# Facebook extends its fundraising tools to UK and Ireland charities - Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/09/13/facebook-extends-fundraising-tools-uk-ireland-charities/ - Published: 2017-09-13T23:48:50+01:00 - Author: Howard Lake **Facebook is extending its fundraising tools to selected charities in the UK and Ireland, plus three other European countries. The tools that have helped to raise millions of dollars for US nonprofits while supporters use Facebook are at last within the grasp of UK charities.** Select US charities were first given the facility to solicit and receive donations via Facebook donate buttons [in December 2013](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/12/18/facebook-adds-donate-now-button-us-nonprofits/). These were expanded in 2015 to include [an enhanced donate button plus a ‘fundraiser’ function](https://fundraising.co.uk/2015/11/19/facebook-enhances-donate-button-and-adds-fundraisers-function/) for a specific campaign. These were still for the 37 initial nonprofit partners, although subsequently these tools were rolled out to other US nonprofits. The significance of the tools is that they enable individuals to donate within Facebook, rather than having to be directed to a different dedicated donation site like JustGiving, BT MyDonate or Virgin Money Giving. Just one click away can reduce the number of people who subsequently give. ## Advertisement ## Donate button The new tools available to some UK charities this month include the ‘donate now’ button, which can be added to a charity’s Facebook page and to individual posts. ![Facebook Donate button on a charity's Facebook page](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads. cloud/2017/09/facebook-collect_donations-uk-2017.jpg) Facebook will charge a 5% fee on donations handled for UK charities. Facebook states“ Of this fee, 3.5% covers the costs of nonprofit vetting, fraud protection, operational costs and payment support. The remaining 1.5% covers payment processing.” That said, a message on [Facebook’s help section for fundraising](https://www.facebook.com/help/901370616673951) states that all fees are waived on donations to European charities until 29 October 2017.   ![Facebook waives fees on donations to European charities until Oct 2017](https:// wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2017/09/facebook-european-charity-donations-fee-waver- 201709.jpg) _No fees on donations to European charities until 29 Oct 2017, says Facebook_   ## Fundraisers, or fundraising campaigns by individuals UK charities can also enable their supporters to set up campaigns on their individual Facebook accounts on behalf of the charity. Individuals can then promote this campaign to their friends and contacts and invite them to support it by donating. Each time someone donates they are prompted to share and invite their friends. These shares themselves contain a donate button, making it easy for any recipient to donate straight from their news feed.   ![Facebook Fundraiser example](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2017/09/facebook- fundraiser-screens-uk.jpg) Individuals will also receive a message from Facebook two weeks before their birthday, inviting them to consider setting up a birthday fundraising campaign on Facebook for their favourite charity. This [idea was trialled](https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/05/11/facebook-tests-birthday-fundraising-option/) in May this year and then its availability was [announced for US nonprofits last month](https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/08/celebrating-a-birthday-now-you-can-make-it-even-more-meaningful/). This should not be confused with the [personal fundraiser](https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/03/31/facebook-introduces-personal-fundraising-tools/) service launched in the US in March 2017 which lets people raise funds for a personal cause, such as their education, medical bills or vet’s bills. ## Facebook Live video fundraising campaigns Charities in the UK and their supporters will be able to add the donate button to their Facebook Live broadcast messages. Ariana Grande’s One Love Manchester concert, broadcast live in June 2017, raised $450,000 via Facebook. Donations can be made during the Live broadcast or when it is complete and has been posted on the page. ![Facebook Live - Ariana Grande fundraising concert in Manchester](https://wfay6x. infiniteuploads.cloud/2017/09/facebook-live-donate-ariana-grande.jpg) ## Successful Facebook fundraising Facebook has recently used its tools in the US to support giving to nonprofits dealing with the impact of Hurricane Harvey. The [campaign raised $10m](https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104004434677601), including a $1m donation from Facebook. Similarly it is raising funds for Save the Children’s work helping people affected by the floods in South Asia. The company has also donated $1m to that campaign. https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104004434677601   The Facebook Live fundraising tools were used to considerable success by UK agency Open Creates which helped deliver the [ACLU Facebook Live](https://fundraising.co.uk/2010/10/19/i039ve-seen-future-charity-income-generation/) fundraising