Organization name: Facebook
Website: https://www.facebook.com/
Industry: Social Media.
Advertise Your Cause, Attract Supporters, Accrue Donations, and Align Graphics to Show Goal Progression.
In 2013, the developers at Facebook began testing tools for non-profits and charities to raise funds on their platform and allow for easy sharing of content. The popularity of social media for both business and consumers is no secret, and with Facebook being one of the largest, it is an obvious platform to use to rally support. The Donate button was created for this reason and allowed for people to easily donate to a charity.
Fundraisers, the latest development in Facebook, is a tool that builds on the Donate button currently available to users by adding Facebook features that allow you to read, discuss, track, and donate to a cause without leaving the Facebook UI.
With 37 non-profits testing the product, Facebook allows charities to start a dedicated page for a cause or campaign that gives them the ability to provide the answers to who, what, when, where, why and how easily. After being provided the information on the campaign, users are able to “join,” share, or donate to the cause and see how close the campaign is to being funded as well as share their donation with their Facebook peers. All this is built into the Facebook experience.
Shared content posted through Fundraisers will also provide a donation link, allowing for the people in your network to easily show their support, as well, with their wallet. This expands the reach of a campaign and allows supporters to be drawn from ranks that typically would be oblivious to the cause, or not typically donate due to time constraints.
Facebook hopes to aid in the creation of, and facilitate the donations to, fundraisers by creating a one- stop page interested parties can view and show support for with minimal inconvenience.
Conclusion: By introducing Fundraisers, Facebook is adapting its social media interface to allow for more than just the sharing of information. Real world change can result through the use of non-profit donations. I could see the future of Facebook incorporating what they learn from this endeavour to create storefronts and payment systems, all handled and shared through Facebook. Until then, to me, this is a major development in social media which allows people to track, support, and share a cause.
Author: Forrester Hinds, Social Media for Business Performance Student, University of Waterloo – To contact the author please direct any questions or comments to: fhinds@uwaterloo.ca
If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Programme Director, Social Media for Business Performance.
Information sourced from:
http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/11/introducing-new-tools-for-nonprofits/
http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/16/facebook-donate-now-button/