Facebook’s new fund to provide small businesses with capital will give the online social networking company a total of $50.4 million over five years, according to an agreement announced Thursday.
The new fund, which will be established through the annual community service competition Facebook is holding, will be a portion of the $1 billion the social network announced last week for small businesses to support in 2015.
The program will provide funding for small companies to create, develop and launch new products, websites and services to provide for the needs of consumers, and for them to engage with one another, according Facebook.
It will also be used to expand community, grow, and support small business.
The fund is one of several initiatives that Facebook has launched since the beginning of the year aimed at helping small businesses thrive.
The company announced a $200,000 grant in February to help build its mobile app marketplace and a $400,000 fund to help companies find, recruit, and hire talent.
Facebook also announced a new program that offers more than 1,000 online jobs to help businesses reach their customers and to make their business more sustainable.
The Facebook community service initiative will fund about 70 businesses, including a number of high-profile ones.
The fund will be made available through a combination of public and private donations, including $1 million from the foundation.
The funds are in addition to a $100 million fund that Facebook will make available in 2015 to help the social networking site grow.
That money will be used by the company to expand its products and services for people in underserved communities.