Is Your Nonprofit Getting Zuckerpunched?

The tech world has repeatedly witnessed Facebook executing bold daylight robberies of ideas, features and technologies from a variety of competitors. The Snapchat team can painfully adjure to the brazen heist of their innovative "Story" feature. Facebook added this into their Instagram product and then mercilessly leveraged their massive attain to propel that product frontward and alee of their only true competitor. In fact, many say its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, lifted the entire idea for Facebook from the Winklevoss brothers. Afterwards information technology was reported that Zuckerberg and Facebook happily settled that accommodate for, by Zuckerberg standards, a paltry $65 million. If you know only a fraction of their history as a ruthless, win-at-all-costs corporation, I'k sure that what I'1000 about to put forward regarding their marauding behavior in the nonprofit sector won't surprise anyone reading this post.

In 2016, Facebook launched a new service for users to kickoff fundraisers for nonprofit organizations. Past 2018, Mark Zuckerberg announced that more than $300 1000000 had been raised for charitable causes on Facebook. Despite their dominance by owning 4 of globe's largest social subscriber networks, Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger, that number hardly moved the needle for them. And so in early  2018, they announced they would offering costless fundraising tools for those trying to raise money for charities. Many nonprofits who were searching for growth looked for ways to incorporate this into their fundraising strategy. And many are simply now beginning to realize the dark reality of what turning donor data over to Facebook really ways for nonprofits and their supporters.

In this mail service, I'll share my experience and concerns about their tactics in hopes that yous can find the right fit for your nonprofit and your donors.

Facebook Fundraising is Designed to Capture & Use Your Donor Information to Grow its Advertisers

Facebook realized the real profit to be fabricated from the nonprofit sector was not on small donation processing fees, but the information it was acquiring from your donors. Donor data that they volition never share with you lot, i ncluding critical detailed donor contact information. So, in an effort to accelerate use from nonprofits, Facebook dropped its fees for nonprofit fundraising at the end of 2017.

But the question nonprofit administrators and development professionals should be asking themselves is… why? It costs a lot of money to run these platforms, deeply process gifts and disburse funds. What's their reason for getting rid of their fees? Given their notorious and extensive history of what is oftentimes described every bit nefarious beliefs, why do they want to do good at present?

The answer is pretty simple. They want to ain and command as much data on your donors and supporters equally they possibly can. They desire to apply this data to target these donors and monetize them in ways that pay off far, far, far across the nominal fees generally collected by fundraising platform providers. They take your donor information, use their unsurpassed information science and pair that with extensive information they have collected on all of united states to target your donors with more and more solicitations. They are building a predictable social, behavioral and financial profile on your donors. And so, they offer that profile to their thousands of advertisers. And they utilise it themselves to engage your audience to solicit services, and present other causes of their choosing to your donors.

Information technology'southward worked similar magic in other areas for Facebook, so why not try to dominate in the nonprofit globe while creating the optics of "doing good"?

Facebook for Good? Please!

Unfortunately, it appears Facebook is not offering nonprofit fundraising out of the goodness of their hearts.

I'm certain they take plenty of practiced employees who want to help nonprofits. Nevertheless, their corporate strategy for this venture is ruled by the financial growth overlords that Mr. Zuckerberg and his lath of directors accept put in place. They but realized they could make a lot more than money off of the backs of nonprofits and their supporters by offering "free" fundraising, and acquiring donors' private information so they tin can repackage, mine and triangulate this information for utilise by their many, many paid advertisers.

In outcome, they turn your donors into their product . They use the nonprofit community to feed this data to them which makes your arrangement complicit in drove and reuse of your donors private information. In exchange, you get a i-time donation that is "complimentary" of the normal nominal fee. Facebook gets lifetime command of a set of invaluable data on your supporters that they and then monetize via their advertising sales, over and over, again and again. They don't even pass the detailed donor data back to your organisation so that you may more effectively nurture and engage your own donor over fourth dimension. In fact, it's highly probable that your donor data is being offered up in means that others will desire to use to win that donor's loyalty for their own enterprise. Tactics that seem to be straight out of the pages of a pirate'due south playbook!

