Facebook birthday fundraisers raise $300 mn in 1st year

an Francisco, Aug 16  Facebook birthday fundraisers, a feature that allows users to raise funds for the causes they care about and donate it to nonprofit organisations, raked in more than $300 million in the first year, the company has said.

To make it easier for users to pick one non-profit from a list of over 750,000 nonprofits on Facebook, the social netoworking giant also announced new tools for people using the feature.

"...we will soon provide more information: when you click on a nonprofit in the list, you can learn more about the organisation, their mission, location and how many people like their Page," Asha Sharma, Facebook's Head of Product, Social Good, said in a statement on Wednesday.

"We also plan to share more relevant information, like popular search terms in the nonprofit selection tool," Sharma said. 

Earlier, Facebook added new tools to nonprofit fundraisers, like the ability to match donations and add organisers to fundraiser. 

Pages - including those run by brands, public figures, and nonprofits themselves - can now create and donate to fundraisers. 

And it added a tool so people can make recurring monthly donations to the organisations and causes that are important to them.

Since November 2017, Facebook waived fees, so 100 per cent of all donations made to nonprofits on Facebook go directly to the nonprofits they are supporting.