Facebook strategy

Social media is ideal for fundraising relationships, but we need to do it right.

When Reliant began training missionaries to raise support in 1989, connection with donors was in-person, lists of people were printed in church directories or the yellow pages, and the way to keep in touch was to send a prayer letter or call on the landline (a term we didn’t use!). We only could have dreamed of a ubiquitous social tool that allowed us to make a custom list — with photos — of our friends, family and acquaintances and allow us to share ministry prayer needs in real-time. In many ways, Facebook is the support-raising missionary's dream tool.

For those of us who aren’t digital natives, let’s talk about some of the good and bad ways to use Facebook, starting with the basics:

You have to be there. Facebook is no longer an “option” for support-based missionaries. Since part of our responsibility includes sharing the story with as many people as possible, we have to be available in the socially acceptable ways to communicate. With more than a 1.5 billion users, Facebook is as ubiquitous as email in 2001 or a home telephone before that. Holding an account on Facebook is a “must.”

Will this change with the times? Likely.  But for now, to be absent from Facebook is like having an unlisted number in the phone book: not appropriate for those who maintain a wide network of relationships.

Know Your Audience. Sure, 1.5 billion people is a lot, but grandma might not be on Facebook, and we know it. In this transitional time where some are more digitally-oriented than others, we have to become careful to flex our methods with who we are trying to reach. “Snail mail” isn’t gone for good — and might still be right for some. But we’d make a mistake if we defaulted to it; for most of the digital generation, paper mail is only good for junk mail and the few bills that haven’t converted to online bill-pay yet. The point is one size doesn’t fit all, so be smart as you adopt these tips.

Facebook through the MTD phases

Namestorming with Facebook. Who to talk to about financial support?  We know that all sorts of friends, family and Christians might want to hear about the ministry God has called us to. Most of us need to start the support-raising process with a minimum list of 200 potential people. Since the average user on Facebook lists more than 300 friends — with many of the digital generation having five to ten times that — Facebook is the natural first place to start. Facebook allows you to page through every name alphabetically or search by things like geographical interest or even church association. Since we want to stick with open-minded brainstorming rules, most of these will move to our MTD list. And don’t forget friends of friends — Facebook will let you browse your spouse’s, best friend’s or dad’s list too.

Cultivating a Relationship. Facebook can be more powerful than an occasional prayer letter for cultivating a relationship with a donor. Its stream-of-consciousness-style sharing mimics the way we live in relationship with nearby friends and family, with both the momentous and the mundane back-to-back. Many of our donors love discovering photos of the kids in the back yard or seeing a request for prayer as we drive toward a gospel appointment with a college student. We know from our MTD training that “people give to people, justified by the cause” — and Facebook allows us to share both who God made us and what God called us to do in the same breath.

Some tips for cultivation on Facebook:

• Invite your current Reliant partners to be your friend if you haven’t already done so.
• Create a “friend list” for your partners. They can’t see it, but this allows you to quickly select all your partners at once for filtering or to send a special message.
• Snap cell-phone pictures of ministry events and upload them.
• Update your status with ministry opportunities and ask for prayer.
• Browse your ministry partner’s profiles. Facebook uses a special algorithm that pays attention to which of your friends you look at and which you ignore.  
• Notice big events in your partners’ lives and use a Facebook comment to pray.
• Update location/travel plans on Facebook — you might find current or potential partners notice your plans and want to meet up with you.
• Remember birthdays: Facebook is great at helping you remember partners' birthdays.
• Post links to sermons or ministry resources you’ve written.

Groups and Pages. The functionality of Facebook can change at a rapid pace, but you can currently create two additional types of pages via Facebook that may help organize donors.

A Group can be created as “Open, Closed, or Secret” and allows you to create a space for your Reliant donors to communicate both to you and each other. Members can chat, upload photos and even read a document you post. Example Group Name: “Johnson Family Ministry Group for Reliant Donors” (Note: This is different than a “friend list,” which you create yourself. These help organize your friends but are only visible to you.)

