Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is seen with President Barack Obama, who is speaking on the state of economy at a town hall style meeting organized at Facebook headquarters. (Photo : Getty Images/ Justin Sullivan)
Facebook has introduced a new fundraising tool that can help non-profit organizations to solicit funds for their charities on the social media platform.
Launched on an experimental basis, the new tool - "fundraisers" - will allow nonprofits to launch pages, post stories, host specific campaigns and accept donations on Facebook.
The facility now is available to 37 US registered nonprofits, including World Wildlife Fund, UNICEF and Water.org, according information posted on Facebook Newsroom. These charities can create pages similar to events on the social network, telling about their campaigns for a cause, upload images and videos and collect donated money.
The new donation tool allows automatic display of fundraising pages on the social media platform along with the Donate button below cover photos. Members can pay through the page and with just a few taps. Those who donate can share their help and even has to option to register their email with a charity. Nonprofits can also check progress on the fundraising.
Facebook will not charge the experimental partners, but it may put a payment in the future based on the test experience to cover operating cost. There is plan to make Facebook fundraisers available to all 501c3 nonprofits in the United States by next year and also individuals as a competitor to Kickstarter and JustGiving, the Guardian reported.
The social media site will vet all campaigns using fundraisers and verify credentials. However, it is up to the nonprofits to be share the distribution of funds with the donor and maintain transparency.
"We've seen from our community that when people take action, lives are changed and we know we can do more to enable these connections," Naomi Gleit, who heads product management and the Social Good Team at Facebook said about the latest tool.
Facebook announced setting up of Social Good Team in September to focus on developing tools that can connect its members with various social and charitable causes. Earlier in Dec 2013, it added a Donate button to allow funding of charities. The team has recast the button to drive fundraising campaign and facilitate easy donating. The new updates also include alerts for missing children.
Facebook help collect $15.5 million from donors across 170 countries to provide relief to Nepal quake victims. With over 1.55 billion users and at least 150 million of them supporting charities, the new tool provides for an effective way to empower fundraising on the social network.
