# Facebook adds Donate Now button for some US nonprofits

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/12/18/facebook-adds-donate-now-button-us-nonprofits/
- Published: 2013-12-18T09:23:26+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Facebook has added a ‘Donate Now’ button to 19 US nonprofits that lets people donate
directly via Facebook. It means that Facebook users can donate within Facebook, 
and not have to leave to visit a donation page on a nonprofit’s website.

The feature appears at the top of participating nonprofits’ Facebook pages, and 
beside posts in the News Feed that they share. Facebook users who click on the button
are invited to choose the amount and enter their payment information and “immediately
donate to that cause”, according to Facebook.

The donation can be made in as few as two clicks if the donor has already used its
credit card on Facebook. Otherwise donors will need to enter their credit or debit
card details.

## Advertisement

Donors can then share the nonprofit’s post with their friends on Facebook, with 
the aim of encouraging others to give. “We hope this will help increase donations
as people encourage their friends to donate to the causes that are important to 
them”, explained the company in a news release.

## Not available to UK charities yet

At launch the facility was not available to UK charities, but Facebook is inviting
expressions of interest. The [contact form](https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/585894954798346)
asks for the organisation’s country, and implies that it is open to receiving enquiries
from around the world. The UK is listed.

## Typhoon Haiyan

“Every local cause can become a global one — and every global cause can become a
personal movement” Facebook

Facebook explained that the ‘donate now’ button was inspired by the success of the
company’s partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross last month 
in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan. Facebook users were able to donate directly to the
Red Cross’s relief efforts in the Philippines.

But there have been calls for a ‘donate now’ version of the Facebook ‘like’ button
for some years.

## Counter to slactivism?

The launch of the donate now button follows the publication of a [study by the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131108091320.htm)
which found that “if people are able to declare support for a charity publicly in
social media it can actually make them less likely to donate to the cause later 
on.”

[⌊Facebook Donate Now participating US nonprofits⌉⌊Facebook Donate Now participating
US nonprofits⌉[

First 19 US nonprofits using Facebook’s Donate Now button

 

## Benefit to Facebook?

Even though Facebook is passing 100% of donations to the nonprofits, it does stand
to benefit commercially from this initiative, simply by gathering more billing information
from its users. Josh Constine at [Techcrunch](http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/16/facebook-donate-now-button/)
commented:

> “The button will collect credit card numbers and other billing info for Facebook
> that could aid its ecommerce and gaming initiatives”.

## Benefit to charities?

Is this a major step forward that will increase giving to charities? Simply adding
a ‘donate now’ button is not effective online fundraising, as many charities have
learned over the years. Just because you can add a button now on Facebook does not
change that.

Indeed, the button simply generates donations to participating charities. Those 
charities do not receive the donor’s contact details, so there is no way of developing
a relationship with them. The data stays with Facebook.

In [Facebook rolls out Donate button. “Gee thanks,” sigh charities](http://pando.com/2013/12/16/facebook-rolls-out-donate-button-gee-thanks-sigh-charities/),
Carmel Deamicis argues that the donate now button, even rolled out so soon to Christmas,
is “It’s the social giving equivalent of getting socks for Christmas. Sure, you 
may wear them, but it’s no shiny new bike.”

She added:

“The gift charities really wanted was an [Ad Grants](https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/11/15/google-grants-for-charities/)
program akin to Google’s, where Facebook would give accredited non-profits $10,000
worth of promoted posts monthly. That way, non-profits could get their pages in 
front of more eyeballs, garnering more supporters”.

## Benefit to your charity?

[polldaddy poll=7656062]

![Loading](https://fundraising.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/page-views-count/ajax-loader-
2x.gif)

## Comments

### By: Chester

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/12/18/facebook-adds-donate-now-button-us-nonprofits/#comment-3955
- Published: 2013-12-18T13:04:00+00:00

Many UK charities using Charity Checkout already do this, for example: [https://www.facebook.com/villagebyvillage](https://www.facebook.com/villagebyvillage)