Today at the Facebook Communities Summit Europe, Facebook announced the Facebook Community Leadership Program, a global initiative that invests in people building communities.
Facebook said it would 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.
Facebook's community leadership program is part of the company's push to create "meaningful" interactions.
"We are looking for communities that provide meaning to the people that are in them, we are looking for initiatives that drive positive impact, and we are looking for communities that have both online and offline components," said Dulski, Facebook's head of groups and community.
Facebook's Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said last June that the company's new mission was "to bring the world closer together", and he set a goal of helping one billion people join "meaningful communities" built around hobbies, neighbors, churches, pets and the like.
In addition, Facebook introduced new tools for group admins and the expansion of its London-based engineering team.
The Facebook Community Leadership Program 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 Facebook's 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. Facebook piloted three circles in the US in 2017 and they will expand globally this year.
- Groups for Facebook Power Admins, which Facebook currently runs 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 Facebook's team to test new features and share feedback.
Applications are now open for the residency and fellowship.
Facebook also added four new features to support Group admins.
- Admin tools: Admins can now find member requests, Group Insights and more together in one place.
- Group announcements: Facebook is introducing group announcements to let admins post up to 10 announcements that appear at the top of their group.
- Group rules: Now admins can create a dedicated rules section to help them effectively communicate the rules of the group to their members.
- Personalization: Now admins can add a personalized color that is displayed throughout their group.