Charities and Social Networks

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090425/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_social_fundraising_online

Not only can social networks be used to connect people, they also are a great way to funnel directed advertising at a certain group. Here is a perfect example where a charity is benefiting from a Facebook application by using the ad money generated while using the app to increase donations.

Charity and social networks brings up an interesting thought. Earlier in the lectures, the idea of trying to find a job from a friend that is an acquaintance rather than a family friend, in order to increase the diameter of your job search network. Same concept for raising money for charity, especially for things like Dance Marathon. If you ask all of your family relatives for money, you may be limited in how much money you can raise as you are only tapping into a very limited network. But what if you focused on reaching out to contacts that aren't directly in your social network? By reaching out to weaker ties in you networks, you may be able to find much more affluent links that would have a vested interest in the charity you are raising money for. Even with the birthday paradox, you already know what you have with your family, but by reaching out at random to weaker ties in your social networks, you have a pretty good shot of finding someone that will donate a lot of money to your cause.

a non-online example of charity through networking is asking your parents to sell stuff for your organization at work, or leaving a donation jar at the cashier's desk of a restaurant. You don't know any of the people you're selling to, but are doing it through an intermediary. a couple degrees of separation leads to much more fundraising than could possibly have been done with just people in your immediate circle, whether linked weakly or strongly.