When you set up a Buy Nothing group on Facebook you become a party to our Buy Nothing Admin Agreement. Please read the Buy Nothing Admin Agreement carefully. It explains our mutual responsibilities.
Easiest Facebook Group Set-Up Option
If you'd like the easiest route to your own Buy Nothing group on Facebook, we've got you covered. Make a tax-deductible contribution of at least $10 to support the Buy Nothing Project and we will express our gratitude by setting up a Facebook group for you, filling it with the foundational resources you need, adjusting your group settings, and getting everything ready for you to step up as the Admin leading your Buy Nothing community.
If you'd like to take advantage of this option, fill out this form and also make your donation here, then check your email - we'll be in touch as soon as your group is set-up! If you choose to make an anonymous donation, it will take us a minimum of 2 weeks to set your group up, since we get bi-monthly donor reports from our fiscal sponsor. For faster help, use the same name and email on the form and when you make your contribution.
Each platform has its own directions, rules, and specifications. Each social media company will walk you through the steps to setting up a group on their platform. This guide is designed for people using Facebook, but these steps work for other platforms, too. Our document Buy Nothing Project Private Group Growth Resources will help answer your Buy Nothing-related questions about naming your group, growing your membership, and defining your community footprint. This document is useful for all social media platforms and also for Buy Nothing communities that connect offline.
When you know how you'd like your group to grow, follow the steps below to set up your Buy Nothing group on Facebook.
Load Your Group with Resources
Visit the Update Your Group page for the following:
- Your Group Description
- Buy Nothing 10 Rules
- 3 Membership Questions
Copy and paste each of these into the appropriate spot in your group and you've got all the resources your group needs to start growing!
List Your Group
Once your group has up-to-date documents in place, we'd love to add you to our global list of Buy Nothing communities - Being listed will help your group grow! Fill out this form to add your Buy Nothing group to the worldwide list we maintain. This resource is a primary source of information used by people searching for local Buy Nothing gift economies.
Create a Welcome post for your group. If the platform you're using allows for pinned posts, you can use that to keep this post handy for new group members to see it. Welcome people to your Buy Nothing group, introduce yourself, give them any information you’d like to share about your local version of the Buy Nothing Project and include a link to All About the Buy Nothing Project.
Your welcome post can be simple, for instance:
"Welcome to Buy Nothing (your group's name here)! I'm (name) and I'm starting this group for our community because I want all of us to be able to connect to Give, Ask and share our Gratitude, Buy Nothing-style. Here's a web page with loads of info about how all of this works: www.buynothingproject.org/all-about-the-buy-nothing-project Please let me know if I can answer any questions or help in any way. I'm so excited to get this started - Please post a Give, Ask or Gratitude of your own! Thanks for joining this group!"
You're welcome to copy and paste this as a template to get you started, or you can write your own post up from scratch.
Invite People to Your Group
You're ready to invite people to join your group, to start Give-Ask-Gratitude Buy Nothing-ing! Invite your neighbors to join you. Visit our Build page for resources and tips that will help your community grow. We have flyers you can use to invite people to download the app and to join your private group - Use all of our tools to connect and grow!
Join our Community Builders Forum
Join our Buy Nothing Community Builders Support Forum. We created this resource library forum to support Buy Nothing Community Builders with resources and information to help all Buy Nothing communities. We also have a Forum Topic devoted just to private groups' specific issues and concerns.
This has the same information as the timeline above, presented below in classic paragraph form.
Click each header to open up its detailed text.
If you've worked through the timeline above, you do not need this section!
This is a road map that will guide you through the process of creating your own private Buy Nothing group. By "private group," we mean an online group that's set up and maintained by an individual. In Facebook-speak, this person is called an Admin.
When you set up a Buy Nothing group on Facebook you become a party to our Buy Nothing Admin Agreement. Please read the Buy Nothing Admin Agreement carefully. It explains our mutual responsibilities.
If you'd like to take advantage of this option, fill out this form and also make your donation here, then check your email - we'll be in touch as soon as your group is set-up! To make this even easier, please use the same email on the form and when you make your contribution.
Each platform has its own directions, rules, and specifications. Each social media company will walk you through the steps to setting up a group on their platform. This guide is designed for people using Facebook, but these steps work for other platforms, too. Our document Buy Nothing Project Private Group Growth Resources will help answer your Buy Nothing-related questions about naming your group, growing your membership, and defining your community footprint. This document is useful for all social media platforms and also for Buy Nothing communities that connect offline.
When you know how you'd like your group to grow, follow the steps below to set up your Buy Nothing group on Facebook.
Visit the Update Your Group page for the following:
- Your Group Description
- Buy Nothing 10 Rules
- 3 Membership Questions
Copy and paste each of these into the appropriate spot in your group and you've got all the resources your group needs to start growing!
You’re welcome to download the Buy Nothing banner, to signify you’re part of the global Buy Nothing network. To use this banner, right click the image and save it to your device, then upload it to your group. The Buy Nothing banner was given to us by Crescent Moegling for use in Buy Nothing Project gift economies. Do not modify the banner in any way if you choose to use it. Scroll down to the bottom of this page for the banner.
Once your group has up-to-date documents in place, we'd love to add you to the list - Being listed will help your group grow! Fill out the form on this page to add your Buy Nothing group to the worldwide list we maintain. This resource is a primary source of information used by people searching for local Buy Nothing gift economies.
Create a Welcome post for your group. If the platform you're using allows for pinned posts, you can use that to keep this post handy for new group members to see it. Welcome people to your Buy Nothing group, introduce yourself, give them any information you’d like to share about your local version of the Buy Nothing Project and include a link to All About the Buy Nothing Project.
Your welcome post can be simple, for instance:
"Welcome to Buy Nothing (your group's name here)! I'm (name) and I'm starting this group for our community because I want all of us to be able to connect to Give, Ask and share our Gratitude, Buy Nothing-style. Here's a web page with loads of info about how all of this works: www.buynothingproject.org/all-about-the-buy-nothing-project Please let me know if I can answer any questions or help in any way. I'm so excited to get this started - Please post a Give, Ask or Gratitude of your own! Thanks for joining this group!"
You're welcome to copy and paste this as a template to get you started, or you can write your own post up from scratch.
You're ready to invite people to join your group, to start Give-Ask-Gratitude Buy Nothing-ing! Invite your neighbors to join you. Visit our Build page for resources and tips that will help your community grow. We have flyers you can use to invite people to download the app and to join your private group - Use all of our tools to connect and grow!
Visit our Help Center for assistance and answers. We're happy to support you and your group members with more information and resources that will help you grow a strong Buy Nothing community together.
Use the 3 buttons below to keep Buy Nothing going and growing so everyone around the world can access this resilient circular gift economy. All donations, contributions, and proceeds from swag have a huge impact - no contribution is too small (or too big). Thank you.
