After introducing Birthday Fundraisers a year ago – which, as the name suggests, enable users to create fundraiser posts in celebration of their birthday (prompting donations instead of gifts) – Facebook has this week reported that the option has already seen more than $300 million raised for various charitable causes.
Birthday Fundraisers can be a great way to raise awareness for causes you’re passionate about. For US users, the option to run your own birthday fundraiser will be presented to you in the weeks before the event, with a News Feed notification popping up to prompt you to start your own.
As per Facebook:
“You can create a fundraiser for any of the 750,000 US non-profits available for fundraising on Facebook. Your friends will receive a notification inviting them to support your cause in honor of your special day.
And as evidenced by the numbers, they’re already having a big impact. Adding to this, Facebook’s also announced that it will soon offer users more information when they’re considering which non-profit organization to support with their birthday-linked campaign, making the selection process easier.
“When you click on a non-profit in the list, you can learn more about the organization, their mission, location and how many people like their Page. We also plan to share more relevant information, like popular search terms in the non-profit selection tool.”
The initiative forms part of Facebook’s broader push to ‘bring the world closer together’, giving the platform a means to highlight how it contributes to wider social good – which has become increasingly important amid reports of data scandals and the negative impacts of Facebook on democratic process.
For users, it provides a way to easily contribute and help causes they support. For non-profits, it’s another way to boost donations. And given the amount of funds raised, it may be worth organizations reaching out to supporters to alert them to the tool.