Meta Ads for Charities

Strategy + management that turns Facebook and Instagram into a reliable source of donors, leads and awareness.

Meta Ads (Facebook ads and Instagram ads) are still the most powerful engine UK charities have for acquiring new donors, generating high-quality leads and growing awareness — when they’re run on data and donor psychology rather than guesswork.

I’m Karolina McIlroy. I’ve spent 20+ years in digital marketing and fundraising, I’m an accredited Meta & Google Business Partner, and I work with charities directly — no junior account handlers, no agency mark-up. I help your charity move past basic ad execution to a tailored strategy built on data, behavioural science and real donor experience.

Senior specialist on every campaign — the person you meet is the person who runs your ads.
Award-winning, accredited Meta & Google Business Partner.
Proven results: 75% lower cost per lead, 7.45 ROAS, 0→898 donations in 12 weeks (details below).
You keep 100% ownership of your ad account and data.

Book a free, no-obligation discovery call →

What Meta Ads can do for your charity

Most charities treat Meta Ads as a fundraising tool. It’s that — but a well-structured programme does far more, with different campaigns serving different stages of the supporter journey.

Most effective programmes combine several of these, mapped to your fundraising calendar.

Direct-response fundraising — donation appeals, match-funded campaigns and regular-giving acquisition, using behavioural-science creative to break through feed fatigue.
Frictionless lead generation — value-exchange campaigns (downloads, event and challenge sign-ups) designed so the lead form is a bridge, not a barrier.
Rapid proposition testing — agile, data-led tests of your emotional hooks and messaging before you commit a full budget, so you only scale what’s proven.

Brand awareness & engagement — an awareness layer that feeds the top of the funnel with the right prospects to nurture toward conversion.
Supporter retention & retargeting — keeping warm audiences engaged and re-engaging lapsed supporters at low cost.

Results I’ve delivered for charities

Education-sector charity — 1,832 leads at £1.01 cost per lead over seven months — a 75% reduction in CPL after restructuring the audience strategy.
National faith-based charity — Christmas appeal: cost per acquisition down 77%, ROAS up 202% year on year, 7.45 ROAS from ~£20k spend. Awards-shortlisted campaign. Shortlisted for an industry award in 2026.
Homelessness charity — 0 → 898 donations in 12 weeks during a rapid-scale acquisition push.

12-month always-on programme — 1,173 donations and 12,528 leads at £19.84 cost per donation and 6.62 ROAS.
Children’s welfare charity — 1,300+ telephone leads at a low CPL, with source-level attribution feeding creative decisions.
Year-on-year growth — 83% donation growth for a national charity; 45% scale-up for a national children’s charity.

How I work: the Active Campaign Framework

Every engagement runs strategy through to delivery, optimisation and growth — grounded in data and continuous testing.

1. Behavioural & strategic audit

I start by auditing your entire donor journey — from the first impression in the feed to the final button on your donation page — so campaigns launch from the strongest possible footing.

2. Conversion intelligence setup

Data is everything on Meta. I review your tracking architecture (Pixel, Conversions API, Events Manager) to make sure Meta is being fed the signals its algorithm needs to find your donors.

3. Audience & creative architecture

Your campaigns are targeted at the audiences most likely to convert for your specific cause — lookalikes, interest, broad/Advantage+ or the right combination — paired with creative built to work with the algorithm, not against it.

4. ROAS & budget optimisation

I monitor performance in real time, shifting budget toward your best creatives and audiences to drive the highest possible return on ad spend. This is the engine room of the service.

Why charities choose to work with me directly

Senior oversight, hands-on management

The strategy we design together is delivered by me. Nothing gets lost in translation to a junior, and you always have an experienced pair of eyes on your campaigns — spotting optimisation opportunities and heading off problems before they cost you money. That’s the structural difference between working with me and working with an agency.

Award-winning, accredited expertise

Winner of the Woman for Good 2025 award for digital excellence in the charity sector, and an accredited Meta & Google Business Partner. My reputation is built on transparent, accountable results.