Does this seem overly cynical? I wish it were. When NBC News combed through 4,000 pages of documents spanning from 2011 to 2015, it found that Mark Zuckerberg, his board, and his management team was using user data as a bargaining chip to an even greater extent than anyone outside of the company knew. Facebook rewarded companies who spent coin on advertising with user data, and withheld information technology from rival companies and apps to punish them. And the company did this while publicly "committing" to have user data and privacy seriously.

To Facebook, its users are nothing more than pawns. And if y'all don't think that applies to your nonprofit organisation and your donors, well, we've got more bad news for you.

Information Highway Robbery: How They Do it.

This is how Facebook makes money from its users, including all of your donors.  Facebook and Google technologies take a virtual duopoly on advertising that now encompasses approximately 80% of all digital advert spend . It's a big business organization, and despite bad press, security breaches and questionable testifying before Congress , Facebook continues to grow and make billions of dollars. Given that it costs nothing to sign up for an account and to use Facebook, how are they so profitable? The answer is in their advert.

While it may seem obvious to some that this is how Facebook makes money while providing a "complimentary" service to users, well-nigh bodily users are unaware of how Facebook utilizes and monetizes their data. A recent study from Pew Inquiry Center shows just how little the average Facebook user knows: 74% had no thought they could manage their advertizing preferences (which allow them to opt out of Facebook using their employers, marital status, pets, and more than to target ads to them), and upon seeing how Facebook categorized them to advertisers, 51% percent were uncomfortable with Facebook compiling that information. When 88% of users surveyed found that Facebook had a profile and generated ads for them based on that profile, that'south a mighty disturbing flick. Users are and then dislocated by how Facebook collects and utilizes data, and what terms they agreed to when signing up for an business relationship, that their confusion and fright has turned into a pop meme .

Every behavior users take on Facebook is fair game to use to help companies target their ads, and then is donating on the Facebook platform. And when you inquire your supporters to donate through Facebook, y'all're just giving Facebook more data information technology sell to advertisers to target them more effectively. The information Facebook sells to advertisers includes political leanings, relationship condition, even something called "multicultural analogousness" — meaning race. Facebook then uses the information and newly caused data resulting from the paid campaigns of their advertisers to further build, refine, expand and then resell the data to the adjacent advertiser. This cycle of acquiring, refining and selling your donor data goes on, and on, and on in an insidious never-catastrophe cycle. This is then Facebook can monetize your donor data and sell information technology over and over over again to as many advertisers equally information technology can observe.

Facebook besides tries to brand additional money from nonprofits off of the treatment of payments and through having your donors store their credit cards on Facebook. Once a user's card is stored on Facebook, information technology removes friction for future sales through their platform where they monetize through Facebook payments platform.

How Facebook Payments Works to Boring Downwards Disbursements and Capture Even More Information

Nonprofit organizations are strong-armed into signing upwards for Facebook Payments to receive the money they raise. When you practice that, Facebook is then using your data to further monetize your info and help sell advertising to those who wish to target you. If y'all don't sign up for Facebook Payments, your nonprofit receives a payout from their partner after your donations are held  making a little more than off the "float", or the involvement collected on property your money donated to your crusade. The disbursement to you lot from their partner is so irksome it  tin can actually accept 75 days for payment .  Simply hither's the best role. In their partner's own words: "At this fourth dimension, at that place currently is no reporting through Network for Good regarding donor and contribution reporting using Facebook's platform to fundraise for not-profits." Then, if you were hoping to follow up with these donors to express your gratitude, nurture them, help them learn more than almost your nonprofit, or even just residue your books , so you're likely going to struggle. No existent donor information for you!

Why is this? Well, Facebook keeps all donor details mostly anonymous to y'all. Facebook knows who your donors are in not bad item, but you are not immune to take all that info.

If you want whatever meaningful information at all about your donors, your only option is signing up for Facebook Payments. So that Facebook tin can then larn more about your organization while it'southward learning more about your donors' interests and behavior. And if y'all desire to customize the information collected from donors, like requiring an accost or a phone number so you can follow upwards and start the stewarding procedure, well, too bad! You aren't allowed to do that. You go the donor's name and their email address , and nothing of value more.

