Yahoo News You can now fundraise for your favorite nonprofit using Facebook Live
Supporting your favorite cause through social media just got simpler — and you have Facebook to thank.
The social media giant rolled out the update on Thursday, which allows users to fundraise for their favorite nonprofits through Facebook Live. The new feature lets users connect fundraiser pages directly to a Live, displaying a donate button and fundraiser progress on the live video.
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Facebook announced the update at its first Social Good Forum in New York City on Thursday.
The social media platform has also expanded the pool of nonprofits that users can fundraise for through a partnership with online fundraising platform Network for Good. Users can now choose from more than 750,000 nonprofits when launching a fundraiser. Previously, only a few hundred nonprofits were available to users, with charities going through an official vetting process with Facebook to gain access.
The new expansion covers the majority of 501(c)(3) organizations in the country, leaving off some small organizations and chapters. Organizations not covered in the new partnership, however, can still request approval from Facebook.
To show the impact fundraisers have had on the platform so far, Facebook premiered a video at the forum profiling April, a radio talk show host in Baltimore who raised money for veteran's mental health organization 22KILL by participating in the 22 pushup challenge. The challenge has participants do 22 pushups each day for 22 days, raising awareness and funds in memory of the 22 veterans who die by suicide each day in the U.S.
April's story shows the massive impact of charitable giving already on the platform. But Naomi Gleit, vice president of social good at Facebook, hopes the new Live tools will increase the success of campaigns like April's that hinge on social media.
"Imagine if April could go Live while she was doing 22 pushups," Gleit said at the forum. "Starting today, she can...Here’s what it will look like: April can go Live, you can give her likes and encourage her, and you can also click 'Donate,' and donate directly to her campaign for 22KILL."
Image: Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook also announced a new donate feature for personal posts, which will allow users to add donate buttons to their own posts. These buttons will link to a nonprofit's existing page on Facebook, where friends can donate and learn more about the cause.
Image: Courtesy of Facebook
The new tools, which were developed to empower users to take action on their personal pages, comes on the heels of the holiday giving season, when charitable giving is at its peak.
"We believe that the best way to do the most good is not to fundraise ourselves —it's to empower the community to," Gleit said at the forum.
Facebook is also partnering with two nonprofits for the holiday giving seasons, which was also announced at Thursday's event.
Facebook and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are joining together for the 5th anniversary of Giving Tuesday on Nov. 29, with the nonprofit matching all donations made through the platform up to $1 million. Individual fundraisers are capped at $1,000 matched to help spread the doubling of donations throughout causes large and small.
"We're excited because we can support Facebook's new tools, which we think will have tremendous impact,” Victoria Vrana, senior program officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said at the forum.
For Giving Tuesday, Facebook will also be waving all standard processing fees on donations, which amounts to 5 percent of a donation, a fee comparable to other donation platforms like GoFundMe and Crowdrise.
Giving Tuesday and the partnership will be promoted at the top of all U.S. users' newsfeeds on Nov. 29, marking the first time a fundraising effort will surface at top of the feed. Users who click through via the promoted post will be able to contribute to existing fundraisers, or create their own in celebration of Giving Tuesday.
Image: Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook also promoted their continuing partnership with men's cancer organization Movember, which has been active since the beginning of the month. When individuals register for Movember via the official site, they are prompted to create an additional fundraising page through Facebook. Fundraising efforts through Movember and Facebook are then synced, showing fundraising progress accumulated from both platforms.
The partnership will continue throughout the month of November, hoping to increase fundraising engagement by curbing the need to link out to other sites on Facebook posts.
"On Movember, it says ‘so-and-so donated,’" Gleit tells Mashable. "On Facebook, people are uploading videos, photos of their mustache, comments. There’s just a lot more rich interaction there."
Image: Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook hopes the model of giving on the social media platform will help curb a problem that arose when the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge went viral in 2014. The ALS Association's website could not handle the volume of traffic from the viral campaign, which made the site continuously crash.
"We realized it would have been easier if you could donate directly to ALS from Facebook," Gleit said at the event. "This would remove a bunch of clicks and steps. We have an existing payment platform, and we can handle the traffic."
The platform hopes it can help support organizations during times of heightened traffic, while also making it simpler for people to fit giving into their social media routines.
Facebook launched fundraising tools for nonprofit organizations in November 2015, and expanded fundraising pages to individual users in June. Fundraising features were some of the first products launched by Facebook's dedicated Social Good team, which was created in fall 2015.
