Did you know that there was a way to add a ‘donate’ button to your Facebook page all along? Well, there was. It was a bit of a long-winded process. You had to access an app by First Giving that let you create a donate button for Facebook, choose your charity from the list that would be given once you accessed the app, and follow instructions to create a ‘donate’ button. It would show up on the left of your page, where you see the list that showed your photos and walls. (Some reports suggest this was only available in the US. Since we don’t have a charity page, though we will create one if you’d like to donate, we can’t confirm.)
But now, Facebook has decided to take a more active part in this process, and has given non-profits the option of putting a ‘donate’ button on Facebook along the banner of your page.
The process is quite simple. You now have the option of creating a ‘call-to-action’ button. You have to make sure that your page has been created under the ‘Non-Profit Organization’ category. Under your ‘call to action’ section, you should see the option of a ‘donate’ button. If you can’t see it, don’t despair. It’s still being rolled out and it might take some time to get to you. A lot of users in the US and UK have definitely got the option so far, and the rest of the world is expected to follow suit soon enough.
So here’s how you do it:
- Go to your cover page. Click on it. Click on ‘Create call-to-action’. If you don’t have that option, better luck next time. Try the app by First Giving we told you about at the beginning.
- Choose your call to action – buy, donate, or whatever. If you’re a non-profit, and you don’t have to be a verified non-profit, you will see the option of ‘donate’. If you’re not a non-profit, read on anyway to find out how to add the ‘call-to-action’ button of another kind.
- Enter your website’s url.
- Click on ‘create’.
- To direct people who want to spend money to your app, once you enter your site’s url, click on ‘Set up a Link to an App?’ beneath it.
- Now we come to a fork in the road. For iOS, in the dropdown menu, make sure you have chosen ‘app’, not ‘website’, and you can add an app link. You could also choose ‘app store link’ and add that.
- For Android, you do the same thing, except that additional options are ‘play store link’, and include a package name and website.
- Again, click on create. You should have your call-to-action button ready to go.
This could be an excellent way to find out how many clicktivists would actually put their money where their mouse is. We have seen hordes and hordes of ‘share’ to save the world and ‘like’ to save the tigers, and ‘comment’ for world peace. Now there’s a viable way people on Facebook can make a difference to the causes they claim to support. We wait avidly to see if any of them actually do so.