FacebookFacebook is expanding options for donations and nonprofits on social media — and now the social media giant will stop taking a cut of those donations as well. On Wednesday, November 29, Facebook announced a slew of new changes for nonprofit organizations at the Social Good Forum, expanding options for donating on the platform, finding help in a crisis, or even finding a mentor.
After ditching the 5 percent cut of the donation that goes to Facebook for building the platform on #GivingTuesday, Facebook is making the change permanent. The social media giant said that 100 percent of all donations will now go directly to the nonprofit. Along with eliminating the fees, the company is setting up a Facebook Donations Fund that will send financial assistance to communities after a disaster to the tune of $50 million a year. And besides with contributing itself, Facebook will also be setting up matches with other organizations to make community donations go farther.
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Non-profits can also potentially create more successful fundraisers using Facebook’s new API tools. The platform allows organizations to connect campaigns that don’t originate on Facebook to Facebook, essentially allowing users to donate without leaving Facebook, even though the campaign was first launched elsewhere. The tool also allows users to share the campaign or create sub-campaigns. For example, for a 5K that is raising money for a cause, individual runners can sign up and get a Facebook donate button to share with friends, tracking that runner’s fundraising progress.
Another API expands the previously launched Community Help tool. Launching initially with the American Red Cross and NetHope, the API allows organizations to use Facebook to gather data following a crisis. The tool allows individuals to ask for help and in turn helps organizations determine what’s needed where quickly.
Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is also launching a new platform that gives back not financially but with time and support. Mentorship and Support is a new program on Facebook where users can find a mentor and receive support through Facebook. The mentor matches are done through non-profit organizations, starting with iMentor and The International Rescue Committee, which means that organization vets each individual before recommending them as a mentor. Facebook says the new tool can be used for users struggling with addiction or looking for help to advance their career. The tool is only available to users who are 18 or older.
The updates also come with expanded fundraising tools reaching additional countries, both for nonprofit fundraising tools and for personal fundraisers. In addition, the blood drive tool that launched in India earlier this year will also expand to Bangladesh in 2018.
Bluesky barrels toward 1 million new sign-ups in a day
Social media app Bluesky has picked nearly a million new users just a day after exiting its invitation-only beta and opening to everyone.
In a post on its main rival -- X (formerly Twitter) -- Bluesky shared a chart showing a sudden boost in usage on the app, which can now be downloaded for free for iPhone and Android devices.
Sometimes, whether you're chatting with friends or posting on social media, words just aren't enough -- you need a GIF to fully convey your feelings. If there's a moment from a YouTube video that you want to snip into a GIF, the good news is that you don't need complex software to so it. There are now a bunch of ways to make a GIF from a YouTube video right in your browser.
If you want to use desktop software like Photoshop to make a GIF, then you'll need to download the YouTube video first before you can start making a GIF. However, if you don't want to go through that bother then there are several ways you can make a GIF right in your browser, without the need to download anything. That's ideal if you're working with a low-specced laptop or on a phone, as all the processing to make the GIF is done in the cloud rather than on your machine. With these options you can make quick and fun GIFs from YouTube videos in just a few minutes.
Use GIFs.com for great customization
Step 1: Find the YouTube video that you want to turn into a GIF (perhaps a NASA archive?) and copy its URL.
I paid Meta to ‘verify’ me — here’s what actually happened
In the fall of 2023 I decided to do a little experiment in the height of the “blue check” hysteria. Twitter had shifted from verifying accounts based (more or less) on merit or importance and instead would let users pay for a blue checkmark. That obviously went (and still goes) badly. Meanwhile, Meta opened its own verification service earlier in the year, called Meta Verified.
Mostly aimed at “creators,” Meta Verified costs $15 a month and helps you “establish your account authenticity and help[s] your community know it’s the real us with a verified badge." It also gives you “proactive account protection” to help fight impersonation by (in part) requiring you to use two-factor authentication. You’ll also get direct account support “from a real person,” and exclusive features like stickers and stars.
