Social media giant Facebook announced today that it would be rolling out new tools that will make it easier for nonprofit organizations to raise money directly through the site and its associated apps.

“People raise money for disaster relief, they search for missing children, and they bring attention to the issues they care about,” Naomi Gleit, VP of Product Management at Facebook, wrote in a blog post announcing the new tools. “We’ve seen from our community that when people take action, lives are changed. We know we can do more to enable these connections.”

“Today we’re testing fundraisers – a new tool – and improving our Donate button, to allow people to donate to charities without leaving Facebook,” Gleit continued. “We hope these features help nonprofits reach new supporters, engage their community and get the valuable funding they need to continue their good work.”

The new tool will allow nonprofits to raise money by creating their own page for specific fundraising campaigns that include information about the purpose of the campaign, the progress it has made towards its goals, the amount of time remaining in the campaign, and more. The fundraising pages will also include easy to use donation options that allow users to choose an amount to give and share news about the donations they have made with their friends.

“All shared posts will also include a Donate button, making it easy for anyone who sees it to donate and join the fundraiser directly from News Feed,” Gleit added.

The Donate button itself is also getting an overhaul, and Facebook is making it easier to use. Nonprofits will be able to add a Donate button to their Facebook pages and posts, and users will also be able to easily share on option to donate to a campaign with their friends directly through a status update.

“Adding a Donate button to a Page will give a nonprofit a consistent place to collect donations, even as they update their Page’s content. Including a Donate button on a post will give people an easy way to donate directly from News Feed,” Gleit said. “Both of these buttons will make it easy for supporters to contribute using a one-page form without leaving Facebook, and share that they donated with their friends.”

Images courtesy of Facebook Inc