By Jennifer Dulski, Head of Groups and Community, and Ime Archibong, Vice President, Product Partnerships
Today at the Facebook Communities Summit Europe, we announced the Facebook Community Leadership Program, a global initiative that invests in people building communities. Facebook will commit tens of millions of dollars to the program, including up to $10 million in grants that will go directly to people creating and leading communities.
In addition, we introduced new tools for group admins and the expansion of our London-based engineering team that builds technology to help keep people safe on Facebook.
More than 300 community leaders from across Europe came together today in London including Blind Veterans UK, an advocacy organization that provides practical and emotional support to blind veterans and their families; Donna Mamma, a support group for mothers in France to share advice and information; Girl Skate UK, which celebrates and brings together the female skateboarding community; High Society PL, a group of sneaker enthusiasts who bond over their shared passion; and Berlin Bruisers, Germany’s first gay and inclusive rugby club.
Facebook Community Leadership Program
Community leaders often tell us that with additional support they could have more impact. The Facebook Community Leadership Program is designed to empower leaders from around the world who are building communities through the Facebook family of apps and services. It includes:
- Residency and Fellowship opportunities offer training, support and funding for community leaders from around the world.
- Up to five leaders will be selected to be community leaders in residence and awarded up to $1,000,000* each to fund their proposals.
- Up to 100 leaders will be selected for our fellowship program and will receive up to $50,000* each to be used for a specific community initiative.
- Community Leadership Circles bring local community leaders together to meet up in person to connect, learn and collaborate. We piloted three circles in the US in 2017 and will be expanding globally this year.
- Groups for Facebook Power Admins, which we currently run with more than 10,000 group admins in the US and UK, are expanding to more members to help them share advice with one another and connect with our team to test new features and share feedback.
Applications are now open for the residency and fellowship. To learn more and apply, visit communities.fb.com.
New Tools for Group Admins and Members
Group admins want to keep their communities safe, organized and engaged. Today we added four new features to support them.
- Admin tools: Admins can now find member requests, Group Insights and more together in one place, making it easier to manage groups and freeing up more time for admins to connect with members.
- Group announcements: Group admins want to be able to more easily share updates, so we’re introducing group announcements to let admins post up to 10 announcements that appear at the top of their group.
- Group rules: Keeping communities safe is important. Now admins can create a dedicated rules section to help them effectively communicate the rules of the group to their members.
- Personalization: Each community has its own identity — now admins can add a personalized color that is displayed throughout their group.
Expanding London Engineering Team for Community Safety
A team of engineers across the globe builds technologies that help keep our community safe and secure. London is home to Facebook’s largest engineering hub outside of the US, and by the end of 2018, we will double the number of people working in London on these issues.
Our engineering work on community safety includes the following:
- Detecting and stopping fake accounts: Working to make sure Facebook is a community of people who can connect authentically with real people.
- Protecting people from harm: Reducing things like harassment and scams that can happen in the real world and on Facebook, by building better tools to spot these issues and remove them.
- Improving ways to report content: Making it easier for people to give us feedback about things that shouldn’t be on our platform, which works in conjunction with our automated detection.
People find meaning and support in community, online and in person. The programs and tools we announced today are designed to help the admins who lead these communities to grow and strengthen bonds among members. We are inspired by these leaders and look forward to continuing our efforts to support them.
*The final payment amount in USD may vary due to potential exchange rate fluctuation at the time of payment. At the time of announcement, $1,000,000 USD equates to approximately €810,000 Euros or £718,000 GBP; $50,000 USD equates to €40,500 Euros or £35,900 GBP.