Firstgiving is not a social network, but more like a feature that you can use to add onto whatever social network you are on. If you want to raise money for a non-profit organization you can make your page and then market it on your Social Networking pages (MySpace, Facebook, etc). If you have any other questions do not hesitate to email me!

To get started click. . “start fundraising” and you can begin to specify what charity you are looking for!

Although there are definitely elements of social networking in the mix—primarily, the use of donation badges to promote a cause—FirstGiving doesn’t seem like a social networking site to me.

If someone can help me understand it better, I would love to try it out. I played with the Project Agape Causes application for Facebook yesterday, and I managed to create a new cause for WWOZ-FM (the greatest community radio station in the world). I’d like to do something like that with FirstGiving, but right now I’m hung up on the search for WWOZ in the configuration wizard.

Another site for your social networking consideration:

Over the last two years, we have led a prominent team of nonprofit and business leaders to develop a strategic plan to unleash essential new resources to address the most important issues facing our world. The team includes:
• the heads of over 125 prominent nonprofit organizations, such as Sierra Club, Sesame Workshop, Save the Children, Global Fund for Children, United States Fund for UNICEF, Rainforest Alliance, Ashoka, Grameen Foundation USA, Lance Armstrong Foundation; International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, and Family Care International
• other social sector leaders, such as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams
• internet leaders such as Esther Dyson and the founders of MeetUp and Shopzilla
• executives from such firms as Sony, Ogilvy, McKinsey, Wolfensohn, IBM, ThoughtWorks, Movado, and Chiat/Day.

The result is ChangingThePresent.org, the first phase of which recently launched. This nonprofit website lets you change the world, in exactly the way you want. For just a few dollars, you can provide a child with her first book; fund an hour of cancer research; protect an acre of the rainforest; or restore a blind person’s sight with cataract surgery. ChangingThePresent.org offers thousands of inspiring donation opportunities from hundreds of leading nonprofits, so you’re sure to find something that moves you, no matter what cause you most care about.

Donation gifts are also a wonderful way to honor friends and family for their birthdays, weddings and holidays. (After all, how many of us really want another pair of fuzzy slippers?) Wish lists and registries make it easy to find the perfect gift. Personalized greeting cards include a photo and description of your donation gift. Imagine, for one delicious moment, the scale of our impact when donation gifts become a social norm.

What you see on the site today is just the beginning of what we have planned. Ultimately, ChangingThePresent.org will serve as a comprehensive marketplace for nonprofits and donors.