Hello, this is a really quick episode that I wanted to release because I think it's really important to talk about the changes that are happening with Metas platforms and fundraising aka on Facebook and Instagram. So this is nitty gritty. This episode is not edited formally. This is me throwing something up, so apologies for any weird sounds. Hopefully it's coming through okay on your end, but I thought it was really important to get up ASAP. So what is going on with Meta and their fight? Facebook fundraising updates? If you have not heard anything, I'm going to go over with it, like, if you're like Dana, what are you talking about? This is going to be really important for you. If you are somebody that accepts donations via Facebook or Instagram, it's crucial to know. So I'm going to give you a general overview as to what the updates are, what you need to do. Next. We're going to talk about what's changing with payment processing, donation receipts on Facebook ads which is important to me, obviously recurring donations also very important Facebook fundraisers very popular this time of year and then what's next and worth considering for you. So, basic overview. What's happening is effective October 31st. This October 31st, meta is going to be partnering exclusively with the PayPal giving fund. What is that? They are a registered charity that helps people worldwide support their favorite nonprofits online. They receive and they process donations using a bunch of different platforms eBay, gofundme, twitch to thousands of nonprofits globally. All over the world. So to be able to receive donations, the meta payments or network for good tool is no longer going to be supported. Us, uk, canada and Australia are all going to need to use the PayPal giving fund Now. A few weeks ago, you should have been notified about this update If you are an admin of a nonprofit Facebook page or if you're a financial admin and you are currently on boarded to Meta's fundraising tools. So check your spam, check your trash folders, for a message from Meta. There was an email that went out with complete list of changes and required actions to take. If you're like Dana, I did not see that, all good, all good. What you need to do is on your Facebook page, if you are an admin whoever is the admin there is a new charitable donations terms that you need to accept and then switch to the PayPal giving fund before the October 31st 5pm Pacific time deadline. So, again as an admin, on your page, there's a new charitable donations terms that you must review and accept. If you take action by the deadline, you will be able to continue to use all of the existing features, kind of as they are, without any disruption, so you can still raise money through fundraisers, donation buttons on Facebook and Instagram. People can still create fundraisers and donate to your organization, caviott. I just want to note donors do not have to have a PayPal account to donate and, yes, because there now is going to be a fee which I'll talk about, donors will have the option to cover the processing fee. I'm not exactly sure what that's going to look like. I'm assuming it's going to be a little checkbox we're used to on other donation platforms, but I don't want to note those two things Before. With the processing fees, if we remember, meta was gracious for all these years that 100% of the donation came to the organizations. However, now there is a new payment processing fee structure. For my US listeners it is going to be 1.99% plus 49 cents USD for donations process. In the UK it's 1.4% and GPB of 30 cents. Now, if your organization is based in Australia or Canada, the changes that you will encounter are going to be fairly minimum, as the PayPal giving fund is already the payment partner for Meta's charitable giving tools in those countries. So another note for US and UK listeners go holler at your Australia or Canada buddies and ask them about the experience, because they have already been using it, so this isn't brand new to them. As far as when you will receive the funds, if you are a PayPal giving fund enrolled nonprofit, you will receive funds within 15 to 45 days. If not, if you are an unenrolled nonprofit, the funds will be distributed, with a check, within 90 days. So up to you. If you wanna sign up, I think it would be worthwhile. Going into. The next kind of bucket topic here is donation receipts. So Meta before was providing tax documentation. They will no longer be doing that. The PayPal giving fund is what will provide donors with their official donation receipt that can be used for tax purposes. Meta will only be providing a confirmation to donors which they can find under orders and payments, like letting them know that it was processed, but not any official tax documentation. Okay, one benefit to this happening is they say there's gonna be no more data delays, so there will be no longer than a 48 hour delay on data in Facebook, so you'll be able to pull transaction data from the previous day and even maybe personally, the same day. So that's pretty big. The other thing is Facebook and Instagram fundraiser data will be linked. So, as of September 15th, if you have already completed this transition to the PayPal giving fund, you will be able to see any synced data for fundraisers that have been shared between Facebook and Instagram. Okay, so that's the main thing with donation receipts for on Facebook donation ads. So if you're somebody that's looking to run donation ads, specifically keeping people on Facebook and processing the donation on Facebook ads that were set up before this switch to the PayPal giving fund will stop delivering on October 31st. So whether or not you had set your ad to end on that date, they will end on that date. What you should do is switch over to the new PayPal giving fund and set up a new on Facebook donation ad to avoid any issues there. Okay, so that's on Facebook donation ads. Just if you have any currently running. They will stop on October 31st, unless you've