In late August, Meta announced several important changes to Facebook Fundraisers that will take effect just ahead of the 2023 year-end giving season. (Note: Some changes have already taken effect.)
For nonprofits that rely on the platform, you’ll need to take action by October 31 at 5 pm PT to avoid disruptions in your fundraising efforts.
Here’s what you need to know:
Payment Processing, Fees, and Timelines (U.S.-based nonprofits)
If your nonprofit already uses the donate button on Facebook and Instagram, this one’s for you.
As of October 31, Meta will no longer cover third-party nonprofit payment processing fees. Going forward, PayPal Giving Fund (PPGF) will be responsible for processing gifts and disbursing funds.
Unfortunately, PayPal won’t cover the 1.99% + $.0.49 per donation payment processing fee. There will be an option for donors who make gifts through Meta to cover the fees – and if they don’t, it will be deducted from the gift amount – meaning nonprofits will potentially see a 2% revenue drop for gifts that came through from Meta. Please note: Donors don’t have to have a PayPal account or connect their PayPal accounts to Facebook and Instagram to make gifts to make gifts on those platforms.
For those nonprofits already enrolled with PPGF, your funds will be released within 15-45 days. Nonprofits not enrolled with PPGF can expect fund distribution via check within 90 days. You can learn more about enrolling with PPGF here.
Facebook and Instagram Fundraisers
Nonprofits that have enabled peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraisers on Facebook and Instagram should also expect to see changes. If your nonprofit’s supporters are running any active P2P campaigns on either channel that were created before September 16, you’ll need to ensure that you make the switch to PPGF before October 31 – otherwise, they’ll automatically be disabled. (For nonprofits that accept the new terms, any existing Facebook and Instagram Fundraisers that were created after September 15 will continue past October 31.)
Changes to Recurring Giving
If your nonprofit leveraged the option to give monthly on Facebook, you likely already know that recurring donations are no longer supported as of September 15, 2023. As we approach the year-end giving season, this change is an especially unfortunate departure from Meta’s approach in 2022, when it announced that it would match 100% of all recurring gifts after the second monthly donation.
Existing recurring donations will continue to be paid through October 31. After that, the option to ask for recurring gifts will be disabled.
Reporting and Receipts
It’s not all bad news when it comes to transaction reporting. Currently, any transaction reports you pull from Meta don’t account for any gifts that came through within the last (approximately) 48 hours. Moving forward, Meta promises that nonprofits will be able to pull reports that include the previous day (and possibly even early same-day data).
Once registered with PPGF, you can access your donation activity reports provided by PPGF. Meta’s Nonprofit Manager will continue to offer a limited transaction report. Tax documentation, however, will not be issued by Meta any longer.
Changes to Donation Receipts
Meta will no longer provide official donation receipts. The responsibility now lies with PPGF. Donors will receive confirmations of their donations from Meta, which can be accessed under ‘Orders and Payments’ in their settings.
Next steps
These changes aren’t great news for nonprofits, especially before the year-end giving season and an industry-wide 4% drop in online giving in 2022. But to help ensure a smooth transition, we’ve put together some simple next steps to help you avoid disruption.
- Accept the new terms and conditions and switch over to (or sign up with) PayPal Giving Fund: If you haven’t already, register your organization with the PayPal Giving Fund and accept the updated Meta Donation Terms. If your nonprofit is already using Meta’s fundraising tools, you should have received a notice about the change through your organization’s Facebook admin dashboard.)
While the deadline to do this is October 31, we don’t know what that process looks like or how long it will take. So we recommend doing that in advance of the deadline if possible. If you don’t, you’ll lose access to Meta’s fundraising tools.
- Configure your Meta page to accept donations through PPFG and update any existing or ongoing Meta fundraising campaigns: To continue to receive gifts, make sure your donation settings and payment methods are updated to PPGF. And if your organization has any active fundraising campaign that launched before September 16, remember that you’ll need to switch over before October 31 to keep them running.
- Claim any outstanding funds and monitor your donations. If your nonprofit has any outstanding funds that have not yet been disbursed, you should reach out to PPG to claim and receive them. And from November 1 onward, keep an eye on your donations on both Meta and PayPal’s platforms. This way, you can address and resolve any discrepancies (in data reporting, any incorrect processing fee charges, changes to fundraisers, etc.) early on.
- Communicate with your nonprofit’s finance, data, and reporting staff: Let your team know about these changes and key dates in the process. As with any migration, there might be hiccups or short-term outages. It’s best to prepare your nonprofit by keeping everyone informed.
The year-end giving season is practically here. It’s already a busy and stressful time, so don’t delay taking action (and possibly adding more stress to the pile). If you have any questions, feel free to reach out – we’re here to help!
