Media

Facebook Offers a Way to Donate to Charity

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: November 19, 2015 6:45 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 5:01 pm

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) has launched another service to help bind its users to the social network. It will offer a way for people to easily donate to charity. The company claims a huge number of its members donate to charitable organizations, so why not use Facebook instead of going through the systems created by the charities themselves.

According to a blog post by Naomi Gleit, VP of Product Management:

With more than 150 million people around the world connected to a cause, Facebook is a global community of volunteers, donors and activists coming together to make the world a better place.

People raise money for disaster relief, they search for missing children, and they bring attention to the issues they care about. We’ve seen from our community that when people take action, lives are changed. We know we can do more to enable these connections.

Today we’re testing fundraisers – a new tool – and improving our Donate button, to allow people to donate to charities without leaving Facebook. We hope these features help nonprofits reach new supporters, engage their community and get the valuable funding they need to continue their good work.

“Without leaving Facebook” is the key phrase. The social network continues, mostly successfully, at keeping hundreds of millions of people from communicating, entertaining, sharing and receiving information from beyond its platform.

The success of services like “Donate” are supported by Facebook’s own numbers. As part of its third-quarter earnings report, Facebook disclosed:

• Daily active users (DAUs) – DAUs were 1.01 billion on average for September 2015, an increase of 17% year-over-year.
• Mobile DAUs – Mobile DAUs were 894 million on average for September 2015, an increase of 27% year-over-year.
• Monthly active users (MAUs) – MAUs were 1.55 billion as of September 30, 2015, an increase of 14% year-over-year.
• Mobile MAUs – Mobile MAUs were 1.39 billion as of September 30, 2015, an increase of 23% year-over-year.

Despite the size of its membership, Facebook’s efforts to make it a one-stop shop for living continue to be successful. The relationship to charities is another, modest effort to do that again.

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