At the end of April, Epilepsy Ireland and every other charitable organisation across Ireland received the shocking news that Facebook & Instagram will discontinue fundraising tools for charities in the European Economic Area (EEA) at the end of June.
Many of our members, volunteers and supporters will be familiar with these fundraisers and how they have become a fixture of the fundraising activities of many charities across Ireland for the last number of years. The platform on Facebook and Instagram allowed our members, supporters, and volunteers to set up a fundraiser on their birthday or special occasion in their life and ask their friends and family to donate to Epilepsy Ireland to mark their big day.
Facebook paid the processing fees, and 100% of funds raised were automatically transferred to Epilepsy Ireland. This made it a seamless and attractive way for our supporters to help our journey towards a society where no person’s life is limited by epilepsy.
The decision from Facebook came totally out of the blue. Facebook did not provide a reason why it made this decision, but it is thought to be linked to an ongoing dispute about European privacy laws. While Facebook has moved organisations outside the EEA to the PayPal Giving Fund to handle charitable donations, this solution is not compliant with privacy laws in Europe. There are currently no indications from Facebook that this decision will be revisited.
This is a significant decision and one that will potentially have a detrimental impact on our fundraising activities. Over the last number years, over €180,000 has been raised via these fundraising platforms – a significant portion of which comes from our supporters setting up birthday fundraisers.
This source of donations is not one that can be readily replaced or replicated – because the fundraising platform on Facebook and Instagram was the only platform of its kind where it encouraged users to set up fundraisers on their birthdays. This will represent a significant loss of income for an organisation of our size.
This is why we are making an appeal for your continued support for Epilepsy Ireland in the weeks and months ahead.
As Facebook and Instagram fundraisers have become such a normal part of our supporter’s fundraising activities over the last number of years, we wanted to remind you of all the other ways that you can continue to support our work. You can find further details about all the ways you can continue to support Epilepsy Ireland by visiting the 'Support Epilepsy Ireland' page on our website or you can support our work by making a vital donation via the button below:
We would like to thank everyone who supported our work via Facebook and Instagram over the years and hope you will continue to support us via new methods in order to help us continue our journey towards a society where no person's life is limited by epilepsy.