Facebook has launched a feature that encourages philanthropy and donating. Facebook users, about a week before their birthday, can decide if they want to choose a nonprofit organization to essentially sponsor, and raise money through their social media friends.
The system that launched in 2017 has enabled over 750,000 organizations to gain exposure and donations. Forbes.com reported in October 2018, “Last August, the social network announced that in one year this new functionality raised over $300 million.” The same article also expressed that the company previously used to take a 5% fee on every donation, but since November 2017, 100% of donations go to the nonprofits.
This process is simple, making it likely that people will participate in the donation process. There is no doubt that donating to a charity can be helpful. However, the specific process of donating that Facebook provides can be somewhat difficult for specific charities because it does not generally create recurring donors.
In addition to this, donating or creating a donation on a social media platform can seem ungenuine. Social media is notoriously known for users aiming to portray themselves in a certain way. Having the option to publicly “sponsor” a nonprofit organization may be an aspect that people use for their social media clout, rather than a genuine reason. When creating a birthday charity, Facebook fills in an automatic status that in sum says that the said organization means a lot to the person due to a personal reason.
Popular donation site GoFundMe is an example of charity donations gone wrong. In 2017, a woman and her boyfriend conspired with a homeless man to make money through a GoFundMe page. After receiving a large sum of funds – nearly $400,000 – investigators found out that the only a portion of the funds were going to the homeless man, and the remaining was used by the couple for recreation. Because of this, it is necessary that people do research prior to donating to a cause. This is especially necessary when choosing to do a Facebook birthday charity because Facebook does not provide a description for each charity.
Difficulties for the charities is a common theme in this donation system. When users have the option to select from a list of charities, the algorithm displays the top charities that a user’s friends have donated to or “liked” their page. This may spark difficulties for nonprofits that are not as well-known, since there are over 750,000 charities to choose from. When choosing to donate to or sponsor a Facebook birthday charity, do research on the organization and use genuine reasoning behind your choice to ensure effectiveness.