Most people use Facebook to share cute pictures of their pets or complain about the weather, but it’s becoming a more popular fundraising platform as well, according to one study.
Peer-to-peer campaigns, or crowdfunding efforts, to raise money benefitted from sharing the campaign on Facebook, according to Artez Interactive, a fundraising agency based in Toronto and Lexington, Mass. The firm looked at personal efforts to raise money for doing runs, walks, rides, climbs, and other challenges in order to raise money for charity. But the lessons can be applied to entrepreneurs who are using crowdfunding platforms like Indiegogo to raise money for a business venture.
Campaigns that allowed Facebook registration raised more money than those that did not. (Graphic: Artez Interactive)
With 86 per cent of Canadians registered for Facebook, according to Ipsos Reid, it may be no surprise Facebook is the top source of referral traffic to fundraising pages and donation forms in North America. Facebook accounts for 14 per cent of all traffic driven to those pages, Artez says.
In a study that looked at 645,400 donations in 135 crowdfunding campaigns across North America in 2012, between 15 and 18 per cent of donations were referred from Facebook. But those donations were likely to be less generous than non-Facebook referred donations. The average donation referred by Facebook was $45, while others averaged $67.
There are other positive impacts Facebook can have on a crowdfunding campaign that Artez details in a free whitepaper (registration required). The data shows that social networking may become viewed as a more important fundraising resource for entrepreneurs, alongside venture capital and government funding.