Facebook and Instagram
for charities.

Meta treats ads about social issues, elections or politics differently. In Australia, advertisers running them must go through authorisation using government-issued photo ID and add a 'Paid for by' label. Ads missing either are taken down and kept in Meta's public Ad Library for seven years.

The catch for charities is that Meta's review is automated and reads words, not intentions. In March 2025, Meta rejected ads for an Australian storytelling night run by Generation Women under this policy, and approved them only once words like 'feminist' and 'activist' were removed. An appeal about homelessness, family violence or refugees can be flagged the same way.

So if your cause is one people debate, do the authorisation once, early, for whoever runs the ads. It takes the scramble out of a June or December appeal.

Election rules sit on top of Meta's. The ACNC says charities can advocate for changes in law or policy that further their purpose, but must not promote or oppose a party or candidate. The AEC treats a paid communication as electoral matter when its main purpose is to influence how people vote in a federal election, and then it needs an authorisation with the name and address of whoever approved it. How close an election is counts when the AEC judges that purpose.

Donations made on Facebook and Instagram in Australia are handled by PayPal Giving Fund, which took over charitable giving on both apps here and grants the money on to charities under its own policies. To be enrolled, a charity must be registered with the ACNC or ORIC and be an Item 1 deductible gift recipient.

It's worth setting up if you qualify, because supporters' birthday fundraisers can then name you. Before you lean on it, check what donor details you receive and when the money arrives, and compare that with gifts made through your own donate page, where you hold the relationship.

Meta's delivery system needs results to learn from. Its guidance is that an ad set usually needs about 50 optimisation events in a week to finish learning. A charity making eight gifts a week through Meta won't get there optimising for donations.

Two fixes, used together. Run fewer ad sets, so the results aren't split thin. And while volumes are low, optimise for an earlier step that happens more often, such as reaching the donate page, while still tracking the gift. Send the Donate event from your website and from your server through the Conversions API, with the gift amount, so fewer gifts go missing from the reports.

What other people give shapes what a new donor gives. In a field experiment with a US public radio station, telling donors what another member had given raised contributions by 12% in the best-performing version. It worked on new members, not renewing ones, which suits ads aimed at people who've never given. The social proof page has more on how to use it honestly.

Beyond that, the basics carry most of the weight: one person, one need, one clear ask, filmed vertically and captioned, with the charity's name early. A short phone video of a volunteer packing hampers in Mount Druitt often looks more trustworthy than a polished studio piece. If the person in it is someone you help, get their consent and respect what they're comfortable sharing.

Meta's reports will claim credit for some gifts that would have come anyway. Compare its numbers with what your donation platform recorded from the same period, and ask new donors how they heard about you. When the stakes are higher, a cause test that pauses ads in one area shows what they really added.

Reach, likes and video views are fine as early signals. They aren't the result. A board needs to hear gifts, new donors and cost per new donor.