Put your paws together for the Humane Society of the United States, which topped the one million Facebook fan mark earlier this week.

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A six million member strong Facebook movement seeks to channel support and private funding directly to the latest cancer prevention research.

The Campaign for Cancer Prevention and its partner, the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, leverage Facebook and Causes to raise private funding for cancer research and build the six million member network over the past five years.

This week, CCP announced eight new research projects at BWH that are aimed at early detection and cancer prevention.

Supporters can contribute money directly to the research project of their choice using the Facebook platform, among other methods.

The only funding these eight projects will receive is through the CCP Facebook site.

The eight projects range from studying black women’s susceptibility to lung cancer, to whether blood tests can determine the likelihood of breast cancer, to identifying markers for early ovarian cancer detection.

Amazingly, all CCP projects are designed to deliver results in 11 months or less to yield immediate impact for cancer prevention.

Joe Green, co-founder and president of Causes, said the following in a press release:

As one of the first causes launched on our platform, it’s been truly exciting to watch CCP accelerate and increase its impact. At Causes, we’re focused on empowering those who want to make the world a better place and the Campaign for Cancer Prevention is one of our most shining examples.

In addition to the eight research projects, CCP and BWH launched a new web site, campaignprevent.com, to support the initiative’s Facebook effort.

Almost 116,000 likes and 8,846 donors, mostly small dollar donors, are listed on the CCP Facebook page. It seems to be a true grass-roots movement linking individual funders to the research project of their choice.

The announcement is timely, since October marks National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and several of the research projects focus on breast cancer detection.

What do you think of the CCP’s use of Facebook to help fund cancer research?

If you’re on Facebook, you can help underserved Americans get dental care.
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Our weekly growth leaderboard has seen its share of twists and turns since last Thursday. We have quite a few new applications, some continuing trends to note, and Causes bounces back with yet another solid week. Remember to use our statistic tool to analyze all of the applications on Facebook. Take a look at this week’s list below. Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook’s do-gooder application Causes is donating $10 to charity for every purchase from participating florists ahead of Valentines Day.
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Facebook wants do-gooders to continue to do their thing on this site and not go running off to startups like the one started by one of the company’s original founders.

Perhaps that was the motive for this afternoon’s chat that  Facebook’s Washington D.C. office hosted with Wendy Harman, social media director for the American Red Cross; Clay Dunn, online community director  from Share Our Strength, and Sarah Koch, manager of nonprofit services for Causes.

Based on the half-hour video discussion of their best practices, here are five ways to improve a nonprofit’s page on Facebook.

Educate people about the issues and your practices

Use active language to describe your organization’s activities and objectives. Quantify accomplishments: number of people helped, amount of money raised, scope of aid given. Similarly, supply statistics measuring the extent of the problems that your group is addressing or solving. The more specific you get, the better.

Have two-way conversations with fans

Encourage those who “like” your organization to post on your wall. Ask appropriate questions and create compelling content that will inspire participation. Make a point of reading others’ postings on your wall because the feedback can help you shape your group’s policy. Also, these practices have a way of growing your fan base.

Gather donations

Options for soliciting donations on Facebook continue to grow. So far, Causes has raised $30 million for nonprofits on the social network. Other charitable ventures are just beginning to make use of programs incorporating Credits into donations. These things have only just begun to get going, but already they appear cooler than going door-to-door or telemarketing. When your friends can see your altruistic inclinations, they often get inspired to follow in your footsteps. And vice versa.

Get signatures and other participation

Whether you’re trying to get lawmakers to hear your side of a story, or get your local elections officials to include your issue on a ballot, Facebook offers a highly effective way to reach large numbers of supporters quickly. The same goes for organizing rallies or protests that would occur offline. Make good use of the events feature to remind people to attend your events or show up at the polls.

Network with other nonprofits

Unlike how for-profit brands approach social media, there’s really no such thing as competitors  for non-profits — all are potential partners and role models that will likely show you everything you want to see under that proverbial kimono. Reach out to the page administrators of charities and other organizations that have goals similar to your own. Once you make that first connection, the possibilities are virtually endless. Compare notes on what you currently do, would like to do better and possibilities for collaboration.

Readers, do you agree with these five suggestions? Are there any recommendations you’d like to add? And what has your experience been with either running nonprofit pages or interacting with them as a fan?

One of Facebook’s original founders and Mark Zuckerberg’s former roommate at Harvard enters the limelight today with the official unveiling of Jumo, akin to an entire social network version of Causes.
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Causes, the popular Facebook charity application, has raised another $9 million in funding and introduced gift cards to let people donate online without using a credit card. The story in the San Francisco Chronicle says the new gift cards are available in Safeway and Vons supermarkets in California in denominations of $25 and $30.
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In an effort to spread awareness about breast cancer, women across Facebook are sharing where they like to place their handbags, although it’s clearly somewhat of double entendre.
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A new message is spreading around Facebook suggesting that users honor a 5 minute moment of silence for all victims of the Haiti disaster. While the source of this message is unknown, numerous users are posting the details to their personal profiles. The moment of silence movement has now been translated into multiple languages as found via a public search on Facebook.
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