already switched over to the new PayPal giving fund. Note recurring donations. So this is kind of a bummer New recurring donations and existing recurring giving campaigns will no longer be supported. This is already existing. This was as of September 15th, so any existing donations will be paid out through October 31st. They do know that. They know how important this is and they hope to bring this feature back in the future, but what I would say is it's stopped for now. So this is a great opportunity to proactively reach out to any recurring donations you might have had on meta platforms and get them over to your website tool. That way, you are in control, right? We don't own any social media platform, so I would say this is a great chance to reach out and get them to maybe increase that gift and join the email tool that you manage personally for your organization. Next up, facebook fundraisers. So kind of the same thing. Facebook fundraisers will end on October 31st. If they started before September 16th, there is the ability to sorry. Facebook fundraisers will end as an individual ones. Facebook fundraisers will definitely still continue to exist. However, same thing if to switch over to the new tool, I would message your fundraisers. There's a way, if you're an admin, to go in and message your fundraisers and I would proactively do this so they know about it. There's a great video that Julia Campbell and GIF panel did going into more details on all of this. They did a live stream on LinkedIn. I will share that video with you. I will also share some blog posts about this update, but I just wanted to let you know if you weren't aware that this change is happening, so that you can be proactive and make any necessary updates and communication internally and externally to your organizations. Do I think that this is bad? No, not necessarily. I mean, is it a bummer? Yes, of course. I think something we have to realize is these tools social media, facebook, instagram are technically free for us to use and have been free forever. They are a business right and so they're working on changing things internally and that's not in our control, and Zuck is responsible to listen to shareholders and what's happening, and that's just kind of the way we have to think about it, like if any donations that we've received on Facebook is a beautiful thing. It's a great place for people to know about friends that are supporting other organizations and nonprofits, and so Is it bad? I don't think it's bad. I think it's a bummer, but I think we can again, like we're so great at doing these days, the word pivot. We can figure it out together if you have a strong Group of Facebook fundraisers, and that is a way that people fundraise for you. Yeah, let's do it like, let's switch over, let's not lose that momentum on there. If it's not a big deal for you, then it's not a big deal, um, so we take things and we just kind of iterate, right, um, so I will share a bunch of links in the show notes. Show notes for you. What's next? So I think what's kind of interesting is Facebook also, or meta, sorry. Meta announced that they are going to have a meta verified business subscription coming up. They announced a creator one, um, recently, but this one is going to include business business authentication with a verified badge, impersonation protection, access to account support I think this is probably the biggest one that can be helpful to a lot of people and Features to help your business stand out. Um, I think the access to support for help troubleshooting any account issues is probably the number one thing that makes this Verification badge a little blue check mark the most valuable. On Facebook and Instagram, any subscribers of this program will be featured as a verified business, so that will mean you'll appear near or at the top of search results. Recommended verified businesses to follow. If you're on WhatsApp, you receive additional premium features there. So this is going to be a subscription that's available for purchase. That's available for purchase very soon in test country, so it's not available yet, but very soon, and they're saying the subscriptions are going to start at 21 99 USD per month per Facebook page or Instagram account, or you can do 3499 for both. So, again, I think the most important thing about this is the access to Support and help troubleshooting any account issues For verified businesses. So I think that's kind of interesting. The other thing I, years ago, was doing entertainment work and so I was put on Metas internal like entertainment partners list and I just got the email recently about what they're highlighting and what's important to them. And let me just read through these things because I think it's going to be a little bit eye opening. What they're focused on is new AI experiences across their family, new AI experiences across their families of apps and devices. So they're launching 28 like AI's with unique interests and personalities. They introduced new Ray ban Metas smart glasses. So if you remember the like spectacles from snapchat, it's meta's version of this, I'm assuming, way more high quality. Um, and then they have meta quest 3, which is their like mixed reality headset. That's new. So AI, virtual reality, the Ray ban like smart sunglasses. These are the things that the company is spending money and investing into. So food for thought, as you're thinking through interactive experiences, um, how to brainstorm things internally with their organization just food for that. That's what I received in an email recently. So, again, if you have questions on this, feel free to ping me on LinkedIn or Instagram, and I'm happy to share as many more resources that I can with you or answer any questions. So I hope this was helpful, um, and guides you with a little bit about what to do with the upcoming Meta fundraising changes, and with that, I hope you have a wonderful fundraising season. Let's turn some missions into movements. See you next time.