A JustGiving page set up to raise money for NSPCC raised £4,000 in 24 hours following a Facebook campaign to raise awareness for the charity.
Is there a link between raising awareness of a charity’s brand and raising funds? A message doing the rounds on Facebook focussed on boosting awareness of NSPCC by encouraging users to change their profile picture to a picture of a cartoon character:
“Change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon character from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same, for the NSPCC. Until Monday (December 6), there should be no human faces on Facebook, but an invasion of memories. This is a campaign to stop violence against children.”
James Gregory, a Facebook user and charity supporter, was concerned that the impact of simply swapping profile pictures might be limited – it might raise awareness for the charity, but does this translate into all-important donations? For him, a viral awareness campaign wasn’t enough. He wanted fundraising to go viral.
James took action. He set up a JustGiving page and his message was clear:
“You’ve all changed your Facebook avatars to cartoons for raising awareness of child abuse, right? Reposted the message to your friends? How about donated? I could be wrong, and I sincerely hope I am, but I suspect with all its good intentions the Facebook campaign isn’t helping as much as it could be. I would love if we could raise some actual money in light of this situation. I don’t need to lecture you on how bad child abuse is. Please, donate anything you can spare.”
And he put his money where his mouth is: “If we hit £2,000 I will personally match it.” Less than 24 hours later, when the £2,000 target was smashed, James dug deep and made a £2,000 donation himself.
If you’re interested in reading more about the campaign, have a look at Tal’s blog post, Is cartoon awareness enough?
Another JustGiving page was set up with the same aim. It quickly became the most recommended fundraising page on JustGiving. At the last count, 6,400 people had clicked on the ‘recommend’ button, meaning the web address of the page appears in the newsfeeds of all of their Facebook friends.
How valuable are ‘recommends’ in terms of having a real impact on a charity’s bottom line?
Based on the use of JustGiving between 17th November and 4th December 2010:
- 6% of visitors from ‘recommend’ links on Facebook end up donating
- On average, six ’recommends’ are needed for one donation (the ratio of ‘likes’ to actual donations is 6:1)
- One ‘recommend’ is effectively worth around £5 (assuming the average donation is like the rest of the site: £32)
Have a look at our blog post for more details from Jonathan, one of our resident social media experts.
Can your fundraising go viral with JustGiving?
With our Facebook app, integration with Twitter means every JustGiving page has a ‘Tweet this page’ button and a Facebook ‘recommend’ button. Plus, when a supporter has made a donation, they’re invited to Tweet about it to boost awareness and encourage their followers to donate. For ideas about how to use social media to boost your fundraising, have a look at our top tips.
Tags: Facebook, fundraising ideas, NSPCC, social media fundraising, viral campaign
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