I want to talk about Facebook, which has been in the news lately for a couple things relevant to nonprofits:
- There’s a growing movement for businesses and organizations to boycott Facebook, especially Facebook ads, because of the hostile and hateful environment Facebook has created for Black people. Some are boycotting through the month of July, others (more boldly) for the rest of the year. The coalition driving this effort has guidelines for who should participate and how.
- Less important, but still noteworthy, Facebook will now give users an opportunity to opt out of seeing political ads—which includes ads from most nonprofits, because Facebook doesn’t distinguish between social issues and political campaigns.
As a consultant, I feel like I ought to have a clear recommendation for how to deal with Facebook, but this is murky territory, and I can’t make a clear list of do’s and don’ts. But I do have lot of thoughts on the increasingly fraught quagmire that is the Facebook nonprofit landscape.
Facebook is making it harder and harder for nonprofits to reach audiences organically. Facebook is also putting up hurdles to reaching audiences through ads. Facebook is still rife with barely-policed misinformation. And despite all that, Facebook is still the best, and sometimes the only, way for us to reach people.
Should your nonprofit join the Facebook boycott?
This is a very individual decision. The Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) announced last week via email that they’re going all-in on the boycott, but noted that they’re in the fortunate position of being able to do so without suffering too much from it. The Stop Hate for Profit coalition notes that, while they’re encouraging companies to boycott:
“We are specifically asking businesses to pause advertising. Many nonprofits rely on paid ads on Facebook to get their message out, especially as Facebook has increasingly limited the ability of organizations to organically reach audiences. Without paying, nonprofits fighting for the public interest would get drowned out by paid corporate advertisements. Some nonprofits may choose to join the pause, while others may choose to continue spending.”
Essentially, Facebook has backed nonprofits into a corner where we can’t live with them and can’t live without them. For many orgs, including racial justice orgs, boycotting would hurt their causes more than it hurts Facebook. It’s a great way for large advertisers to support the movement; for nonprofits, somewhat less so.
Specifically for the purpose of supporting the movement for Black lives, there are many meaningful actions nonprofits can take, whether they boycott advertising or not. You can and should make strong statements of support, lift up Black voices, support Black-led partner organizations, and use your platforms and audience to support the movement’s demands. I’ve been thinking about how to do this better, personally and professionally, and I hope you are, too. For those of us outside of racial justice organizations, we need to be having conversations about this—even (especially) when those conversations are hard.
The political ads quagmire
Even if we don’t boycott, running political ads on Facebook is only going to get more crowded and more complicated. I doubt that the new opt-out option for political ads will do much damage—it’s not clear how many people will bother finding and activating this option, and Facebook’s audience is so huge that losing even a few percent won’t really matter—but this change is indicative of how Facebook is putting up more and more barriers to nonprofit ads.
It is a problem that Facebook lumps together all political and social causes into the same strict ad policies. I’ve written about this before, when Twitter banned political ads. Something clearly needs to be done about the influence of outside ads on elections, but 1) nonprofits are materially different than political campaigns, and 2) stricter advertising policies can only do so much when misinformation runs rampant, both organically and from approved advertisers.
And these political ad rules are hurting nonprofits. They place barriers to getting set up and responding nimbly. Every digital advertiser I know has wrestled with getting ads approved with that “political or social issues” box checked, and political ads can’t run in many of the placements that non-political ads can. A nonprofit fighting climate change, for example, is subject to massive constraints that the fossil fuels industry is not, and that’s not okay.
What can we do instead of Facebook?
Here’s the thing: nonprofits are already at a disadvantage against deep-pocketed corporations when trying to spread our message and organize online. If we withdraw from Facebook, we’re at an even bigger disadvantage.
I would love to tell all my clients to stop advertising on Facebook, forever, but there just isn’t a good alternative:
- Twitter has banned political ads entirely, including most nonprofit issues.
- Search ads are very effective for certain purposes, but ineffective for others—and it’s nearly impossible for small nonprofits with little brand recognition to fundraise effectively with search ads.
- LinkedIn has a lot of potential for certain audiences, but only certain ones, and it doesn’t scale up like Facebook does.
- Banner ads haven’t been effective for ages, and video ads are much better for brand recognition than they are for driving conversions.
We ultimately need new options, but right now Facebook is the best way to reach a lot of people on a limited budget. My main practical suggestion here would be not to put all your eggs in the Facebook basket, or any one basket. Experiment with other platforms and see what mix works for you. But for many orgs, I suspect Facebook will continue to be the best of a limited set of options.
Is your org joining the Facebook boycott or otherwise pulling back from Facebook? I’d love to hear about what’s working for you—or what you’re trying even if it’s not working.