Soapbox Engage Blog

Everyone is on Facebook these days. Your donors are on Facebook; your boss is on Facebook; some people’s dogs have more followers than most humans at this point!

So, as the year draws to a close and you’re looking for a great way to turn your year-end fundraising gala into a virtual event, Facebook Live is the place to go! Today we’re back with 6 tips to make your Facebook Live virtual event stand out from the pack.

Table of Contents

• Stretch your storytelling muscles
• Plan ahead
• Help the Facebook algorithm
• Rehearse before going live
• Use action and interaction
• Promote your event

What is Facebook Live?

Launched in April 2016, Facebook Live is the in-house streaming option from Facebook itself. With the click of a button, users can share stories with friends and followers. Viewers can react, comment, and even share the live video on their own pages as well. Then, once the broadcast is over, Facebook turns your live video into a standard replayable video that can be pinned to your page or shared with others.

Many nonprofits were using Facebook Live to engage with donors long before the pandemic. Savvy development professionals live-streamed everything from speakers and events to their nonprofit at work. Habitat for Humanity chapters shared progress updates on home builds with Facebook Live. Animal adoption agencies broadcasted live videos of pets looking for their “furrever homes.”

Now that we’re living in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, fundraisers and nonprofits are leaning even more heavily on Facebook Live to connect with donors and hold safe, virtual fundraising events.

Benefits of Facebook Live for fundraising

Capitalize on FOMO: Facebook reports 3 times higher viewer participation on live videos versus replays, and they’ve tuned their algorithm to increase the visibility of live videos on users’ feeds. This means the platform is actually working with you to increase the visibility of your live event!

Create that Feel Good Connection: As we mentioned before, everybody’s on Facebook. With that level of accessibility, you can widely reach your donors and establish them as the heroes of your cause. You can also draw in new, potential donors and volunteers!

Two-Button Process: Going live is as easy as sharing a post on your Facebook page. Click “Live Video”, write a small description, and hit “Go Live”! You can go live from a computer with a webcam or a mobile phone and the installed Facebook App. No IT degree is required!

6 Tips to Make Your Nonprofit Stand Out on Facebook Live

Because Facebook Live is so easy (and free), videos abound! It’s important to do the little things to help your video stand out from the competition and present your organization as professional and trustworthy. Here are six easy tips, tricks, and industry best-practices that will help your video shine!

1) Stretch your storytelling muscles with Facebook Live fundraising

Your Facebook friends and followers want a good story and you can give it to them! When you’re brainstorming your agenda, ask, “What’s our mission? How does it help people? Why is it important to me or my supporters?”

Now take those inspiring answers and find unique ways to display that both visually and verbally. What environments can visually show the importance of your mission, or the success of your mission? Who can you show that inspires viewers to support your cause?

To offer two examples, many animal shelters tug on their supporters' heartstrings by showing their new guests running around and having a blast. And a children’s cancer research center recently decided to interview the children who kicked cancer to the curb. Talk about a powerful message!

2) Plan ahead to knock ‘em flat

What sets Facebook Live apart from most venues is the vulnerability and openness of broadcasters. Viewers want to see real, organic interactions, spontaneity, and a smooth flow. As with all event planning, a good brainstorming session will point you and your team in the best direction. When you’re thinking about an agenda, plan your content so you have a general idea of what’s going to happen, but try to avoid appearing scripted as much as possible.

The only places you should think of what you’re going to say is your introduction and sign off. You want to give a warm, excited greeting to viewers that captures and keeps their engagement.

As for sign-offs, include a call to action such as encouraging your viewers to donate to your organization, share the video, and comment on the video feed to encourage relevant discussion. Then when you’re finished, plan a unique closing line (such as “thanks for watching, now go save the world!”). This will give your viewers a satisfying conclusion to your live stream.

3) Help the Facebook algorithm help you by advertising your upcoming event

Help the algorithm out and tell all your friends and followers about your upcoming event. Inform them a few weeks ahead by creating a Facebook Events page and inviting them to it. Then, create a regular reminder to post every few days on your organization’s page to encourage people to tune in to your future live-stream.

Don’t forget to notify your donors through your usual contact methods, too. Use Soapbox Engage’s Events App to send automated emails and calendar reminders to your supporters to log in when you go live. Then, cross-post on Instagram and Twitter to remind your followers of the upcoming live stream. Most important, don’t forget to include your broadcast date and time!

4) Rehearse before going live

Few people know this, but you can do a live rehearsal with the privacy setting “only me”, allowing you to run through the mic and video functionality, setting and camera angles that suit you best, and shake off those camera jitters. Just remember to double-check when you’re ready to stream that you turn the privacy setting back to “public”!

5) Use action and interaction to engage your supporters

Encouraging action and interaction on your video as often as you can will make your viewers feel engaged and inspired. You can do this without it feeling forced by asking questions or

encouraging viewers to leave comments about specific topics in the chat pane. If you can, have a staff member moderate the chat and field questions to you as they come in. They can even chat back to encourage healthy and supportive discussion and to respond to some of the simpler questions directly.

You want your viewers to feel like the heroes of your cause through their interaction, so when you do interact with viewers, address your commenters by name and thank them for their comments.

Finally, in the video description box, you should give more details about your organization for your viewers. Make sure you include a headline that will grab your followers’ attention as this description will be used as the status post for your live video’s replay after you’re done. Then add your main website and giving pages, powered by the Soapbox Engage Donations app.

6) One event to promote them all

Once your stream is done, you’ll be able to download and edit the entire live video in the software of your choosing. This is a fabulous opportunity to take impactful moments that happened during your live stream and share them as the face of your organization.

Select and clip 60-second impactful moments and share them on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and Instagram (which requires 60 seconds or less) to increase the visibility of your organization.

Think of moments that would move your followers: a powerful quote, a heartwarming interaction, a sweet gesture. These are all things that can convey your message in a short, bite-sized package to your supporters.

You can also take that event video and pin it to your organization’s Facebook page so your followers can easily find and share the story you told with others. This ensures every visitor to your page will see the event immediately, and have a chance to catch the story, even if they missed out on the live experience.

These are our six tips to maximize your next Facebook Live virtual event or gala. Using Facebook Live to connect with your supporters is an outstanding way to take advantage of a nearly fool-proof process and the vast network of current and potential contacts. With these tips, you’ll go from accidental techie to an online hero, and we’re sure your next event will be a viral hit!

Here are three more resources to help you boost your online fundraising presence.

• 9 Steps to Plan and Host A Virtual Fundraiser: If you’re like most nonprofits and fundraisers, you’re trying to figure out how to transition most or all of your year-end fundraising to virtual events, due to COVID-19. This blog offers a practical guide and some industry best practices to help you put together some creative, engaging, and effective virtual fundraising events!
• 40+ Virtual Fundraising Ideas: Whether you’re thinking about year-end giving or looking for some creative ways to spice up your mid-year fundraising, this blog is packed with some of the best tried-and-tested virtual fundraising ideas to help you connect with current and potential donors, cast vision for your cause, and raise more money!
• 8 Website Updates to Boost Your Giving Tuesday Campaign: No matter what kind of virtual event you’re planning, it’s essential to have a well-designed website with the right features to help your donors learn about your organization and support your cause. This blog is packed with some easy upgrades you can make to your website that will make a big impact on your year-end fundraising efforts!