You may have felt a rumble on Facebook this week . . . they are adding “Donate” button functionality to some nonprofit pages. It’s still being rolled out and there are tons of questions about how it will work.
For example, will nonprofits get contact information for donors? Highly unlikely.
Will this make is easier for people to quickly support high visibility causes during a crisis like a disaster? Very likely.
Is Facebook going to use that billing information to make it easier for people to buy things on Facebook? Naturally.
Despite all the hoopla around the Donate button, this really isn’t the most important recent news about Facebook for nonprofits.
What’s more important is Facebook’s ever-increasing “pay to play” mentality about brand pages — including your nonprofit’s page. If you want more of your fans to see your page content, eventually you’ll need to pony up some money to promote your posts.
Facebook needs to make money, and that’s fine. But I don’t think it is particularly fair to make the nonprofit sector pay in the same way as the corporate world.
That’s why I am joining lots of other leaders in our community — and I urge you to sign on personally too — to ask Facebook to follow Google’s lead, and provide Facebook Ad Grants to Nonprofits.
This isn’t a technology or know-how or even a budget issue for Facebook. It’s simply a matter of will.
Let’s help Facebook understand how important this is, not only to the nonprofit community, but to their place as a leading communications platform and provider for the nonprofit community.
Sign the petition, and ask your friends to do it too.
