Facebook - More than $300 million raised in fundraisers

To mark the first anniversary of its "fundraisers" feature, Facebook announced that donations in 2017 topped $300 million. The feature lets users choose an organisation on their birthday and create a campaign, and their friends donate money to it.

You have probably already seen this feature in action on your friends' birthdays. This Friday, on her 60th birthday, Madonna decided to launch one of these fundraisers to support Malawi, where she adopted some of her children.

Currently, around 750,000 non-profit organisations can be chosen in the tool. But not every user of the tech giant can use it, as the feature is not yet available in every country.

The American company also said it will launch new fundraising options based on feedback. These will include, for example, letting Pages create fundraisers and donate too, as well as matching donations with organisers. Donors will also be able to choose to make a monthly contribution to one or more organisations of their choice.

For people who would like to create a fundraiser but have no organisation in mind, Facebook is planning to add more information about charities. The social network also says that, so far, the organisations that have received the most money are St. Jude, the Alzheimer's Association, the American Cancer Society, Share Our Strength - No Kid Hungry and the ASPCA.

Last November, Facebook dropped its 5% fee on all donations, which means the full amount raised now goes straight to the non-profit the user chooses. For many charities, this is the simplest and least intrusive way to increase the donations they receive, even when the person who creates the fundraiser has never tried donating any other way, such as directly on a charity's website.

It is a remarkable example of how social media activism can lead to tangible results, but we must not forget that every victory has its downside.

Once again, privacy concerns are being raised, particularly about donor anonymity. Many organisations value this highly and, with that in mind, Facebook lets donors choose whether or not to share their donation with their friends.

Some charities also still have doubts about this method and say they hope the tech company will do a better job of 'policing' the hate speech that spreads across the network, especially organisations that work with minority or marginalised groups.

Jeremy Hatch, a fundraising consultant, published a blog post at the end of 2017 about how the feature removes the relationship between donors and organisations, "where ethical standards and practices are usually established".

In a clear attack on Facebook, he adds that non-profits should weigh up every factor before blindly trusting a company whose main goal is to collect user data and make money from it. At the same time, the reach Mark Zuckerberg's company gives these organisations leaves them no choice but to use the feature, so as not to miss the chance to raise more funds.

As an example of how successful the tool is, the organisation supporting immigrant families separated at the border between the United States and Mexico under the Trump administration raised more than $20 million.