This morning at Mashable’s Social Good Conference in New York, Facebook marketing and outreach director Randi Zuckerberg spoke about Facebook’s plan to reach out to the world of nonprofit organizations via their Gift Shop.  Caroline McCarthy covered the announcement on CNET.

At the conference, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook is going to be reopening their Gift Shop to charity gifts.  She said, “We are exploring ways for developers to use the Gift Shop to offer… virtual, real and charity gifts.”  Before this morning, Facebook had announced their plan to open the Gift Shop to third party developers looking to make a profit and to expand the Gift Shop to integrate real, physical merchandise as well as e-cards and virtual gifts.  However, their inclusion of charity gifts shows Facebook’s commitment to community outreach, in addition to profit.

Facebook will be testing out the new system starting next week.  Four charitable organizations and nonprofits have signed on as test partners.  These organizations includeProject Red, Kiva, the World Wildlife Fund and Tom’s Shoes.

Aside from the nonprofits a number of other developers, including American Greetings Interactive, Someecards, Real Gifts and GreetBeatz are part of the test run, with third-party gifts located alongside Facebook’s regular virtual gifts in the Gift Shop.  If all goes well, Zuckerberg says Facebook’s new Gift Shop platform “may open to everyone really soon after that.”

Image via Jim Fruchterman