Richard MacManus writes in Non-Profits on Facebook and MySpace:

Amid all the hoopla over social networks Facebook and MySpace, both major social networks have prominant sections for non-profit activity. Facebook’s is called Causes and MySpace’s is Impact. …

Currently, the 5 most popular causes in Facebook (in terms of users) are:

1. Support Breast Cancer Research (1,444,427 members - $31,277 donated)
2. Stop Global Warming (627,293 members - $9,416 donated)
3. Save Darfur (473,996 members - $35,803 donated)
4. Animal Rights (546,781 members - $9,208 donated)
5. Stop Dog Fighting Now (281,291 members - $10,761 donated)

… Facebook Causes seems to be doing more for charities at this point, although raising money via Facebook doesn’t appear to be easy - with none of the top 5 Causes having raised more than $40k. Still early days though, because it only launched in May 2007. Currently MySpace Impact seems dominated by political causes - which are non-profit, but not likely to inspire those with a charitable bent to use MySpace.

Social networks aren’t a panacea, or a golden goose for non-profit groups and community organisations, but clearly some people are directing their donations via these spaces.

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