A feature, rolling out to Facebook members Monday, lets people click a "Donate Now" button on a participating nonprofit's post that shows up in News Feed. The Donate Now button also gives people an easy way to share the call for donations with friends, helping philanthropy go viral. Facebook is not charging a fee to process credit card donations and is instead paying that fee itself so 100% of donations go to the non-profits.

19 non-profit launch partners will start displaying the Donate Now button at the tops of their Facebook Pages and bottom of their News Feed posts. These include DonorsChoose.org (a personal favorite), Boys And Girls Club Of America, World Wildlife Fund, UNICEF, Red Cross, and Kiva. After some more testing, Facebook will open the feature to additional non-profits, who can sign up for access here:

https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/585894954798346

No more "I've been meaning to write them a check".

Imagine a button for "Fire Up 611", or better yet, for those with much less notoriety - say perhaps - the CNJ #113 group, the Museum in Noblesville, IN working on the restoration of NKP #587 - or maybe a tourist line could set up a drive to restore a steam engine - say the New Hope and Ivyland's CN #1533 or NdeM #3028. Or maybe even something as daring as "Did you chase our train - make a donation here".

I'd say convenience is a large part of the equation. This could be quite an asset!


/Mitch

Interesting idea though it will be limited by the fact that the vast majority of Facebook users have no financial connection to them and that would need to be set up before one can give money.

Steve

I disagree - millions (and millions, if not billions) of users frequent Facebook regularly and based on what I've seen, it is a targeted audience with users following sites daily, if not hourly. And this is not "MySpace" for kids, you can find all ages and all types of people on FB.

Anyone who "Likes" or subscribes to a group is someone that could be reminded or at least given the opportunity to donate. As it is - it's a cumbersome process to donate if the topic even comes up.

I think the convenience is the main factor here - the easier it is, the more likely people are likely to do so. Think fountains, change drop at McDonalds, or for larger amounts - the relief funds set up via texting and the mailers post paid that you get in the mail - vs, you getting around to the entire multi-step process yourself - one day.

/Mitch

I tried filling out the application for the Keokuk Union Depot Foundation, but got stuck at the bottom when they asked for our "501c3 number." Other than the EIN (which they also ask for), the only other number on our Determination Letter is a "DLN" which I take to be either a "Document Locator Number" or a "Determination Letter Number." Does anyone know what a specifically "501c3" number is?

It's the IRS number which the IRS assigns to 501c3's when that status is granted to the non-profit.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4220.pdf

New England Steam is looking at this. We are also using Indiegogo and our website.

I appreciate the "heads up", Mitch.

Where do you find the 501c3 number?

I just submitted the form and put the EIN in the 501c3 number blank too. I'll let you know if they don't like it.

Internet fund raising can be troublesome if you have not filed for charitable status to collect in all of the states per regulations. You may be eligible to collect donations in your own state or directly from your members, but not necessarily eligible to collect dollars from other states.

Look into this requirement before signing up.

Mitch, I think you've missed Steve's point. He said "financial connection". What he meant by that (I presume) is that FB doesn't have my credit card number. They're not getting it either. Frankly, I don't trust them. I don't know how secure it would be, how much they'd give to you and how much they'd keep as an "(in)convenience fee", and worst of all, I don't want some kid hacker compromising my FB password and donating $10K to his favorite band using my CC info.

I am guessing I'm not the only FB user that feels that way. I am also certain there will be plenty of others who don't have those concerns, and will happily give FB any info they ask for.

Good point -- in some states you have to go through a lot of red tape to be eligible to solicit donations from the public and may have to file an annual return, particularly if you're using a paid fund raiser --- which may be the case here, particularly if Facebook charges for their services.

Bob H

I'd actually be happy if Facebook would let me have a donate button that links back to the same donation backend we have on our main web site.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/16/facebo ... ow-button/



"The button will collect credit card numbers and other billing info for Facebook...."

What could possibly go wrong? On the other hand, the fact they're not charging a fee (at least for now) is pretty good.

Also, I just realized that there are quite a few folks who already have their CC info set up on FB. Many of the games sell items, like shiny new tractors in FarmVille or whatever it's called, so you may have a bigger audience than it appeared at first glance.

True but presumably the vast majority do not. I see this as an attempt to woo more people to set up the financial connection so they can make donations and then of course they will be tempted to spend a couple bucks here and there to send someone virtual flowers or whatever else is offered in addition to the gaming stuff. They're not paying the CC fees for charitable donations out of the goodness of their heart. I'm not saying groups in our field should not take advantage. On the contrary; they should.

But let's not lose site of the fact that FB is a business. Just wait til they start rolling out the auto-playing video ads on your smartphone that will start eating into your data plan. Any day now they say.

Steve