3 Charitable Companies That Used Facebook to Amplify Their Brand Message

The global NGOs and charitable organizations market reached a value of nearly $255,705.9 million in 2019, having increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4% since 2015. However, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in negative growth of 0.9%.

But as the impact of COVID-19 continues to lessen, the industry is once again expected to recover and reach $294,313.5 million in 2023. and $411,195.4 million in 2030.

However, the presence of hundreds and thousands of charitable organizations makes it imperative for brands to come up with unique marketing ideas to make the most of marketing avenues available to them, similar to what these three charitable companies did with their Facebook campaigns.

1. Goodera

Goodera is an employee volunteering, CSR, and ESG management company that enables corporations, foundations, governments, non-profits, and employees across 100+ countries.

Their Objectives

Goodera was looking for a communication channel that could help it scale up its activity among existing volunteers and acquire new volunteers passionate about making a social impact.

Approach & Solution

Goodera teamed up with telecom company Infobip to incorporate the Facebook-enabled WhatsApp Business API into its platform and used a digital assistant powered by WhatsApp to engage with its volunteers. Volunteers could initiate a WhatsApp communication by simply sending “Hi” to the official WhatsApp number or by scanning Goodera’s QR codes from posters and signage at various corporate offices.

WhatsApp’s click-to-chat feature automatically opened a conversation with Goodera and allowed people to register for upcoming volunteer opportunities by sending the first message. Volunteers also had the option of opting into WhatsApp notifications and event communication while onboarding, during event registration, or by clicking a checkbox on their profile page labeled “Notify me on WhatsApp”.

Volunteers could also exchange images and videos of volunteering activities and share important details like location and contact information with event organizers.

The Result

Goodera’s Facebook-cum-WhatsApp campaign was a major success and helped it serve 40,000 volunteers across 13,000 events in 27 Indian states. While there was a 35% increase in overall volunteering hours towards social causes, the open rates for WhatsApp messages compared to email also rose 2.8X higher.

2. Kitabisa

Kitabisa is an online funding platform in Indonesia founded in 2013 that helps people in dire medical situations and social welfare and NGOs connect with people who can donate to their cause.

Their Objectives

Kitabisa wanted to gauge the efficacy of its campaigns across different Facebook platforms to understand how they could optimize their performance, increase the number of donations, and help more people.

Approach & Solution

Kitabisa ran campaigns of website purchase ads, which use data from the Facebook pixel to reach people who were most likely to purchase products or services from a business. To find out whether its ads could also increase donation conversions, Kitabisa conducted a two-cell conversion lift study that compared the performance of Kitabisa’s business-as-usual-campaign with the performance of the campaign that added measurement from the Facebook Conversions API.

While the first cell measured the campaign on Facebook and Instagram with both Facebook Conversions API and the pixel, capturing verified transactions, while the second cell tracked the usual campaign, capturing general website conversion events.

The Result

The Facebook campaign performed quite well for Kitabisa and led to 1.4X higher incremental conversions at a 27% lower cost per incremental conversion. Also, the cost per add-to-cart action was 9% lower.

3. The Honu Movement

Based in the Philippines, The Honu Movement creates sustainable jobs for the poorest in society by paying them to collect plastic waste before recycling it into clothing and accessories.

Their Objectives

The Honu Movement sought to drive awareness and consideration and then boost sales.

Approach & Solution

The Honu Movement used different ad types and formats at each stage of the customer journey over a 9-month period. Guided by Sebastian Vogg of the online marketing company VOGGSMEDIA, it first identified the right audiences for its campaign activity, focusing on Germany and using lookalike audiences of its best existing customers, as well as interest-based audiences aligned with relevant themes, like sustainability and veganism.

The Honu movement then used existing videos of its work in the Philippines, along with images of people wearing its branded shirts, to prepare ad creative for a variety of ad types and formats. The organization also used polls in video ads to encourage people to engage more deeply and interact with the cause.

The Result

The Facebook campaign performed outstandingly well for the Honu Movement, leading to 8,400 sales and 1.8X overall return on ad spend from conversion campaigns. Also, it resulted in a 2.2X return on ad spend in the best 30-day period.

Wrapping Up

As the world’s biggest marketing platform, Facebook can help brands gain exposure to millions of people. Moreover, it owns multiple platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram, thereby giving marketers more options to get their brand out in front of people through a range of marketing channels. However, benefiting from Facebook’s massive marketing potential requires a solid marketing strategy backed by awesome content.