Tools & solutions
Get started & fundraise
Create and foster a community.
Your nonprofit can use Meta technologies to reach more people and build and grow an online community of supporters. Engage your community to raise awareness, fundraise, recruit and mobilize volunteers and accelerate your impact.
Develop a community.
A recent global survey revealed that 72% of people see communities existing online as much as offline . In this digital age, there’s an online community for just about everyone.
Activists, environmentalists, entrepreneurs, cancer survivors, animal lovers - people with common interests and experiences are connecting in online communities.
Online communities provide a source of support and sense of belonging - especially for those living in more remote areas or in circumstances that make it harder to connect in person.
USE THE FOLLOWING STRATEGIES TO HELP YOU GROW YOUR NONPROFIT’S ONLINE COMMUNITY:
- Create a Facebook Page and post in your Feed.
- Create an Instagram Business account and post photos and/or video content in your Feed.
- Communicate with your community through Messenger, Inbox or WhatsApp.
- Gain a better understanding of your audience on Facebook and Instagram from Insights.
- Create a plan for content, community development and fundraising if eligible.
- Develop a content calendar to establish a regular social media posting schedule across all your community channels. Find more content planning and management tips here.
- Share consistently. Consistent sharing across all your community channels tends to perform better.
- Invite supporters, trusted friends, colleagues and your nonprofit volunteers to follow your Facebook Page or Instagram account.
- Promote your channels. To increase awareness, add a link to your Facebook Page and Instagram account in marketing materials and on your website.
- Engage with daily comments and posts.
- Appoint a Community Manager. Anyone in your organization can be a Community Manager. Learn more about our Certified Community Manager Program.
Start a Facebook Group.
In addition to building a community on your Facebook Page and Instagram Business account, you can make connections, learn from peers and spread the word about your cause through Facebook Groups.
What is a Facebook Group?
Facebook Groups are places where people with a common interest can connect with each other, share information, plan to participate in events and accomplish things together online or in the real world. For example, there are Facebook Groups for mental health, disaster relief and many other important issues.
It’s easy to find other Facebook Groups. If you find a Group with a similar cause or mission, it can be a great opportunity to learn from each other, start a conversation in that Group and write a post to raise awareness about your own organization and Facebook Page.
You can also consider starting your own Facebook Group to build a community and engage with your supporters or beneficiaries.
Set up your new Group.
FOLLOW THESE STEPS TO SET UP A NEW FACEBOOK GROUP:
- Add a description: Explain the Group’s purpose and mission in the description.
- Upload a cover photo: Include a cover photo that reflects the Group’s topics.
- Add people to your Group: Start small and invite trusted friends, colleagues and your nonprofit volunteers.
- Make your first post: Create a post to welcome new members to the Group.
- Set ground rules: Write and post rules for the Group to help members know what is and is not allowed, including the type of posts they can share.
Create a sense of community.
CONNECT MEMBERS TO EACH OTHER TO BUILD STRONG TIES IN YOUR COMMUNITY. HERE ARE SOME WAYS YOU CAN GET STARTED:
- Make introductions and foster engagement where possible.
- Consider ways to thank your community for getting involved. Member appreciation posts can encourage people to give shout-outs to helpful members.
- Use Facebook Online Events to host community meetings, instructional classes, fundraising performances and even galas. Facebook Online Events enable you to reach more people and continue to engage with supporters remotely. You can broadcast your event with Facebook Live video, Messenger Rooms or by sharing a streaming link. Online Events also include features like registration, payment, community building and more.
- If applicable, provide opportunities for members to meet in person, too, to help people strengthen connections in the real world.
Best practices
REGARDLESS OF WHETHER YOU ARE JOINING A GROUP OR STARTING YOUR OWN, HERE ARE A FEW WAYS TO GET THE MOST OUT OF THEM:
- Guides are a collection of posts, and can be a helpful way to welcome new members to your community and educate them on your cause.
- If managed by the same admin team, Facebook Pages and Groups can be linked together so that members can follow and message admin teams.
- Communities thrive when members are supporting each other by answering questions. Spend time commenting on posts and getting to know your members.
- Group admins should encourage members to get together, take action to achieve a specific goal and participate in events online or in the real world.
Once you have a foundation in place, there are other ways to continue expanding your community. Learn more about building communities.
Facebook Volunteering
Making it easier for people and organizations to request or offer help in their community.
Your organization can find volunteers of any skill level for shifts on certain days and times. When people sign up, they provide their email or request to be contacted via Facebook Messenger and are sent reminder notifications automatically. Your volunteer opportunities appear publicly on your Page, on the Community Help hub and are shareable across Facebook.
How to create volunteers Sign-ups:
- Navigate to your organization’s Facebook Page.
- Click on "Volunteers" under where you create a Post.
- Click "Sign-Ups."
- Select "Online" or "In Person."
- Fill in details, including a general title and description, location, activities, dates, times and number of volunteers needed.
- Enter an email address to get notified when people sign up.
- Click "Publish."
- Volunteers can sign up for shifts and bring guests, share and invite their friends.
Get inspired
“The power of Facebook fundraising tools is vital in our mission to save veteran lives. Leveraging tools like groups and fundraisers have helped us grow our digital revenue by more than 300% year-over-year, which - most importantly - empowered us to double our program services over that time. Our partnership with Facebook is truly helping us save more lives faster.”
- Tina Starkey, Stop Soldier Suicide
Draw inspiration from other successful Facebook campaigns.
Additional resources to help you build a thriving community.
Visit our resource center for additional tips and tools to help you manage and grow your community.
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