How do you measure success of the Facebook Fundraising feature?

Step1: Describe the feature

FB fundraiser is a feature for people or institutions in need of funds for a specific purpose to raise it on FB platform. Given FB's vast reach across masses, people raising funds can not only raise from the local, but global audiences as well.

The feature is available in limited countries at the moment. Fundraisers can setup a drive, list details on why they are raising, limits as well as the accounts where they would receive these funds. Donators can discover these fundraisers across various categories, learn about each, see goal progress, donate to a fund and share across their network as well.

Step2: Define a goal

There are 2 personas here in the scope

1) fundraisers

2) donaters

I believe FB would have launched this feature for fundraisers to solve their pain point of meeting their funding requirements quickly as there are many platforms out there, but they don't do a good job in terms of raising funds. By solving this problem, FB benefits, as well as engagement on the platform, would improve. I think FB is not charging any commission from funds raised so I would rule out monetization as a goal for FB from this feature.

So, I would focus on fundraisers' goals to measure the success of this feature.

Moreover, I believe this feature is somewhere between adoption and growth curve in it's maturity. So, as a PM, I would be interested in tracking user acquisition as well as engagement.

Step3: List actions

Here's the list of actions a user (fundraiser) can take on this feature

1)Create fund with details

2)Share in the network

3)Track goal progress

4)Compliment the donators with a message

Step4: List metrics

Scale

1) No. of campaigns created

9) Avg. amount of funds asked per campaign

2) Impressions per campaign

Participation

3) No. of campaigns with at least one donation done

5) No. of campaigns with 100% goal accomplishment

8) Avg. no. of donators per campaign

10) Avg. amount donated

Speed

6) Avg. time to reach 50%

7) Avg. time to reach 100%

Step5:Prioritize

User goal

o) % campaigns reaching 100%

o) Avg. time to reach 100%

FB goal

o)  No. of campaigns created

o) No. of impressions./campaign

All other metrics are secondary or tertiary and can be used to further identify areas and priorities of improvement.

Product description:

Fundraisers is a feature that allows any FB user to raise money for a cause they believe in. Any FB user can create a fundraiser,  they can select a non profit org,  and set a target of the amount of fund they want to raise. Once they do that, then their friends can see these and they can contribute to the fund directly in facebook. They can choose an amount of donation, do the payment and get a receipt of donation for tax purposes.  There are 2 types fundraisers: Personal (for a person) or for a NonProfit org.  The most popular fundraisers I have seen are the ones people create on their Birthdays. 

Connection to FB mission: 

At a high level, this fits into FB’s mission of connecting people in meaningful ways by allowing people to let their friends know about a cause they believe in, and getting their help to raise money. It allows people to help each other, which is a very meaningful connection and builds community. 

Product Lifecycle: 

​​​​This product has been around for at least 2-3 years so I would say it's in it's Growth Stage. In this stage, the product outcome we would want is "user engagement - I”ll focus on metrics that indicate users are engaging with the product. 

User Journey:

There are 2 types of users. 1) person creating the fundraiser  2) person donating or contributing to the fundraiser

• Fundraiser creator journey
• • Create a fundraiser 
  • Search for a non profit or pick personal fundraisers
  • Set a goal
  • Describe to friends why it’s important to me
  • share with friends 
  • see the donations and thank my friends
  • once fundraising period is over,

• Fundraisor contributor

  • see the fundraising goals of my friends
  • donate 
  • get a tax receipt
  • see appreciation from my friend
  • see in my feed (multiple days)

Problems we are solving for users:

For Creator we problems we are trying to solve are :

• Easy and quick way to raise money for the causes I believe in
• easy to setup - don’t meed to deal with a different login, or adding my friends, etc etc. it’s all in there for me
• choice of many organizations to donate to
• i don’t have to deal with money transactions
• sharing is automatic and it is also repeated so people see it many times - i don’t have to send reminders, etc. (that’s probably the most painful part for a user, to constantly remind people to donate)

For Contributor we problems we are trying to solve are 

• Easy and quick way to help my friends to support the causes they believe in
• easy to contribute money, automated payment and receipt. 

Define Primary metric (north star metric)

Primary metric help us understand: is the product solving the user problem and are they getting VALUE?

Primary Metric ideas for Creator:  

• fraction of contributors to a fund (out of those who have seen it)
• time it takes to reach the fund goal
• % of fund goal reached

I picked the first one (fraction of contributors to a fund) as the Primary Metric here, because it is its an indicator of user VALUE. We identified that one of the biggest problems the product is solving for is getting contributors to donate to the fund. If this metric grows, that means that contributors will get value of the product and will be engaged because it will meet their core need.  This metric by itself doesn’t tell if total number of new Fundraisers is growing. and I’ll talk about these additional metrics in a minute. But i think satisfies the purpose of telling us if the product is solving the user problem and having an impact on the business.

