How to Promote Your Fundraiser with
a Facebook Event

Fundraising is a great way to bring people together to work towards a goal of raising money for the organizations that mean the most to you. As a leader in restaurant fundraising, Chipotle hosts numerous fundraisers a day throughout the country. Each fundraiser that’s hosted at a Chipotle restaurant will receive 25% of event sales from all supporters who mention the fundraiser when purchasing their meal. One thing to prepare for ahead of your fundraiser is that the total event sales is dependent on the number of supporters you have– therefore, you should invite as many people as possible!

For all of our Chipotle fundraiser hosts, we want your event to be a breeze to set up and fun to promote to your friends and supporters. Because of this, we provide all fundraiser hosts a custom online portal with different options and tips on promoting your fundraiser online. A big opportunity that many people don’t take advantage of is making a Facebook Event page for your event.

Importance of Promoting Your Event Through Facebook

Social media is a great way to communicate with supporters near and far while encouraging them to share with their followers, spreading the word farther and faster than any word of mouth interaction. Facebook Events are one of the most useful tools for events like Chipotle Fundraisers because they help you promote your event on social media while serving as a useful page that will provide all event information to those invited. The best part about them is that they’re completely free to create. Additionally, Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world with 1.62 billion users visiting their site daily. Facebook is used by 69% of US adults, and the site is visited daily by three-quarters of all users. This means that Facebook Events are a great marketing tool to use for your upcoming fundraiser because the chances are, majority of your supporters are users.

How to Make a Facebook Fundraising Event

Your fundraiser has been approved and now you’re ready to start promoting it? Great news! Use this guide to help you promote your fundraiser on Facebook, and more specifically, learn how to make a Facebook Event and how to make it great. The first things that you’ll need are the general fundraiser details as well as either your organization’s Facebook account or your personal Facebook account. Once you are logged into the appropriate Facebook account, follow the steps below.

Step 1: Create an Event

After your fundraiser is approved, navigate to your Facebook home page.  On your home page, you will see a category titled “Events” on the left-hand side of your desktop under the Explore column. Click on Events, and then proceed to click on “Create Event” on the left side of the screen. From there, select either “Create Private Event” or “Create Public Event”. Making this Facebook Event public will be visible to all users of Facebook and may gain more supporters for your Chipotle fundraiser. You may choose public or private depending on your organization’s reach and voice.

Step 2: Input Fundraiser Details

When you select the type of event you wish to create, you will then be prompted to input all fundraiser details to set up this event.

 Helpful tips:

• Save your Chipotle fundraiser flyer or other Chipotle-provided fundraiser image to your desktop or mobile device in order to upload it as your event image. This can be used as your Facebook Event cover photo.
• For Event Name, make it clear that it is a Chipotle fundraiser for your organization. We recommend: “Chipotle Fundraiser for [organization name].”
• Location: Know the address of the Chipotle restaurant where the fundraiser is taking place. This will be helpful for your supporters to use and assure they go to the right location.
• Location: If you select “Online Event”, you will be able to put a website for people to visit for more information. We recommend using your Chipotle Fundraiser Social Portal for supporters to have another website to use as reference for fundraiser information and other options for sharing it on social media. (Be sure to share the public facing page, rather than the partner portal that is designed for just the fundraiser organizer!)
• Description: Use this section to tell your supporters why they should come to your fundraiser. Let them know what you are raising money for and how impactful it will be for your organization. This is also a great place to provide fundraiser details i.e., “Tell the cashier you’re there for the fundraiser when purchasing your meal in order for it to be counted towards the fundraiser. “
• Frequency: Make sure to select the correct date your fundraiser is scheduled for as well as the time frame that you’ve chosen.
• Co-hosts: You can include members of the organization who you would like to have access to this event. These users will be allowed to post on the event page and communicate with your guests.
• Keywords: Adding keywords to your event, such as “Fundraiser” or “Kid Friendly” will be useful in recommending this event to people who are interested in that topic.
• Your fundraiser Event page should make clear that 25% of the purchase price is donated to the fundraiser, and that there is a $150 minimum sales requirement in order for the donation to be made.

Step 3: Create

Once you create your Facebook Event, it is officially live and ready to be shared with others!

How to Invite Friends to Your Event

Now that your Facebook Event is live, it’s time to start inviting people and spreading the word! Use the “Invite” button to select your Facebook friends that you would like to invite to support your fundraiser. Once you invite them to your Facebook Event, encourage them to invite their own group of friends to reach even more people.

Encourage friends to RSVP on the Facebook Event page in order to get an accurate estimate of how many supporters will come to the restaurant for your Chipotle Fundraiser. Continue to actively post on the page to remind them when the date is approaching and provide all the details they need to successfully support. The more people that RSVP “yes” and participate in your fundraiser, the more money you will raise! (But RSVP’ing is not required in order to participate).

Bonus: You can now invite people to your Facebook Event by email or text, even if they don’t use Facebook.

Follow Up

After you host a successful fundraiser and you receive your results from the Chipotle Fundraiser team, share this victory with your supporters! Post on your Facebook Event page to let everyone know how much you collectively raised. This is a great way to thank people for their support as well as inform them on how important their participation was. Showing gratitude can be a wonderful way to bring in new fans to your organization and ensure supporters will attend your next fundraiser as well! 

Congratulations for hosting a great Chipotle fundraiser and making it even better by creating a Facebook Event page to promote it! We at Chipotle are so thankful for fundraiser partners like you and encourage you to sign up for another fundraiser for your organization in 6 months.

Questions or comments? Email our team at fundraisers@chipotle.com.