Facebook announces new ways for nonprofits to raise money.

One truism that non-profit organizations face is that nonprofits must invest in technology, get up to speed and stay current, or suffer the consequences. 

Computers and smartphones are now a part of every aspect of our lives. Every small business, corporation, foundation, etc. has some sort of computer system that they depend on. The gathering of information and the analysis of that data could/should help the organization to design a stronger strategic plan, which in turn helps it to meet its mission. This is done by knowing their audience.

Having and maintaining an informative website is critical to delivering information about programs and asking the audience to participate in the cause. In standard marketing terms, data allows you to sell deeper. Furthermore, websites are now the new business cards that are working on the organization’s behalf 24/7 – the website augments the promotional effort by increasing availability and reach. In addition, a website can be setup to measure the number of hits, conversion, and illustrate the demographics, all of which can increase a nonprofit’s marketing strategy effectiveness. 

Facebook is working on making it even easier for nonprofits to make money, reach larger audiences, and increase their donations. The social media company released a new update on Thursday that allows users to fundraise for their favorite nonprofits through Facebook Live. The new feature allows for Facebook users to connect fundraiser pages directly to a Facebook Live, displaying a donate button and fundraiser progress on the live video.

Facebook users can now choose from more than 750,000 nonprofits when they choose to launch a fundraiser. Nonprofits have to go through an official Facebook verification process in order receive Facebook donations. Nonprofits that are not approved can still request approval from Facebook.

Naomi Gleit, vice president of Facebook’s Social Good program, hopes that the new Live tools will increase the success of rate nonprofit campaigns.

“We believe that the best way to do the most good is not to fundraise ourselves —it’s to empower the community to,” Gleit said at a Social Good Forum in New York City.

Facebook is working on addressing issues many nonprofits face. Sometimes a nonprofit may have a need for a specific software package to address a specific program that is being administered but, a good Donor based program can cover everything else – all donations, profiles on major donors, events, membership and reminders for renewal.

Facebook hopes the new nonprofit donation model will help solve the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge problem. An issue that occurred after millions of people shared videos in support of ALS but, the ALS Association could not reach, handle or receive donations from a large percentage of people that were involved.

“We realized it would have been easier if you could donate directly to ALS from Facebook,” Gleit said at the event. “This would remove a bunch of clicks and steps. We have an existing payment platform, and we can handle the traffic.”

Facebook also announced that the company will be kicking off this new feature for the Movember movement.

“For the month of November, people in the U.S. can use Facebook to collect donations and increase awareness for their Movember Foundation campaign in support of men’s health. They’ll be able to sync their fundraisers then raise money through both Movember.com and Facebook.”

However, Facebook is not helping nonprofits raise money for free. Facebook has a standard processing fees on donations, which amounts to 5 percent of each donation.

Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg is working on stopping fake news from spreading on the popular social media website. Outlined in a Facebook post, Zuckerberg reveals plans on releasing new systems to stop misinformation including: third-party verification services, automated detection tools and easier ways for Facebook users to report fake news stories.

“The problems here are complex, both technically and philosophically,” Mr. Zuckerberg wrote. “We believe in giving people a voice, which means erring on the side of letting people share what they want whenever possible.”

Following Donald Trump’s Presidential victory, many people accused Facebook for swaying the election by allowing for fake news stories to go viral on the platform. Zuckerberg called the belief “a pretty crazy idea.” Facebook’s CEO later explained that less than one percent of the news posted on the website was fake.

Even President Obama called out Facebook for the spread of fake news stories on their website. During a news conference in Berlin on Thursday, Obama called out the problem with misinformation spreading on Facebook and in the media.

“Because in an age where there’s so much active misinformation and its packaged very well and it looks the same when you see it on a Facebook page or you turn on your television,” Obama said. “If everything seems to be the same and no distinctions are made, then we won’t know what to protect.”

During the last three months of the election, Buzzfeed reports that fake news stories led to nearly 9 million shares, reactions and comments on Facebook. In addition, a large majority of those fake news stories were in support of Donald Trump and attacked Hillary Clinton. In fact, the most shared fake news story circulated on Facebook was a false story titled “Pope Francis shocks world, endorses Donald Trump for President”. That single story had 960,000 shares.

According to Paul Horner, the owner of the fake news site reported earning an estimated $10,000 a month in advertising revenue from Facebook and Google. In an interview with the Washington Post, Horner explained, “I think Donald Trump is in the White House because of me.”

Horner went on to explain, “My sites were picked up by Trump supporters all the time. I think Trump is in the White House because of me. His followers don’t fact-check anything — they’ll post everything, believe anything. His campaign manager posted my story about a protester getting paid $3,500 as fact. Like, I made that up. I posted a fake ad on Craigslist.”