TikTok users can now feature the nonprofit of their choice in their profile to encourage others to donate, reported SocialMediaToday.
Users can select an organization from a list of approved charities and display it on their public profile along with a button that other users can tap to donate.
Donations will be made in the app through Tiltify, a platform that processes charity donation transactions. It’s not clear how charities become approved and featured in TikTok’s list.
TikTok added a set of donation stickers in April, according to SocialMediaToday, which allows users to advocate for charitable causes through their TikTok videos. This new feature will be available wherever the donation stickers are currently active.
The move is especially influential given that TikTok has 100 million users in the U.S. alone, and is on track to generate $27 billion in revenue from advertising alone in 2020, PYMNTS recently reported. It could give a big boost to charities that are suffering a cutback in donations, as consumers focus on saving amid the pandemic
“Donors facing their own financial difficulties have cut back on sending funds even to big-name nonprofits, for example, and United States charities stated in a May survey that they expected donations to dip by at least 20 percent,” according to PYMNTS’ latest Digitizing B2B Payments’ Tracker.
Fundraising stickers are popular on various social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. The latter added a test feature called “Personal Fundraiser,” over the summer that lets users advertise and donate to individual fundraisers.
TikTok has received plenty of attention lately, caught in the midst of a potential ban from operating in the U.S., and a potential sale to Oracle and Walmart. The app could become the force of social commerce progress in the U.S., according to Walmart CEO Doug McMillon.
“If you’re watching a TikTok video and somebody’s got a piece of apparel or an item on it that you really like, what if you could just quickly purchase that item?” he told CNBC in October. “That’s what we’re seeing happen in countries around the world. And it’s intriguing to us, and we would like to be part of it.”
