integrate the fundraising operations of both platforms– allowing organizations that use Blackbaud as their CRM system to access information about donors who make gifts on Facebook.
The Blackbaud announcement follows a pilot integration effort involving three nonprofits — JDRF, National Multiple Sclerosis Society and Susan G. Komen — to integrate Facebook’s tools and data with Blackbaud’s system.
“As an organization that relies on people across the nation to raise funds to support our mission, innovation is critical in delivering an outstanding donor experience,” said Graham McReynolds, chief marketing & development officer of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which took part in the pilot. “With this connection, our supporters can confidently take advantage of Facebook as another means to fundraise and see a full picture of their efforts. Ultimately, this allows us to expand resources to accelerate breakthroughs for everyone affected by multiple sclerosis.”
Blackbaud said in a release that it expects to roll out the integration with Facebook to at least 500 nonprofits by spring 2018 — with an emphasis on organizations that use its TeamRaiser P2P fundraising platform.
What does your organization think of these changes? Many P2P fundraisers have told us that they’re worried that Facebook is making it more difficult to build lasting relationships with donors because it does not provide nonprofits with information about donors.
Do these new announcements ease those concerns?
We invite you to share your thoughts in the comments!