event in March this year in the USA. (The event was nominated for an Emmy). Paul de Gregorio, one of the small team from [Open ](http://opencreates.com/)who worked on the campaign, told UK Fundraising: “Having used them we think these new tools from Facebook could be transformational for UK fundraisers. As anyone who has heard us speak will know, we are obsessed with making the act of giving as frictionless as possible. If we can move someone to want to give with our creative and storytelling skills the actual act of giving needs to be fast and easy. These tools facilitate that and will enable charities to fuse digital engagement and fundraising at a level we’ve not seen before. It’s all very exciting.” ![ACLU Stand for Rights](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2017/06/aclu-stand- for-rights.jpg) A Dan Papworth-Smyth noted in [Telethon 2.0](https://medium.com/@dansmythphoto/telethon-2-0-a2230ca0eb9f), Red Nose Day USA subsequently ran a telethon incorporating Facebook Live and its donation functions: https://www.facebook.com/RedNoseDayUSA/videos/1885149188426428/   Many US nonprofits are now using their video experience to run Facebook Live appeals. The Humane Society of America for example has posted several live videos of its response in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, appearing with ‘Donate’ buttons. https://www.facebook.com/humanesociety/videos/10155080584277842/ Figures for recent posts’ fundraising income include $14,841 (418 donations), $1,723( 54 donations), and $7,654 (224 donations).   ## When do charities gain access? Selected eligible UK charities will gain access to the tools from the end of September, together with charities in Ireland, Germany, Spain and France. These will be followed in October by charities in Belgium, Denmark, Austria, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal, Finland and Luxembourg.  ## How to apply? Any UK and Ireland charity can register for access to the tools on [Facebook](https://donations.fb.com/en/). To be [eligible UK charities](https://www.facebook.com/help/1251484118194936) must be registered charities and will need to submit further financial details for verification by Facebook. It is not known how many charities will be accepted to test the new tools, but on past experience it is more likely to be a few dozen rather than hundreds. ![Loading](https://fundraising.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/page-views-count/ajax-loader- 2x.gif) ## Comments ### By: HowardLake - Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/09/13/facebook-extends-fundraising-tools-uk-ireland-charities/#comment-3151 - Published: 2017-09-26T08:45:00+01:00 Asthma UK has started accepting donations via Facebook Donate: [https://twitter.com/cafedumonde/status/912583373645852672](https://twitter.com/cafedumonde/status/912583373645852672) ### By: Vicky Reeves - Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/09/13/facebook-extends-fundraising-tools-uk-ireland-charities/#comment-3152 - Published: 2017-10-03T11:20:00+01:00 The only issue with this is that the majority of Facebook users do not have their credit card details sorted within their Facebook account as typically there has been no need to purchase anything within Facebook – so that could be a barrier to donate. I am sure this is part of the long term strategy by Facebook to change this though.. ### By: HowardLake - Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/09/13/facebook-extends-fundraising-tools-uk-ireland-charities/#comment-3153 - Published: 2017-10-03T12:04:00+01:00 Yes, I think there are a number of issues with Facebook’s first implementation of this. I shared some thoughts on the new alerts that would-be donors receive if they don’t complete the donation process on Facebook. It referred to a message on behalf of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, which is one fo the first charities to implement Facebook Donate. — Great technique from Facebook, but…. Is that message crafted by BDCH, or is it standard for all charities who’ve registered for the Facebook donate functions? Can charities tweak it, both in terms of content, and timing eg. how long after the abandoned cart/donation? (I see that has been raised already). And can a charity put these reminders on hold if they need to e.g. to avoid clashing with an emergency appeal, or when TV news etc makes a request inappropriate? Can a charity change “donate” to “donate now”? I’m not sure that the message isn’t slightly confusing: it \*is\* accurate, but when i first read it I thought it indicated that FB somehow knew about the individual’s giving to BDCH – “because you recently started donating to BDCH…”. In fact, no ‘donating’ will ever have happened to anyone receiving that message. How about “Because you recently started to donate to…”? And, the bigger picture. I suspect Facebook users might start to see a slew of these messages, which they’ll assume to have come directly from the charities. Can we expect unsympathetic newspapers to accuse charities of blitzing the public with even more fundraising asks AND especially asks that ‘snoop’ on individuals’ behaviours? (You can imagine how they’ll word it).