Review: GivePanel, the Facebook Fundraising power tool

Fundraising on social media is growing at pace – more than seven million people in the UK have donated to a charity through a Facebook fundraiser since the feature’s launch in 2017. 

 

• What is GivePanel?
• How much does it cost?
• What are the benefits?
• The bottom line
• Get a free trial

 

With more than 51 million people using Facebook in the UK – more than on any other social media – Facebook Fundraising offers a prime opportunity for charities looking to engage more fundraisers, due to its ease of use and the increasing amount of people living and working online. 

 

Birthday fundraisers and challenge events on Facebook, such as the Walk 62 Miles in March challenge from Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, have proved to be quite the success amid the move towards virtual and hybrid fundraising in recent years.

 

But Facebook Fundraising expert GivePanel assures us they are not a fad. More than $200 million has been raised for charities through Facebook challenges in 2020 – and this is just the beginning. Furthermore, nearly nine in ten (88%) people who have given through Facebook’s fundraising tools said they would do so again.  

 

The problem, however, is how you keep those fundraisers engaged from the moment they join you to the next time they are able to donate. Charities know how important stewardship is when it comes to supporters. How they communicate with their audiences when they are considering donating has an impact on whether they do so or, even better, do so again in the future.  

 

Indeed, research shows that a lack of a thank you is the top reason why donors lapse, yet one in six donors said they did not recall receiving a meaningful thank you for their donation in the first six months of 2021. The simple act of a thank you can boost retention rates and keep fundraisers onside for the future. 

 

Only, on Facebook, it’s not that simple. GDPR compliance means that it is not always clear who charities can contact directly, while the wealth of data that the social media site supplies isn’t always clear about what you need and what you don’t.  

 

Sorting through this data and determining more about your fundraisers so you can effectively personalise communications with them, and in turn raise more money, is what GivePanel exists to do. The social fundraising power tool helps charities to crack fundraising on Facebook by giving them a way to thank all fundraisers, collect contact details, track results, and drive more fundraisers through the platform – all with permission from your supporters.

 

 

What is GivePanel? 

 

GivePanel describes itself as “the power tool to supercharge your Facebook fundraising”. Its many features include the ability to capture supporter contact details, synchronise with your existing Facebook data, monitor overall performance of your social fundraising and A/B test engagement strategies. 

 

The tool allows charities to thank 100% of their Facebook fundraisers, segment audiences into specific groups, and tailor email journeys to them accordingly. Givepanel also offers event forms that convert 93% of the people who open it, smart reporting, and custom templates for fundraiser pages which appear automatically once the form is completed with a charity’s chosen cover photo, title and date of the event, and fundraising target. 

 

Key features include:  

• Analytics dashboard to monitor performance 
• Labelling new fundraisers so you can see who you’re bringing on board
• Custom labels for people you’ve contacted that can be changed depending on response
• Message templates to save time thanking fundraisers
• Integrated, GDPR-compliant data capture forms
• Automatic Facebook challenge registration for Facebook groups
• Donate button tracker to see who is using one and who isn’t
• Instagram fundraiser tracking
• Report builder that can be imported into CRM databases
• Custom Facebook Fundraisers with presets so fundraisers don’t have to edit every event themselves

 

 

Cost 

 

GivePanel offers a tiered approach to its pricing, depending on an organisation’s needs, whether they are looking to manage Facebook Fundraising more easily or whether they require a hands-on consultation to guide their social fundraising strategy.  
 
Annual licences for GivePanel start at £49/month with no additional costs and 0% payment processing fees through Facebook. For smaller charities, GivePanel says this works out at between 1 and 2% of Facebook income. Pricing scales alongside organisation size so even the larger charities, receiving more in donations, will see a good return on investment, with some organisations paying as little as 0.3% of their income. 

 

Through the Charity Digital Exchange, charities can also access a discount on GivePanel software, giving them 14 months for the price of 12.

 

 

Benefits 

 

One of the best things about Facebook Fundraising is that it allows people to donate directly to their chosen charity without having to go to a third-party website. GivePanel doesn’t change that. It simply aids charities in stewarding their fundraisers, engaging with them and thanking them for their support faster, and subsequently building up their fundraising data.  

 

Ultimately, it helps Facebook become like any other fundraising platform, with all the same information on revenue, supporters, and event registrations.

 

 

More virtual events 

 

Virtual challenge events have become all the rage over the last couple of years, GivePanel helps charities manage these events, registering people who join Facebook groups and matching them directly with the charity they’re supporting. More than 9 out of 10 Facebook Group Challenge fundraisers who start a GivePanel registration form complete it. 

 

GivePanel’s analytics dashboard also helps charities dive into specific events to see which ones performed better so they can adapt their fundraisers for the future depending on what worked well for each.

 

 

More data 

 

GivePanel provides charities with data that they cannot access through Facebook itself. Its dashboard features information the average amount raised per fundraiser, the total raised, and the average per donation. 

 

GivePanel shows organisations the number of people who have opted into marketing communications, how many people are registered for an event, and how many of those are actively fundraising for you. 

 

GivePanel now automatically syncs with Facebook so charities no longer have to download hefty data reports from the social media site to access it on the dashboard. Additionally, it allows charities to see who has joined their Facebook fundraising team since they last looked and target them with a personalised message on Facebook, welcoming them or thanking them for their support.  

 

Charities can keep track of these correspondences and capture extra data by asking fundraisers to fill in an online form, complete with permissions for marketing further down the line. GivePanel says that 35% of fundraisers choose to fill in this form, rising to more than 80% among your top givers, providing organisations with more details that they can use to inform how they interact with their supporters.

 

 

More funds 

 

GivePanel’s research shows that, even with just a thank you message from the charity they’re supporting, fundraisers on Facebook can raise around 20% more than they would without. 

 

The average Facebook Challenge on GivePanel raises more than £250,000 and charities using Facebook Fundraising have already seen great success with GivePanel. For example, Versus Arthritis raised more than £135,000 as a result of their first virtual challenge event, with a media spend of only £1,900 - 1% of what was eventually raised.

 

 

The bottom line 

 

GivePanel is a great tool for charities to optimise their Facebook fundraising - but it only works on Facebook. If your donors and supporters are overwhelmingly on Facebook, GivePanel looks like a good investment to help you manage how you engage with them. However, if your supporters aren’t there, or if your Facebook Fundraising tools are not yet turned on*, it may be a miss for now.  

 

*(You should probably turn it on, though!)