Facebook has recently rolled out a new feature – the “Donate” button for non-profits which lets you donate to your favorite non-profit organization right within Facebook – you don’t have to leave Facebook for the transaction to complete.
The feature is currently launched on a test basis. 19 non-profit organizations are participating in the testing. The “Donate” button will be displayed on the top of their pages as well as on the side of the Posts in the News Feed.
Later on this feature will be rolled out to all non-profit participants. Kiva, UNICEF and Red Cross are among the test non-profit organizations. New non-profits can apply here to have this feature enabled for them.
This handy feature will now surely boost conversions and will help non-profit organizations to collect fund for causes.
What will happen when you click the “Donate” button in Facebook?
Facebook has made it quite handy and comfortable. Instead of making people to go out of Facebook and then making them do a few clicks in order to donate for the cause, non-profit organizations can collect donations right within Facebook.
Once you click on the Donate button a pop up will appear and you can fill out your card details right within the pop up. You can also fill out the amount you want to donate and finish the transaction without leaving Facebook at all.
Making it so comfortable will certainly boost conversions for the non-profits.
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Moreover the card information is stored by default and could be used for other purchases via Facebook!
Very handy isn’t?
So is Facebook into collecting your card information?
Yes of course. But it seems to be for a quite reasonable cause at the moment. Unlike the biggies like Amazon and Apple, Facebook is quite behind the race when it comes to collecting user’s card information.
As far as this “Donate” cause is concerned Facebook seems to be genuinely involved. It does not charge any processing fee for making the donation. Rather Facebook is paying the fee itself so the non-profits get all of the donation the user donated.
However, having your card information on their file is going to give Facebook an edge for future improvements regarding purchases made inside Facebook.
Facebook already has rolled out an auto-fill feature (Autofill with Facebook) on third party apps by partnering with Paypal, Stripe and Braintree. This initiative is of course a step towards making users do easy transactions without much typing.
Can I delete my card information after making the donation?
Yes you can. If you do not want to store your card information on Facebook’s file, fine! You can delete your information right after making the donation. Currently you can do so by going to your payment account settings.
While the Donate button makes it much easier to donate, it will be much more easier if Facebook gives an option to delete the card information after the donation process is complete. The option can be something like a pop-up that appears after the “Donate” transaction is complete asking if the user wishes to delete the information or let the information stay.
If you’re an occasional donor, then you would want to delete the card information after the transaction. Or you may wish to keep the information if you donate quite often.
It’s all a matter of personal preference and convenience.
What do you think about the Donate feature in Facebook? Would you use it? Or do you think its another trick by Facebook to get you to type your card info into their files?
Hi Jane Sheeba,
Donate button is surely a good initiative to help non profit organisations. Non profit organisations helps society to grow and they didn’t charge for it. Fan page on Facebook is famous and many people reaches to these non profit organisations via Facebook. If there is Donate button on the fab page then there are more chances that people donates.
When it comes to give credit card information to Facebook or other online sites, we always have only option to trust them. Reliability comes while sharing card information to any online service.
Thanks 🙂
“we always have only option to trust them” – well said Vipin 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Well said Sheeba, i didn’t check but if there is the way to donate even with Debit card which is actually owned by more people in India then that could be more helpful for Indian NGO’s than paying from Credit card.