Following up on a day of Thanksgiving and a weekend of deals, November 28 is Giving Tuesday — and Facebook is encouraging donations with a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation decided to match the first $2 million in donations — a number the Facebook community reached before noon.
“Today is #GivingTuesday, and Facebook and the Gates Foundation are partnering to match $2 million of funds you raise for nonprofits,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post Tuesday. “We’re also waiving all fees for donations to nonprofits so 100% of donations go to the causes you care about. Thanks to everyone in our community for giving back!”
As part of the day set for donating to nonprofits, Facebook will also be skipping the 5 percent fee the platform usually reserves for powering the donation platform for any donation made to nonprofits based in the United States. Unlike the $2 million dollar match, Facebook will be waiving the fees through the end of the day with no monetary limit.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation match goes to the charities that the Facebook community chose, with matches up to $1,000 per donate button and up to $50,000 given to a single organization. After starting at 8 a.m. ET, the match limit has already been reached.
While new donations will no longer have a matching donation, the nonprofit receives all of the donation through the end of the day, without the typical five percent fee that Facebook generally reserves. There are a number of different ways to give on the platform, including a “Fundraiser” section in the main menu of the mobile app where users can explore different non-profits. Organizations can also create their own campaigns with donate buttons and even the general public can add a donate button to their posts by using the hashtag #donate or creating a fundraiser.
Facebook has had the integrated donate button for several years — and this isn’t the first time the company has participated in Giving Tuesday either, with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation matching $900,000 and Facebook bringing $6.79 million in donations on the same day last year. Earlier this year, Facebook pledged to match up to $1 million in donations for Hurricane Harvey Relief. Over the summer, Facebook expanded its giving tools by making it possible for users to accept donations on Facebook for their birthday, asking friends for donations instead of birthday gifts.