A Page, on the other hand, allows you to broadcast general information. Anyone can “Like” the page and join. This kind of page is used by celebrities and churches and businesses, but individuals can make one too. Example Page Name:  “Reliant Donors Like the Johnson’s Ministry at University of Nebraska”

Raising New Support on Facebook. Facebook is a natural part of asking for new support, whether in initial MTD or as a ministry veteran. The key is to remember a few principles that we already know.

First Contact for Letter (Instead of the phone). Many of us know that people are busy, and we have to talk to people multiple times before they hear our whole message. The “phone-letter-phone” (distance) strategy does exactly that. The first phone call is simply to introduce a letter — “I’d love to send you some information about our ministry…” The letter is the informational piece, and the follow-up phone call gives us a place to ask for decision. In the process, we get three connections with a potential partner before a decision is made.

Facebook is particularly good at the first part of the “phone-letter phone” strategy, making it “Facebook-letter-phone.”  A private Facebook message “Hey – it’s been a long time! I’m in full-time ministry now, and I was wondering if I could drop you some information about what we’re doing? What’s your best e-mail address?” can be quick and simple.

First Contact for Appointment. For in-person strategies, we may find Facebook a similar help in initiating a get-together. As voice-to-voice cell phone use moves more commonly to an “inner-ring” of intimacy (family and close friends), Facebook becomes a natural “first phone call” to an acquaintance or direct referral. Use a private message with informal tone but clear text (like the one pictured above).

Sharing the Need: Public and Private. We’ve learned in MTD training that direct and clear “asks” for financial support should be done person-to-person and never broadly to a group — “an ask to all is an ask to none.”  Blanket letters or general asks from a open stage are impersonal and unlikely to get a response. The same is true on Facebook. Don’t use the public areas of Facebook to ask for financial support, e.g. post on your Facebook wall, “Will some of you help support us at $50 a month?” This is equivalent to yelling to someone across a crowded room — it is to someone, but doesn’t feel very personal.

Instead, feel free to share a specific need publicly. (Status update: “Please pray as we look for new financial ministry support for Reliant. We have a shortfall of $500 monthly this year.”) But direct asks — “will you consider…” — should be done using private messages only. Most of the time face-to-face or voice-to-voice is still preferable for a specific, personal ask.

Facebook Advanced

Convergence and Integrity. Public and private are merging. A consequence of social media is the convergence of public and private life, as well as the convergence of “multiple public lives.”  We mean that our nephew’s birthday party pictures become something that co-workers see too, and our bantering with close friends can become something we find our parents joining in, whether or not they were invited.

For the missionary of the past, prayer letters sent to donors could be somewhat sanitized of everyday life, often presenting a story of conversion or a teaching on God’s grace but largely avoiding trips to the grocery store and sporting events.  And it was particularly easy to cut out sometimes controversial issues among Christians: baptism practice, alcohol, music in worship. This was rarely done with intentionally deceptive intent, but most missionaries would admit a little bit of fear on sharing an issue that had direct monetary effect: offend a donor, and there goes the funds.

In the “new normal” of a Facebook world, support-based missionaries discover that ministry partners are mixed together with family and friends and those to whom they minister. This makes it more difficult to present a one-sided view to each group. Instead, this forces us to have integrity and present a holistic picture on all our fronts.

This is further reinforced by the maxim that “what is online about you is (increasingly) not from you.” Pictures and items about where we were last night appear online from others who were with us. Remaining absent from social media, or being highly selective on what we choose to share, will slow, but not stop, the progress toward our life being displayed online.

Moral of the story: The Facebook world is a huge opportunity to live with integrity, being the same person of character in all aspects of our lives and seeing our lives themselves as tools of ministry to neighbors and donors alike.

Additional Advanced Tips for Facebook:

• Facebook can automatically track and import posts from a blog or website using an RSS or Atom feed. If you post an online version of your prayer letter on a blog, this may be a good way to have more people see it.
• Short video updates can be very effective as tools of introduction to prospective partners (a direct casual introduction of yourself and your ministry) or as ministry updates for current partners (nothing like a short video of the kids to help people get to know you).
• FMBL markup language can allow your nerdier friends to customize a Page or Group, including things like posting a survey for your partners, etc.