Exciting news, the AKU Society now accepts Facebook Donations. With 1.8 billion people on Facebook every month, Facebook can be a brilliant place for you to engage with your friends and family and ask them to donate to your AKU fundraiser. In today’s blog, we will be giving you some inside tips on how to make a Facebook fundraiser work.
If you are familiar with JustGiving page’s, Facebook Donation is very similar, and the same rules apply.
Firstly, if you are fundraising for a half marathon, coffee morning or want to do an official fundraiser for the AKU Society, click on “Create” next to the Home button. This is where you can click and create a fundraiser. Facebook will then ask you who are you raising money for, click on “Charity” and type the “AKU Society”. Now you can start adding your personal goals in and most importantly how much money you want to raise. Make sure you put when you want your fundraiser to end, so you have a deadline to get the funds.
Just as you would do with JustGiving, you need a title for your fundraiser. Make sure this stands out! Friends and family will be quickly scrolling through their feed, so you want to make sure your fundraiser stands out. For example, if you are running a half marathon to raise money for AKU, put something like this:
[Your Name] half marathon race to help find a cure for AKU!
Then you put why you are raising money for us; this is where you can be personal and share your story. Facebook does do an autofill function for this but try and make it your own! Lastly, pick a photo or video to grab your friends and family’s attention. If you are looking for sponsorship, pick a happy or cheesy photo of yourself. Friends and family would love to see this, and it makes the fundraiser more personal.
Secondly, we will go through how to post a status donation button. Just as you would do to write a status, click on “What’s on your mind?” if you scroll to the bottom you will see the option “Support non-profit” click on this to start your fundraising journey through Facebook. This is when you type in “The AKU Society” on who you are fundraising for. You can include in your status what why you want your supports to donate to our charity. Your friends and family will see your status and can click donate below. Quick and easy! Don’t forget that you can add photos, videos, what you are supporting (in “Feeling/Activity”) also tag your friends to get them aware of what you are fundraising for!
Are you stuck on present ideas for your birthday? You can set up a fundraiser for your birthday. This means family and friends can donate to the AKU Society as part as your birthday present. Facebook will give you £5 to start your donation. On your birthday your Facebook friends will receive a notification inviting them to donate to the AKU Society. A very happy birthday indeed!
Gift Aid is also included in Facebook Donation, and if you are a UK taxpayer donating to the AKU Society, your donation could be eligible for Gift Aid. The AKU Society will also be setting up our own Facebook Donation fundraisers for future projects that we have coming up, like patient workshops or future medical research.
Remember you can set up a Facebook donation status and a fundraiser anytime. However, if you are running a 5k, 10k, half marathon or marathon you can set up a fundraiser for this. This also includes skydives, bungee jumps, abseiling or any other sponsorship activity you can think of.
We look forward to seeing your Facebook fundraisers. Email our Fundraising Officer, Juliet, juliet@akusociety.org if you have any more questions about how Facebook Donation works or have an idea for a fundraising event.
