Use Facebook Events To Promote Your School Fundraiser
If your PTO or PTA has a Facebook page, creating an event can help raise awareness about your group’s fundraising efforts.
Whether you manage a group or a page, creating a Facebook event is a simple and free way to promote your upcoming fundraiser. An event page becomes your online invitation where you can post the details of the fundraiser and how people can donate. Follow these tips for setting up and maximizing a Facebook event page—and start getting the word out about your next fundraiser.
Set it up. To create your Facebook event page, log in to Facebook and go to events. Click on “+ create event” in the blue horizontal bar on the left, and follow the step-by-step instructions. The page acts as your “save the date” announcement, so make it as enticing as possible with high-quality images and plenty of information.
Add details like the event name, location, date, description, costs, deadline, contacts, links to online forms or tickets, fundraising goal—everything you want friends (and friends of friends) to know about your event or sale.
Choose the privacy level. You can pick either private or public. If you make your event public, anyone can view it even if they aren’t logged in to Facebook or don’t have an account. And note that once you’ve created your event, you won’t be able to change your privacy setting.
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Invite and share. Click on the invite button to put the page out there to your entire network and encourage everyone to share the event and invite their friends. You can also copy and paste the event URL into a status update or message. Once invited, a potential donor will receive notifications every time you post an update to the event page.
RSVP for notifications. Ask parents to click on “interested” or “going.” Their friends can then see their reply on their timelines, which may prompt them to check out the event. Once people RSVP, they’ll get push notifications when the event is one week away and again when it’s one day away.
Make posts interactive. Encourage people to get in touch if they have questions, and answer them as quickly as possible. That doesn’t mean you have to monitor Facebook constantly, but do check regularly so nothing goes unanswered for more than a day.
Consider cohosts. A nice way to feature your fundraising company or sponsor is to make it a cohost. Cohosts can post their profile information and photos in the event page. Keep in mind that cohosts also have admin privileges, so you’ll want to talk about ground rules before anyone starts posting.
Say thank-you. Your event page will close once your event date has passed, so use your regular group page to thank your volunteers, donors, customers, board members, students, school staff, and anyone else who participated in your fundraiser.