Primary Metric ideas for for Contributor: 

• Avg time it takes to contribute 

Since increasing engagement is very important at this stage of the product, then all things being equal, I would like to prioritize the metrics that are for user type Creator

User Funnel and Metrics for each stage

Prioritize metrics

The metrics in bold in the table above would be the high priority metrics I would chose for each stage. 

Criticize the metrics

Of course, these metrics i have prioritized  aren’t perfect and may not give us the full picture. For example I made an assumption that the total money raised is not a very big value driver for the creator and # of people contributing is more imprtant than the amount. This is something that I would validate by user discovery workshops or surveys. If it is indeed a factor  for a creator to come back (as a repeat user), I would consider making it a top priority metric

Clarify

Let's understand what is FB Fundraiser?  It allows users to raise funds for a cause, either non-profit or friends in need for medical help.

Goals

Given FB's mission of bringing the world closer by giving people the tools to build, Fundraiser sits well in that respect. The goal of Fundraiser is to "Make raising fund easy to help users achieve more"

Users

1. Raising funds - individuals/ orgs raising money for a cause
2. Donating funds - individuals/ orgs donating money for a cause.

1. Create cause to raise funds
2. Share cause and track engagement
3. Track signups
4. Trust on who is signing up and they will donate
5. Privacy - keep info about the person donating funds private

Metrics

Categorize based on signal and what to measure

1. User satisfaction (happiness signal)
2. Engagement (signal - are people using the product) 
3. Adoption (signal - are new users coming to the product)
4. Retention (signal - is the product sticky? are people coming back to the product)
5. Task (signal - are people successful with the task)

1. # people sharing fund raising event - d/w/m
2. Total number of events being shared on the platform - d/w/m
3. # reactions/ share - d/w/m
4. # reactions/ people - d/w/m

Evaluate

1. Pros (measure of activity)/ Cons (doesn't measure the impact of sharing. are people engaging?)
2. Pros (measure of people engaging)/ Cons (few people sharing more events. if they leave platform will die)
3. Pros (measure of engagement)/ Cons (quality - lot's of users show frowny face)
4. Pros (meausre of engagement by people)/ Cons (few majority people could be reacting more that)

Pick #2 as the north star metric

Summary

Goal of FB fund raiser is to make fund raising easy to help people achieve more and it can be measured through total number of events being shared on the platform. 

Interview question: How would you set goals for FB fundraisers?

Mission:

The mission of Facebook is to bring the world closer together and to give people the tools they need to create a community. Facebook Fundraisers helps individuals and organizations raise money for causes and programs. At the same time, it let Facebook users make donations to the causes they care about. This feature totally fits in the Facebook mission.  

Identifying Product users:

• Individuals⇒  Create a fundraising campaign to collect money to achieve personal objectives or solve personal problems. They can also raise money to support someone or an organization in their community.

• Non-profit organizations ⇒⇒ Create a fundraising campaign to collect money for causes as part of their social mission.

• Donors⇒ ⇒ People on Facebook who make monetary donations to support individuals or causes they care about.

Brainstorming Performance Metrics:

I’d consider the following user activities and product health metrics: 

1- Total amount of money raised through the platform

2- Average amount of money raised per fundraising campaign

3- Total amount of money donated per month

4- Average amount of money donated per unique donors

5- Average Number of donations per unique donors

6- Average number of donors per fundraising campaign

7- Total number of unique donors through the platform

8- % of unique donors through the platform

9- Number of active donors

10- Number of active campaigns

11- Total number of unique fundraisers

12- Total number of campaigns that reach their fundraising goal

13- Total number of campaigns that exceed their fundraising goal

14- Total number of active fundraising campaigns

15- Number of active fundraisers (organization vs individual)

Metrics Evaluation & Prioritization:

This feature is money related so you’d focus on much money is transacted in the platform and how well Facebook users are using the feature to drive toward Facebook mission. That said, I will consider monetization and engagement Metrics in the following order #1, #2, #7, #11. 

These metrics help understand how the product is doing, how engaged is the community (in a volume of donations and on the members' perspective). I will consider these metrics on a monthly basis.

1- Total amount of money raised through the platform 

2- Average amount of money raised per fundraising campaign

7- Total number of unique donors through the platform

11- Total number of unique fundraisers

I like to use the following type of framework for metrics driven interview questions:

