How does an NGO raise funds on Facebook and how does the money reach its account?

Many organisations look for the donate button inside Facebook and cannot find it. The reason is not a page setting: the fundraising tools of the platform are not available in Romania.

Short answer

Raising money directly inside Facebook is available only to nonprofits based in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Since 1 July 2024, Meta has withdrawn the fundraising tools for all charities in the European Economic Area.
In Romania there is no fundraiser, no button that collects donations inside the app and no payment processed by Facebook.
The solution recommended by Meta itself is the page action button, set to Donate and linked to your own website.
The money is processed by your own payment provider and reaches the account of the organisation under the terms of that contract.

How it works

Facebook does not process donations for organisations in Romania, so the role of the platform ends at the click on the link.
In the page settings you pick the action button, set it to Donate and give it the address of your donation page.
The same link goes into posts, into the page description, into the pinned comment on live broadcasts and into ads.
The payment happens on your website, with your own processor; the fee and the settlement time are the ones in that contract.
Facebook takes no cut of the donation; the only cost on the platform is the advertising budget, if you promote the campaign.
For accounting you keep the settlement report of the processor, the bank statement and your own donor records — Facebook issues no financial document.
Without a donation page of your own, the alternative is a Romanian donation platform, which hosts the campaign and takes the payment.
The tools withdrawn in 2024 include fundraisers, donate buttons that collected money, donation ads and the fundraising API.

Practical examples

An association puts the Donate button on its page, linked to the form on its site; the donor pays by card there.
An appeal launched live carries the donation link in the description and in the pinned comment, because you cannot donate inside the video.
A supporter sees a fundraiser from a British charity and asks why you have none: it works because that charity is registered in the United Kingdom.
For monthly giving, the link points to a subscription page, not to a one-off payment.
At the end of the campaign you compare the amount raised with the ad budget spent, and learn what one donation costs.

Common mistakes

People hunt for the fundraiser tool in the settings and assume the page is unverified — it does not exist for Romania, whatever you verify.
American tutorials are followed, whose steps do not appear in accounts based in Romania.
Donations are requested by transfer in the comments, with no donation page — the money arrives with no donor record.
The page carries no donation link, so all the traffic brought in by posts is lost.
Website receipts are treated as anonymous amounts, although you need identified donors for receipts and for the form 230 campaign.

How 4ong helps

Brings the donations from the website into the donor record, with the amount, the date and the campaign they came from.
Separates one-off donations from recurring ones, so you can see what monthly income to expect.
Shows how many donations each social campaign brought, so you can compare ad cost with amount raised.
Reconciles the receipts reported by the processor with the donations in your records.
Turns the donor list of a campaign into a working list for the form 230 drive.