You'll be able to raise funds for six purposes

Mar 30, 2017 20:41 GMT  ·  By

Facebook seems to have thrown its hands up in the air and said "I don't care anymore!" as the company announced it created a GoFundMe-type personal fundraising feature just days after introducing multiple Snapchat-like features. 

"Personal fundraisers allow people to raise money for themselves, a friend or someone or something not on Facebook, for example, a pet. Personal fundraisers will launch in the US for people aged 18 or older, and in beta over the next few weeks, as we hope to continue to learn and improve the product to make it even more useful," Facebook says in the announcement.

The company said it would start off by allowing people to raise money for six specific categories: education (tuition money, books, classroom supplies), medical (procedures, treatments or injuries), pet medical (vet procedures, treatments or injuries), crisis relief (public crisis or natural disasters), personal emergency (house fire, theft or car accident), and funeral and loss (such as burial expenses or living costs after losing a loved one).

Fundraising made easy

The feature will allow friends to donate with just a few taps on the network, with secure payments, without even leaving Facebook. "Since you can see real profiles on Facebook, donors will see how they are connected to the person who created the fundraiser, the person benefiting and others who are supporting the fundraiser," the social media giant said.

Furthermore, Facebook announced that verified Pages can now add donate buttons to their live broadcasts. This should give public figures, brands, businesses and organizations new ways to gain funds on Facebook for nonprofits they support. As people watch the live broadcasts, they can donate, or they can do this after the broadcast has ended and is posted on the Page.

While this new feature makes sense for Facebook, it's still a bit disheartening to see the social network, once known for innovating, pile up the feature-copies from other tools.

New Facebook feature (5 Images)

Facebook has a new feature
Create new fundraisersDonate money
+2more