What Nonprofits Need More Than a Facebook Donate Button

Mark Zuckerberg, Founder & CEO of Facebook (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dear Mark Zuckerberg,

Thanks for putting a Donate Now button on Facebook.  Now, our nonprofit’s Facebook Friends can give without ever leaving the page.

But will they see our page in the first place?

Already, fewer than 15 % of Friends see any particular post.  And as you recently told us, that percentage is going to drop.  Ad Age published your Generating business results on Facebook, where your company states:

We expect organic distribution of an individual page’s posts to gradually decline over time as we continually work to make sure people have a meaningful experience on the site.

In other words, fewer eyes on our pages.

The solution, according to your spokesman? “The best way to get your stuff seen if you’re a business is to pay for it.”

But what if you’re not a business?

Many nonprofits are local.  Some are tiny.  Few have a budget for marketing.  They are constantly trying to put more money into programs instead.

So, nonprofits’ reach on Facebook is almost all “organic,” meaning that our Friends like and share our posts with their Friends.  And that’s what you say is going to decline.

I understand that you want to do a good thing for nonprofits by providing a Donate Now button.  But it will be a meaningless gesture if fewer and fewer people ever see it.

Ask Sheryl Sandberg how to make ad grants to nonprofits.

Over at Google, where your COO used to work, they’ve been giving nonprofits $10,000 every month to advertise on Google.com.  For years.  And it works!

Ask Sheryl Sandberg about the business results and the public relations Facebook can get by instituting an ad grant program.  Then, please put that program into place.  It will multiply the value of the Donate Now button–for Facebook and for nonprofits.  And isn’t that what you wanted to do in the first place?

Happy 2014,

Dennis Fischman, Communicate! Consulting