YouTube – On Thursday – announced a suite of features to help non-profit organizations raise funds. YouTube fundraising tools, which have been introduced under the name YouTube Giving, include Campaign matching, Super Chat for Good, Fundraisers and Community fundraisers.
YouTube Giving – what is it?
YouTube notes that for the past several years creators and viewers on the platform have joined hands to work toward a common cause. Now, with YouTube Giving, users will get an opportunity to donate to over 1 million nonprofits in an easy way via YouTube fundraising tools.
“Today we’re sharing a first look at YouTube Giving, a suite of features designed to strengthen the way creators and fans can make a difference through charitable giving on the platform to over 1M nonprofits,” YouTube said in a blog post.
The YouTube fundraising tools are in the beta period currently, and thus, are available to limited creators in the U.S. and Canada. Following the successful testing, the tools will be released globally. For now, you can view the beta version of the YouTube Giving tools on non-profit channels, including Hope for Paws, an LA-based organization working for helping homeless and abused animals.
According to YouTube, all that the non-profits have to do is set up their campaign. The video platform says it will take care of the rest of the processes, including the logistics and payment processing. During the beta period, the company says it will cover all the transaction fees. However, the Google-owned company gave no information on what the charges will be in the future.
YouTube fundraising tools will only be made available to qualifying U.S.-registered 501(c)(3) non-profits. The YouTube Giving suite of features will ensure that your donation goes straight to the charity you want and not to any third party.
YouTube fundraising tools
YouTube has introduced four types of fundraising tools. YouTube’s Fundraisers feature allows the creators to develop and include fundraising campaigns in the description of their video. This feature allows the users to donate using YouTube’s payment processing platform.
The Community fundraisers, which is available to a limited group of U.S. creators, is of help when there are multiple creators. This tool allows the creators to host the fundraiser. The campaign will appear in many videos at the same time, showing the total amount raised. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is using the same feature in collaboration with 12 gaming creators to raise money for funding cancer research.
Next, the Campaign matching feature will help the creators who are raising money to get matching pledges from other creators or brands. The tool will show the matching pledges and from whom they are from. The Campaign matching feature is expected to arrive in the coming weeks, the company says.
Last, the Super Chat for Good will help the creators to raise funds using YouTube’s Super Chat system, which allows the fans to pay to get their comments highlighted.
“They work like the Super Chats that you already know and love, highlighting your message in the chat stream and showing your support for your favorite creators and the causes they care about,” the video streaming firm says.
Other fundraising options
Online fundraising is a growing segment. Popular fundraising sites currently are GoFundMe, Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Patreon. In 2016, Facebook also experimented with the idea of allowing a user to raise funds for the nonprofits they support. Later, the social networking giant expanded the scope of its tool to live video, along with introducing more types of fundraisers that the users could host.
Facebook charges a small fee for its services except for the fundraisers for charitable organizations. YouTube, on the other hand, is still to share the charges details.
Talking of other options that the non-profits have for fundraising, Salsa Engage is one of the best. Salsa Engage with its multiple fundraising modules is a good option for non-profits. It has modules for all you need ranging from digital marketing, peer-to-peer fundraising to general online fundraising.
Salsa’s solutions help the non-profit to target the right donors. You can use email, personal calls and social media to ensure that your fundraising campaign reaches the prospective donors. The platform also assists you in converting prospects into loyal donors using user-friendly conversion and donation forms. Special features of Salsa Engage are: free mobile fundraiser app, built-in fundraising coaching, custom event pages, Individual and team fundraising pages and Dashboard analytics.