1. Clarify & restate understanding of the Facebook fundraiser feature - Based on my understanding, the way Facebook fundraiser typically works:
   • Any user can choose to a chosen charity and sets a certain fundraising goal for this campaign. 
   • Once the campaign is set up and appears on someones Newsfeed, this campaign is public and anyone on or off Facebook can view the campaign but only Facebook members could donate.
   • User can invite friends and once these friends donate they get updates on the set goal.
2. Mission - Overarching mission is that of a connected world and bringing the community closer together by bringing non-profits, fundraisers, and donors in one place. The goal is simple yet tough to achieve every nonprofit globally should be able to raise the required funds.
3. User segments which use the feature
   • Nonprofit organizations - This could range from large organizations such as CDC or smaller ones which are more local
   • Fundraisers - Users who want to raise funds for a special cause for these non-profits and typically range from 2 different types
     • Professional fundraisers - They probably do this as a full-time job
     • Casual fundraiser - Users typically setting up fundraising campaigns on their birthdays
   • Donors - Friends or acquaintances of fundraisers who are drawn to donate money
4. Metrics by the lifecycle of user segments - rationale
   • Acquisition 
     • # of Monthly Nonprofit Organizations available for donation (Split of large vs small or local) - How many organizations in the community we are helping and what's the growth overtime
     • $ Goal of fundraising campaigns - Understand what's the aspiration in terms of raising money
     • # of Monthly Fundraising campaigns - To analyze if there is a top of funnel problem for a specific cohort of nonprofits
   • Engagement
     • % of Nonprofit organizations (of all listed) having at least x fundraising campaigns - x is a threshold could 1,10,100 based on historical data to provide when FB will start having an impact 
     • # of monthly donors per fundraising campaign - Are fundraisers creating compelling campaigns to draw donors (Professional vs casual)
   • Retention
     • % of repeat Nonprofit and fundraiser pairs MoM - Are fundraisers consistently raising funds for specific nonprofits
     • % of repeat fundraisers and donors pairs MoM - Are donors consistently donating funds for specific campaigns
   • Conversion
     • % of $/Actual vs goal fundraising 
       • Total overall FB - Important to highlight as this can provide a view of impact Globally
       • Per nonprofit/campaign/fundraiser - Identify whether specific cohort of nonprofits/campaigns/fundraisers are facing challenges in raising the required funds
   • Counter metrics - To stay true to the mission, we need to drive this to zero
     • % of Nonprofits with no campaigns
     • % of Nonprofits with campaigns but not met goals
5. Prioritization - I would like to prioritize the lagging or conversion metric (% of $/Actual vs goal fundraising) as the goal here is to have every single nonprofit raise the required funds. The rest of the metrics would be tracked as secondary metrics to identify if there are challenges in the funnel.
6. Summary - The success for me here is defined by every nonprofit large or small is able to get the required funds and connect with their community.

1) What is the feature

FB Fundraise feature is a feature that allows individuals or non-profits to raise funds for personal or social cause on FB. 

- User can create a fundraise event with required details

- fundraise details can easily be shared with friends

- User can receive donations to the bank account specified (indvidual account or non profit account) after taxes 

- FB will deduct their processing fee or their cut before crediting the amount.

2) Goal 

- Provide a platform for non profits / indoviduals to raise funds seamlessly through the platform and reach many people [ Engagement]

- Increase FB revenue through FB transaction fees 

3) User Journey

- Individuals / Non profits can setup a dedicated page to raise money from their friends and networks for good causes

- When FB users "join" a fundraise event on FB, they can keep up with the progress and get updates

- Non profits can update donors with photos, status, videos and accept donations within FB

- Donors can spread the word to their FB friends by just a tap of a button

- Shared posts on FB also feature a Donate button linking to your campaign thus multiplying its reach and bringing in more donors

4) Map and quantify user behaviors in the customer journey

Since the goal is to increase Engagement and Revenue, some of the metrics we can look at are 

Engagement

# of Fundraise events created

% increase in fundraise events created MoM, YoY

# of FB fundraise campaigns successful

% of successful fundraise campaigns

% increase in fundraise campaigns successfully completed 

Avg no. of views received by a fundraise event

Reach i.e no. of people who have received this campaign detail in their feeds 

% distribution of funds of sucessful campaigns showing breakup by - friends, friends of friends (2nd degree), 3rd degree etc

Avg no. of shares for a fundraise campaign

Revenue

- Avg funds generated by a fundraiseevent

- total FB revenue from fundraise events

- no. of successful fundraise events / % increase in completed campaigns 

- Avg no. of shares for a fundraise campaign

5. Evaluate metrics and Prioritize

Connecting the goal and user and business impact the top 3 metrics I'd like to track in both Engagement and Revenue are below

Engagament

% increase in fundraise events created MoM, YoY

% of successful fundraise campaigns

Reach i.e no. of people who have received this campaign detail in their feeds 

% distribution of funds of sucessful campaigns showing breakup by - friends, friends of friends (2nd degree), 3rd degree etc

Avg no. of shares for a fundraise campaign

Revenue

- total FB revenue from fundraise events and % increase MoM and YoY

Summarize

Given that the goal of FB fndraising feature is to make it easy for people to raise funds easily and quickly by providing a seamless platform and tools to reach more people, the top metrics for success I'd like to track as 

Engagament

% increase in fundraise events created MoM, YoY

% of successful fundraise campaigns

Reach i.e no. of people who have received this campaign detail in their feeds 

% distribution of funds of sucessful campaigns showing breakup by - friends, friends of friends (2nd degree), 3rd degree etc

Revenue

- total FB revenue from fundraise events and % increase MoM and YoY