Facebook announces new tools and initiatives for charity causes

Mark Zuckerberg has always said that Facebook aims to build up a better community. In line with this, the company yesterday announced new tools and initiatives to help people keep each other safe and supported on Facebook.

There is a new product called Mentorship and Support, where mentees and mentors come together to connect and interact directly with each other and progress through a guided program developed by nonprofit organizations. Basically, it will help connect people who may need support and advice to achieve their goals with people who have the expertise and experience to help.

Facebook is starting it as a pilot with iMentor (for education) and The International Rescue Committee (for crisis recovery.) Notably, it is only available to people 18 years and older. Mentors are vetted by the partner organizations before they are matched with mentees, and people can also report issues to Facebook if they encounter problems.

Besides this, Facebook is expanding its Nonprofit fundraising tools (including donate buttons and nonprofit fundraisers) to more countries including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Finland and Luxembourg.

Personal fundraisers are also now available in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Austria, Finland, Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark and New Zealand.

Moreover, people will be able to sync their off-Facebook fundraising efforts to Facebook fundraisers, making it easier to tell friends and family about the causes they support on and off Facebook. When people connect their off-Facebook fundraising campaign with Facebook, it creates a Facebook fundraiser that syncs with their campaign page.

Facebook is also introducing a Community Help API, which will give disaster response organizations access to data from public Community Help posts that can offer important information about the needs of people affected by a particular crisis.

Lastly, Facebook is making the Blood Donation feature available in Bangladesh in early 2018.