On Thursday, Facebook rolled out “personal fundraiser,” an expansion of its existing fundraising tools that let users ages 18 and up create a page to raise money for themselves, friends, or people or things who aren’t on Facebook. It will roll out to U.S. users in the coming weeks.
“We want to be able to support people fundraising for personal causes,” Naomi Gleit, Facebook’s vice president of social good, told Mashable.”We’ve researched and surveyed people who have used our platform in the past, and our users have told us that they want this.”
Starting a campaign is easy: A new Fundraisers tab in the menu in Facebook’s News Feed brings up creation tools. When you start a new campaign, you will be asked to specify the
Once a fundraiser’s approved, you have the option of adding a cover photo, a “beneficiary card” showing the person receiving the money, information about the fundraiser, and a short biography about yourself. When visitors to the page click on your profile or the recipient’s profile, they will see the appropriate Facebook profile.
The fundraiser tools are not just for campaigners. A new Discover section lets you peruse a list of popular philanthropies, and a Manage tab lets you keep track of fundraisers you’ve been invited to in the past.
Facebook’s handling donations through its existing payment processor. It will charge a 6.9 percent fee on every gift, plus a 30-cent transaction fee to cover payment processing, vetting, and security.
Personal fundraisers are the latest in Facebook’s long-running effort to improve tools for fundraisers. In 2013, the social network introduced a Donate button and later allowed donations via ads and
“I’m really excited about this, and I think the whole team is,” Gleit told Mashable. “We offer the reach — you want to fundraise from your friends, and they’re all on Facebook. Everything is in one place … We hope we’ll make this easier and help raise even more money.”
