Say what you will about Facebook, but the social media frontrunner is known to set trends, not follow them.   Facebook makes it easy to connect with friends, but it has also placed itself on the cutting edge of charitable giving. It’s a nonprofit marketer’s dream: a telephone tree that is instantaneous, cost effective and infinite in size. By offering people and organizations a platform for creating innovative programs and methods for donating money or just supporting a worthy cause, Facebook is setting the trend for connecting with charities.

Social networking sites are a magnet to millions, and Facebook is the largest by far. This vast audience represents a huge pool of potential donors for charities around the world, both large and small. No matter what the cause – children’s health, global warming, the arts or endangered species- savvy fundraisers have discovered that connecting with likeminded individuals and businesses is a powerful, low-cost way to raise funds.

The appeal of reaching donors through Facebook lies in the power of viral fundraising, in which supporters not only make donations themselves but encourage others to do so as well by posting charity badges, likes and status updates on their own walls. When your friend likes a charity, and mentions donating to them, you’re more likely to trust them and do the same. Charities on Facebook take advantage of this highly visible way of giving. After all, if you’re likely to garner praise from your friends for giving, aren’t you more likely to give?

One of the main benefits of Facebook fundraising efforts is that they enable smaller groups to compete with large, well-funded nonprofits for donations. In today’s connected world, people care most about finding a charity that resonates with what’s important to them. Because of the ease and low cost of a social networking campaign, a lot more charities are able to capture the attention of potential supporters, business partners, and contributors. This trend has also encouraged more individuals to help raise funds for their favorite charity or even establish their own nonprofit foundation for a cause close to their heart.

Facebook has made it even easier for nonprofits to connect with potential donors, by offering their Causes App.  This application is available for download at the site, and allows any Facebook member to create a cause, recruit friends to support it, circulate information about the cause, and raise money for a registered charity that addresses the causes. Most of the popular causes created are devoted to cancer research, animal abuse education, and fixing global warming, but there are hundreds of thousands of other causes at the website (www.facebook.com/causes).

Social media is transforming how nonprofits do their work, but more importantly how they relate to their supporters. By making charitable work and giving a visible, peer driven incentive, nonprofits can benefit from the free exposure on Facebook. And by making their favorite charities more public on their own Facebook walls, everyone can easily do their part to help.