Green|spaces employee Michael Walton gets pied at MainX24 in 2018, the price for raising the least amount of money during the nonprofit's annual Facebook birthday fundraiser challenge. (Contributed photo: Christian Stewart)Fundraising on Facebook "is probably the lowest-effort philanthropy one can think of," writes Davide Banis in a 2018 Forbes magazine article.
That could be why it's become such a popular platform.
In 2015, Facebook first introduced its fundraising feature, allowing users to campaign for and donate to personal or organizational causes without ever leaving the site. Originally, Facebook charged a 4.3% processing fee per donation.
In 2017, the social media giant expanded its philanthropic options by adding "birthday fundraisers," prompting Facebook users to "donate" their birthday to an organization of their choosing, then ask their friends to help support the cause.
Three months later, Facebook announced it would drop all fundraising fees for nonprofits, meaning organizations now see 100% of the donations. However, for personal fundraisers (i.e. vet bills, vacations, etc.), it charges 2.6% plus 30 cents per donation.
Since the inception of Facebook fundraising, more than 20 million users have donated to or started either a personal or nonprofit Facebook fundraiser - collectively raising more than $1 billion.
Birthday fundraiser
Chattanooga’s green|spaces, a nonprofit that promotes regional sustainability, is one of the 750,000 organizations in Facebook’s pool, and each year, employees at green|spaces use the birthday fundraiser feature as an annual giving challenge.“Four of us have birthdays [in November] so we compete to see who can raise the most,” says Dawn Hjelseth, green|space’s director of development.Over the past two Novembers, says Hjelseth, the organization has raised more than $4,000.“It’s been one of the top [fundraising] events for us,” she says.But those four employees are motivated by more than just love for their organization.“The two people who raise the least get pies in the face at MainX24,” Hjelseth says.
Moreover, between 2017 and 2018, Facebook saw a 178% increase in money raised for charity on Giving Tuesday, a global day of charitable giving celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving. That increase made Facebook the No. 1 payment processing platform for Giving Tuesday 2018, pushing PayPal to No. 2.
In his Forbes article, Banis goes on to argue that maybe Facebook philanthropy is too easy and too self-fulfilling, as is the nature of Facebook, thus depreciating the true spirit of generosity.
But, he admits, "In the realm of Facebook, doing good is so easy that it takes more effort not to do it."
By the numbers
750,000: Number of U.S. nonprofits for which Facebook users can start a fundraising campaign$1 billion: Total raised through Facebook for both nonprofit and personal fundraisers as of 2018$300 million: Amount raised for nonprofits in the first year of Facebook’s Birthday Fundraisers feature (2017-2018)20 million: Number of users who have either donated or started a fundraiser through Facebook16: Percentage of millennial-aged users who gave through Facebook in 201819: Percentage of Gen X-ers who gave through Facebook in 201821: Percentage of baby boomers who gave through Facebook in 20189: Percent increase of the probability of Facebook fundraising for every 10 friends the user has$125 million: Amount raised through Facebook fundraising on Giving Tuesday in 2018$98 million: Amount raised through PayPal fundraising on Giving Tuesday in 2018$80 million: Amount raised through Facebook fundraising on Giving Tuesday in 2017$30 million: Total raised through Facebook for St. Jude$7.5 million: Total raised through Facebook for Save the Children$4.4 million: Total raised through Facebook for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals$2 million: Total raised through Facebook for Stop Soldier Suicide$30,000: Total raised through Facebook for the Marine Mammal Center, the world’s largest marine mammal veterinary hosptial. (The money raised paid for 15 tons of herring — enough to feed all of the center’s seal and sea lion patients for two months.)