It'south a muddied game. Facebook holds all the cards, and nonprofits agree none. Facebook has fabricated itself omnipresent but they are using their power like a swell. Instead of making it easier for nonprofits to connect, engage and nurture donors, their fundraising tools ultimately bulldoze a wedge between donors and causes. Information technology makes it more difficult to connect, build lasting support to advance your cause. And, they and then have the ability to expose your donor to other organizations like to your cause… and do then repeatedly.

Then, on the surface Facebook offering fee-free fundraising seems like a great deal for nonprofits looking to save on processing donations, merely it actually comes at a very loftier cost: your donor's privacy and data. The average donor making a contribution to your nonprofit on Facebook probable doesn't empathize the cost to them. As a nonprofit, when you lot sign upwardly for Facebook fundraising, that is what you sacrifice to take fees waived.

Expectations in a Relationship

As CEO of Mightycause, we know how challenging it tin can exist to serve the small merely mighty nonprofit that is resources constrained yet trying to meet the challenge of their own meaningful mission. Information technology's hard for a technology partner to build a relationship with a nonprofit.  Y'all must listen to your customers, they volition steer you on the best means to serve them. We learned to inquire, What's the customers top concern? What'south most important to them? And what I've learned from our customers is that while cost is ever a chief business organisation for most nonprofits who run lean, and so is protection of their donor data. They have trust that y'all volition not use data gathered through the procedure of serving them in any manner that would adversely impact them. That trust forth with aligning mutual objectives and coming together expectations must remain intact for the relationship to survive. Isn't the same concept true for a relationship betwixt the nonprofit and its donors?

The ability to engage supporters, nurture them, and retain them over time is what creates lasting value for the nonprofit. The fine art of nurturing a donor relies on your ability to build that relationship. It'south disquisitional to know your donors, demonstrate appreciation, build trust and show that their support is impactful. Only by demonstrating that respect for your donors can y'all build the bail which leads to the long term relationships which make or break your nonprofit. A donor to your cause would never anticipate that you would break the trust understanding and package their data to sell it off to as many others as you peradventure could. That would be a redline for any donor/nonprofit relationship, right? So why is it okay for Facebook to practise this?

A Few of the Means Facebook Targets Your Donors

Since Facebook claims command of your donors' data, that allows them to target your donor in their newsfeeds, send them notifications, and subtly "propose" that they use their fundraising tools to help your nonprofit. Birthdays are primetime for Facebook's targeting.

facebook fundraising targets donors

In the weeks earlier their birthdays, Facebook users will get notifications urging them to start a fundraiser for their birthday. Now, don't get me incorrect, birthday fundraisers are great and nosotros've hosted tons of them on Mightycause. They are started by generous people with the best of intentions, and birthday fundraisers can be a powerful way to bring in new supporters.

Of class, in lodge for your altogether fundraiser to help you bring in new donors, yous'd need their information, correct? So you've got to sign upward for Facebook Payments and start using their tools to go that data when someone creates a Facebook fundraiser for their altogether. And if the person raises less than $100? Well, you won't become that money, until you raise $100. So it sits with Facebook, until you heighten more on Facebook. It locks your nonprofit into using Facebook more and more, just to get your coin.

Do the people who offset Facebook fundraisers or friends who chip in $5 know that you might not get your money? Nope. Did your nonprofit consent to Facebook asking your donors to utilise Facebook fundraising for a altogether fundraiser? Nope. Did you lot even know they were targeting your donors in this way? Many nonprofits don't. And birthdays aren't the only time they target your donors.

Posting Your Campaign on Facebook

If you're a Facebook user, you've probably seen this: yous make a post with words like "nonprofit" or "donate" or "fundraise" in it, or link to your website or fundraising platform of option. And so you realize that Facebook uses a highly targeted fashion to recruit y'all or your fundraisers to use their platform.They add together a little box asking you lot (and your audience) if you lot want to add a donate button or create a fundraiser. Nosotros know this because Facebook does this to us and our nonprofits, continually. Run across?

facebook fundraising targeting donors

This is yet some other mode Facebook targets your donors (or even people only talking about your nonprofit), sucking you into the endless cycle of using Facebook for fundraising, even if you've vetted and called and in some cases paid for some other platform that's better suited to your needs. Facebook's goal isn't to add more than options; it's to take them abroad, until Facebook is the only option left standing.

