Facebook Wants to Help You Raise Money With These Two New Features

Giving is good, and Facebook Thursday introduced two new ways for its users to encourage their friends, family and followers to do so: Personal Fundraisers, and the ability for verified pages to add donate buttons to their Facebook Live videos. Facebook vice president of social good Naomi Gleit introduced the new features in a Newsroom post, saying that the Personal Fundraisers feature will launch in beta “over the next few weeks” for U.S. users 18 and older and adding that it will launch with the following six categories—with an eye toward expanding that list—and a 24-hour review process before going live: Education: such as tuition, books or classroom supplies. Medical: such as medical procedures, treatments or injuries. Pet Medical: such as veterinary procedures, treatments or injuries. Crisis Relief: such as public crises or natural disasters. Personal Emergency: such as a house fire, theft or car accident. Funeral and Loss: such as burial expenses or living costs after losing a loved one. FBPersonalFundraiserIntroduction from SocialTimes on Vimeo. FBPersonalFundraiserDemo from SocialTimes on Vimeo. Gleit added: Personal Fundraisers allow people to reach friends where they already are to quickly build momentum for their cause. Friends can donate in a few taps with secure payments, without leaving Facebook. Since you can see real profiles on Facebook, donors will see how they are connected to the person who created the fundraiser, the person benefiting and others who are supporting the fundraiser. More than 750,000 nonprofits have been able to include donate buttons in their Facebook Live videos, and that option has now been extended to verified pages, with Gleit writing: This gives public figures, brands, businesses and organizations new ways to fundraise on Facebook for the nonprofits they support. People watching the live broadcast can donate as they watch, or give once the broadcast has ended and is posted on the page. The social network provided more information on verified pages adding donate buttons to Facebook Live content in a Facebook Media blog post, saying that the feature will “be gradually rolling out” to page administrators of verified pages in the U.S., and that the donate buttons can be used to help raise money for U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. Admins must also have the latest version of Facebook, Facebook Mentions or Pages Manager on iOS, and the social network provided the following instructions for adding donate buttons to Facebook Live videos via those applications: Before going live, tap on the “…” button for more options on the bottom-left-hand corner of the screen. Tap “add donate button” and select a nonprofit. Go live, and the donate button for the nonprofit you selected will be attached to the bottom of your live video, allowing friends or fans to donate directly from the video as they watch or after you post the video to your page. People will be able to see how much money has been raised.