San Francisco, Nov 14 (IANS): Facebook on Wednesday said its charitable giving tools have helped people raise over $1 billion in a span of three years.

So far, over 20 million people have either donated to or started a fundraiser on Facebook.

The social network also announced that it was bringing the non-profit fundraising tools to Canada and Australia.

"Our nonprofit and personal fundraising tools are now available in 20 countries," Naomi Gleit, Facebook's Vice President for Social Good said in a statement.

People use Facebook's charitable giving tools for non-profit and personal causes.

Facebook introduced these tools in 2015. They are still not available in India.


"Our non-profit community also continues to grow, and there are now over 1 million nonprofits in 19 countries that can receive donations directly through Facebook," Gleit added.

With fundraisers both big and small, people have made a lasting difference in their communities.

Save the Children, for example, raised more than $7.5 million over the past two years, which contributed to helping 6.5 million children in crisis across 60 countries.

Similarly, No Kid Hungry raised over $5 million from more than 200,000 donors on Facebook to help feed kids across the US, Facebook said.

"For Giving Tuesday on November 27, 2018, with our partner PayPal we are matching donations up to a total of $7 million for all US-based non-profit fundraisers happening on Facebook that day," Gleit said.