Facebook provides value for Non-profits

One of my passions in life is assisting small groups to get organized. Through my church, I provide support, mentorship and inspiration to 150+ orphaned teenage boys in Ethiopia. I am always trying to find opportunities to provide marketing and technology support such as the free offerings from Salesforce and Google. Facebook has also joined this party by providing some great tools for nonprofit organizations to better leverage their activities, fundraising and communications.

The Facebook resource center includes educational materials, tutorials and a downloadable non-profit guide geared toward raising awareness and funds for causes specifically through the social network. Learn more by reading through the Quick Tips and the Non Profits Guide to learn how to extend Facebook to promote and build community within your organization’s supporters.

More information on Facebook options available to your organization:

Pages
Create a Page for your cause or organization to start engaging with supporters. People will be able to receive and respond to content from your Page by clicking the Like button. Your organization’s Page content is distributed virally when your audience responds to or shares it.

Applications
Add Applications to your Page to display additional content and encourage audience participation in a customized, social setting. You can find relevant applications like Causesin the App Directory, and custom applications can be built by any developer who follows Facebook’s Developer Policy

Events
Create Events on your Page to share relevant conferences, fundraisers, and speaking events with supporters. Upon creating an event, a News Feed story with event info will post to your Page, and your audience can RSVP from your Page’s Events tab or news feed story. You can increase RSVPs by posting status updates leading up to the Event, emailing lists, and linking from your site.

Groups
Create a Group to enable more opportunities for supporters to engage and organize – create polls, group chat, and shared docs. You can control who sees your group, and keep members informed with Group notifications and shared email addresses.

Social Plugins
Social Plugins enable your supporters to connect with their Facebook friends without leaving your website, and they increase audience engagement by providing personalized content based on friends’ activity on your site, such as liked videos, shared stories, and reviewed movies. They also drive increased referral traffic to your site through a user’s friends.