If Facebook’s advertising principles were just vague gestures at what it hopes people want to hear, the results from the second Facebook Social Good forum mark genuine efforts to “put people first” and support cause marketing efforts.
Naomi Gleit, Facebook’s vice president of social good, has revealed a list of concrete policies to help organizations, communities and individuals, including a $50 million donation fund, removal of fees for nonprofits and feature support for charitable groups.
New Charity Features
Facebook now offers nonprofit organizations several new features, applicable to efforts from fundraising to support services.
The simplest feature is a new API that allows charities to sync outside fundraisers, allowing them to receive donations directly from Facebook in addition to other platforms. The feature will be available to 500 nonprofit organizations by Spring 2018.
Facebook is also partnering with organizations like the Red Cross and NetHope on its Community Help service launched earlier this year. Now, these groups will get access to help requests by the Facebook community, providing them with more information in the case of a disaster or crisis.
“This data will help organizations coordinate information and response resources as fast as possible,” said Gleit.
In a similar vein, Facebook is now launching a mentorship service to connect nonprofits with people in need.
“Our goal is to expand these tools to help connect people around a variety of causes like addiction recovery, career advancement and other areas where having someone you can count on for support can make all the difference,” said Gleit.
Social Good Updates
Facebook is also updating several of its existing social good features, starting with the elimination of nonprofit fees. The social media giant will no longer skim some off the top from user donations, allowing 100 percent of funds to funnel to the respective charity.
The site’s blood donation feature, first launched in India this September, is expanding to Bangladesh, allowing non-profits to notify nearby donors when they create blood drives.
Lastly, Facebook is expanding support for nonprofit and personal fundraisers to Canada, Austrailia, Europe and New Zealand.
These changes, in addition to marking real efforts by Facebook itself to support social good, allow companies to more easily host donation campaigns and other cause marketing efforts.
“We are constantly inspired by all the good that people do on Facebook and are committed to continuing to build tools that help communities do more good together,” said Gleit.
