The wrong way to raise funds on Facebook

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26 September 2013

The wrong way to raise funds on Facebook

You've seen those Facebook postings by nonprofits desperately, pitifully saying, "Please stop talking to people you like and pay attention to me!"

If that's your platform on Facebook, you're going nowhere, says John Haydon at The Biggest Facebook Mistake Most Nonprofits Make:

The biggest mistake nonprofits make with Facebook is thinking Facebook is about them, not their community.

Funny thing is, this is also the biggest mistake nonprofits make in email, direct mail, telemarketing, broadcast, events, and every other fundraising medium.

They make their message about themselves. Not about the people they hope will stop what they're doing, pay attention, and give them some money.

The secret of fundraising (and all marketing, and every other type of persuasion) is to make the message about them, not about you.

Posted by Jeff Brooks on 26 September 2013 at 08:12 | Permalink

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The future of fundraising is not about social media, online video, or SEM. It's not about any technology, medium, or technique. It's about donors. If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them. And the future? It's already here. More.

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Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 30 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you'll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com. More.

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