And information technology doesn't stop there. We've heard from nonprofits who've added the donate button to their post link to their Mightycause fundraiser, non realizing that adding that button would funnel donations through Facebook and not the fundraiser they created. Nosotros've besides seen Facebook target donors linking to their fundraising competitors, nudging them to add the donate button and apply Facebook instead. Donors take fifty-fifty contacted us, thinking they made their donation on Mightycause (equally they intended) but to find out they actually accidentally donated through Facebook. It'southward insidious, it's unethical, and it'south pain small-scale nonprofits.

Facebook's End Game

One of the biggest questions most of u.s.a. have is why Facebook is so aggressive well-nigh pushing their fundraising tools. I mean, despite some major stumbles in 2018, the company is all the same one of the richest tech companies in the world. So, why not simply rest on their laurels and do what they do best?

Every bit I mentioned, it all seems to be part of Facebook's plan to exist the centerpiece of our digital lives. If you lot're doing something online, whether it'southward reading the news or playing a game, Zuckerberg and Co. want you doing it on Facebook. Their deportment appear to exist intended to monopolize your screen time. And the more things you practise on Facebook, the more data Facebook has most you, and the better it can target and monetize your information with more and more of their advertisers.

Facebook is making products out of us all.

The Value of Facebook Fundraising

While some nonprofits end up using Facebook fundraising because they were potent-armed into it, there are some nonprofits that cull to fundraise on Facebook. And the reason they most unremarkably cite is cost — while Facebook Payments used to charge a v% platform fee, they don't currently accuse whatsoever fees.

Keeping costs downwardly is of import; for a nonprofit that'south modest and trying to grow, fundraising costs are an obvious expanse to consider wisely. Information technology may seem like it's worth sacrificing donor data and privacy if it helps your nonprofit do more with what you've got. The reality is, that's the worst thing a growing nonprofit can do, prioritize the short-term over the long-term. And Facebook fundraising just isn't going to requite y'all what you need to grow. Does Facebook care about your growth as an organization if they actively stifle it by refusing to give y'all your detailed donor data?

In economics, "value" is divers in several different means. Some economists say that value is the cost a skilful or service would command in an open up and competitive market place. According to that metric, Facebook fundraising has very niggling value — in guild to make it an appealing option for nonprofits, they had to drop their platform fee, significant that the price information technology commands in an open and competitive market is $0. Facebook also seeks to brand the market closed and less competitive past snuffing out competitors; if there is no market, there is also no economic value. Facebook fundraising offers "gratuitous" fundraising, with hidden costs, and trivial value.

At Mightycause, we have more than than but a tool that lets you accept donations. Y'all take a full platform, with detailed reporting, the ability to collect the data you demand from donors, full and unfettered admission to that information, powerful customization options, and a commitment to continue providing the best tools we can to serve your nonprofit. Nosotros also don't sell your donors or their information to anyone. Nosotros don't make you pay in donor data. Our fees are transparent, with no strings fastened. We also provide unsurpassed customer support, which y'all nor your donor will receive from Facebook. As a client of Mightycause, nosotros listen to yous and look to your experience and insights to inform our product. We've dedicated ourselves to adding the features and tools our customers want, at a fair price. Nosotros aim to provide not but toll-effective fundraising and engagement tools, merely real value for your nonprofit. We exercise care if your nonprofit grows, and we want to help you grow.

We'd encourage you to carefully consider the consequences of fundraising on Facebook and to effigy out a way to assist supporters who wish to fundraise on your behalf. Practise your best to examine the cost/benefit of how to best develop long term relationships betwixt your organization and your donors. We know information technology'south non easy running a small nonprofit that is resource constrained and in a abiding cycle of finding new supporters. When you do discover those supporters, nurturing them and building lifelong relationships is cardinal. You do have other options that volition help you control access to your donor's data and avert violations of their earth-shaking trust. The stakes are too high to let another company to leverage your donor's private information while you may potentially exist complicit in handing over their disquisitional data to someone who may just work against your goal of building that bond.

Learn More Nigh Mightycause