Facebook has confirmed that it’s launching a brand-new feature that will help enhance fundraising across its social media platforms. The company will avail a donate button on Instagram and an additional fundraising sticker that will appear on Facebook.
The Instagram changes are more significant. Nonprofits will have the ability to add a donate button on their bio just next to their phone number. The donate button will be there permanently. Before these new changes started to roll out, nonprofits could only add donation stickers to Stories. The stickers, just like updates on Stories, all disappeared after 24 hours.
But things are now looking good for organizations that may want to leverage their social media presence to raise money for different causes. Facebook is also going to migrate the donation stickers previously available on Instagram to Facebook. Nonprofits will now be able to add stickers to their Facebook Stories too. Fundraising efforts will also be available on Facebook’s gaming live streams.
Gamers will have the chance to pick out a cause and urge viewers tuned in for their live streams to donate if they so wish. The streamer can decide to set the amount he or she wants to raise during the live stream. As people donate, new notifications will pop up on the chats. This allows the streamer to give shootouts to contributors in real time.
Although many experts agree that these new changes will not have a huge impact on Facebook’s fundraising capabilities, they represent a very good step in the right direction. The changes are expected to make it easier for nonprofit organizations to appeal to their followers on social media to raise money when needed.
They will also make it possible for Facebook to help people who may want to donate by just clicking on a single button. Facebook has also noted that it will be helping nonprofits find the right volunteers for different roles. The social media company is urging these organizations to list volunteer opportunities on their pages where people can sign up remotely.
It’s not clear whether Facebook will be rolling out additional features on its social media platforms in an effort to enhance fundraising efforts. The new changes could be important beta tests that may give the company some understanding of how users respond to or engage in fundraising on social media.
Facebook has the potential to provide visibility for various nonprofit causes. The social media company and its affiliated sites have billions of users. These sites have been used to raise awareness on various causes and are also extensively used in coordinating relief efforts during times of disaster.
Therefore, it seems logical that the social media company would consider fundraising as an important part of its service. Despite this, the company has always given nonprofit organizations a chance to raise money on its platforms. However, the new changes coming to Instagram and Facebook are designed to make it even easier for such organizations to do so.
