Facebook invites charities in UK to sign up for new fundraising tools 

12 Sep 2017 News

Facebook has announced that the UK will be one of five European countries where charities will be able to test a range of fundraising tools from later this month, with charities able to sign up with the platform now. 

New tools include the attaching of a ‘donate’ button for individuals’ pages, the launch of the Facebook Fundraisers community – a forum for people to raise funds and awareness of charities - and the ability to collect donations through Facebook Live broadcasts. 

Charities can sign up on donations.fb.com and from late September the tools will be rolled out to users in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Spain. From October it will be expanded to charities in Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Portugal, Denmark, Austria, Finland and Luxembourg. 

Facebook has already signed up Movember UK, Oxfam GB, Unicef UK, Aktion Deutschland Hilft (Germany), Caritas (Spain), Save the Children Spain, Unicef France, and Unicef Germany as beta users.

Charities will pay a 5 per cent fee on each donation. Facebook said that 3.5 per cent covers costs of vetting, language translation, fraud prevention, operational costs and payment support and 1.5 per cent covers payment processing.

To be eligible UK charities need to have a charity registration number and have a bank account with a licensed financial services institution. UK taxpayers can add Gift Aid to donations to UK charities by ticking a box confirming that they have paid enough tax.

Facebook launched the personal fundraising tools in the United States last March and said it has seen “millions of dollars” raised since then. 

More on the tools

Donate button -  Individuals and nonprofit Pages can attach the donate button to Page headers and posts, including video, photo or text.

Facebook Fundraisers - people can set up a dedicated page to tell others about their preferred charity and its mission to encourage them to rally around a targeted fundraising goal. People can reach their friends on Facebook. Supporters with a birthday listed on Facebook can also create a birthday fundraiser through a simple prompt. 

Facebook Live - Individuals and verified Facebook pages can add the donate button directly to Live broadcasts to raise money for a nonprofit on their iOS device. Android users who have created a nonprofit fundraiser can attach their fundraiser to their Live broadcasts. Anybody watching the Live broadcast can donate as they watch, or after the video ends and is posted on their Page. Ariana Grande raised $450,000 through this features by broadcasting her benefit concert for the victims of the Manchester terror attack. 

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