Expertise in donor psychology

I apply consumer-behaviour science to creative and conversion journeys, putting the donor experience firmly at the core of every campaign.

You own everything

Ads are always built in your account, so you retain 100% ownership of your data — backed by tailored, real-time dashboards your internal team can report from.

What clients say about me

★★★★★

“(…) I appreciate we’ve still got six more days, but just to say a huge thank you, you’ve smashed all expectations

It is very much appreciated.”

Campaign ManagerBaby-loss Charity

★★★★★

“Consistent, reliable, delivers. Dull works but they’re what ultimately matters when hiring a freelancer to join your team and deliver against key goals and targets. Karolina is not dull though. Karolina is smart, and quick to grasp strategy and concepts, nuances and angles, audiences and insight. She’s bright, adaptable, enthusiastic. She makes smart and informed recommendations. She’s great to have a natter and cuppa with, and she assimilates into teams well, playing her role as she needs. If you’re looking for a freelancer to support your digital capability and capacity, hire Karolina. You won’t regret it. Really. She’s fabulous.”

Mags Rivett, Head of MarketingMake-A-Wish UK

Book a no-obligation discovery call

Meta Ads for charities: what’s changed

Meta’s platform has shifted significantly, and several changes have hit the charity sector specifically. Part of my job is keeping your campaigns compliant and effective as the rules move. Recent developments I’m actively navigating for clients:

Sensitive-data restrictions — limits on targeting and tracking for health, faith and social-issue causes, and how to keep performing within them.
Meta’s EU advertising changes — what the political, electoral and social-issue ad ban means for UK charities working across borders.
Why Meta still works even when the numbers look patchy — reading attribution correctly so you don’t switch off campaigns that are actually working.

Running Meta Ads for a charity is not the same as running them for a commercial brand. You’re often reaching people personally affected by your cause, which demands sensitivity in the creative, and your success depends on understanding fundraising seasonality, the link between brand and direct response, and the value of regular giving over one-off gifts. That context shapes how I run every campaign.

Frequently asked questions FAQs

How much budget do I need to run Meta Ads as a charity?

It depends on your objective. Lead generation and proposition testing can start small; donor acquisition at scale needs more. On our first call I’ll give you an honest view of what’s realistic for your budget — and won’t take you on if Meta isn’t the right fit.

Will I work with you directly, or a junior account manager?

Directly, with me, every time. The person who designs your strategy is the person who builds, runs and optimises your campaigns. That’s the main reason charities choose me over a larger agency.

We’ve run Meta Ads before and didn’t see results. Can you fix that?

Usually, yes. The common culprits are over-narrow targeting, creative that doesn’t connect, broken or missing tracking, and accounts never restructured after Meta’s privacy and algorithm changes. I’ll audit your account and tell you honestly what can be improved.

Can you run Meta Ads alongside Google Ads or our Google Ad Grant?

Yes — and they work better together. Meta builds awareness and generates leads from cold audiences while Google captures people already searching for you. I manage paid search, Performance Max and Google Ad Grants for charities alongside Meta.

How do Meta’s targeting restrictions affect charities?

Restrictions on health, faith, political and social-issue advertising can limit targeting and tracking for many causes. I know how to work within them and I’m upfront about what’s possible and what isn’t before we start.

Do you create the ad creative too?

I can. I offer creative strategy and development — briefing, building and testing ad content grounded in behavioural science — or I’ll work with creative your team supplies and tell you what will and won’t land with charity audiences on Meta.

How do you measure success?

By the metric that matches your objective — ROAS for direct response, cost per lead for lead generation, reach and engagement for awareness. We agree the metrics that matter to your team before anything goes live, and you see them in a real-time dashboard.

Do you work on a one-off or ongoing basis?

Both. I take on one-off campaigns and audits as well as longer-term, always-on retainers. Many charities start with a free audit or a single campaign and move to ongoing management once they see the results.