Causes is a tool that lets you easily fundraise and recruit supporters for your nonprofit on the popular social network Facebook. For nonprofit organizations, there are two components of Causes: 1) your Official Nonprofit Profile, and 2) the different cause(s) on Facebook benefiting your nonprofit, which any Facebook user can start. Your Official Nonprofit Profile is your official presence on Facebook that displays basic information about your organization, and is the page through which you manage causes that benefit your nonprofit. Causes, on the other hand, can be started by any user, including yourself, and there can be an unlimited number.
Thus the Causes tool presents a "many to one" relationship, where your nonprofit can potentially be benefited by dozens of causes, all of which you can easily keep track of through your Official Nonprofit Profile.
I. Setting up your Official Nonprofit Profile
Go to http://www.causes.com/partners/new and fill out the Nonprofit Partner Application with the requested information
- What you'll need: your nonprofit EIN, a electronic picture of your logo, and contact information
- Click "Submit Application"
You will receive confirmation via email once you have been approved. Use the web link in the confirmation email to access your Official Non-profit Profile, which is your official presence on Facebook.
Your Official Nonprofit Profile includes features to:
- View your "Nonprofit Scorecard", which shows your total causes, total supporters, total donations, and total donors
- Edit your profile by update contact info, organization information, etc.
- Select official and featured causes to display on your Official Profile on Facebook
- Access donor information, including mailing address, donation amount and date of donation. You can also download the information through a CSV file.
II. Starting a Cause on Facebook
Sign-up for Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/
- Set-up your personal account: you will need your full name, email address and birthday. You can use Privacy Settings to choose what information you want or don't want displayed on your personal profile.
Get the Causes application
- After setting up a Facebook account, you will be taken to your home page
- Click on the "Applications" link on the far left-hand side of the page
- Click on the "Browse Applications" link, then type in "Causes" in the search field to search for Causes
- Once you see the Causes application, click on it. You'll then see a button to "Add Application", and click on this to add Causes to your personal profile
Start a cause that benefits your nonprofit!
- Once you've added Causes, an icon will be displayed for it on the far left hand side under the "Applications" link. Click on the Causes icon.
- Click on the "Start a Cause" button.
- You will see fields to fill out basic information for your cause, including the name, description, and your positions and goals. You can also upload a picture.
- Focus the name of your cause on a specific campaign or program, and don't just use the name of your organization.
- Select your non-profit as the beneficiary by browsing our database of non-profits
III. Growing Your Cause
Tips & Tactics:
- The cause should focus on a specific issue that the organization focuses on. The name of your cause, your photo, and basic information should reflect this. Don't simply use the name of your organization as the name of the cause or bland organization-profile information.
- State a concrete goal or set of goals you want to achieve. If this includes specific monetary goals with a description of what one's financial or membership support will actually do, even better.
- Tell a story. Many successful cause creators have shared personal or otherwise captivating stories in the body/description of their cause - this helps convey urgency and lends a universality to your cause that more people can relate to.
- Designate leaders for your cause offline from different social networks. Assign goals to each one, like inviting a certain number of people to your cause every week and interacting with cause members on a regular basis.
- Add your leaders as administrators of your cause. They can help post announcements and media, and others can publicly see that they are leaders.
- Offer an incentive to your top recruiter/donor/leader, like tickets to a sports game or promotional event, a gift card, dinner at a nice restaurant, etc. (you can keep track of progress by viewing your cause Hall of Fame)
- Utilize the "Announcements" and "Media" posts daily and change the main photo within your cause to maximize your exposure (these posts are sent to cause members' newsfeeds).
- Start debates and discussions on your "Wall" to create personal connections and to empower individuals to express what this cause means to them.