Yet the conservancy is less concerned with raising big bucks than with planting seeds for future support from the younger generation active on social networks.
The group recommends its social-networking activities to past donors who cannot afford to give cash because of the bad economy but still want to help, she said.
Even if social-networking sites draw relatively little money now, it's imperative for nonprofits to explore them, said Melissa Brown, associate director of research for the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Surveys by the center show that direct mail and phone solicitation have become less successful in recent years, while Internet fundraising has risen steadily.
As more users gravitate to social networks, it makes sense for nonprofit groups to follow. The Humane Society of the United States used a Facebook application to promote this year's "Spay Day" drive in support of spaying and neutering.
The campaign invited people to upload photos of their pets to a Humane Society Web site and solicit contributions from family, friends and others. A Facebook application — and other interactive "widgets," or small programs for blogs and MySpace pages — helped participants reach more potential donors.
It's uncertain how much was generated through Facebook. But this year's campaign, the first to use the application and other widgets, was more successful than previous ones. For every "tweet," or short message, supporting the campaign, Fathom Events made a pledge. Social-networking sites "lower the fundraising barrier," offering nonprofits an inexpensive way to reach mass audiences, Tobin said.
If you have that and make it fun or pull at the right heartstrings, you can get a lot of activity going. One potential pitfall: "Donor fatigue" might set in as social-networking sites become increasingly cluttered with pleas for help from do-gooders, said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
Thursday 22 July Friday 23 July Saturday 24 July Sunday 25 July Monday 26 July Tuesday 27 July Wednesday 28 July Thursday 29 July Friday 30 July Saturday 31 July Sunday 1 August Monday 2 August Tuesday 3 August Wednesday 4 August Thursday 5 August Friday 6 August Saturday 7 August Sunday 8 August Monday 9 August Tuesday 10 August Wednesday 11 August Thursday 12 August Friday 13 August Saturday 14 August Sunday 15 August Monday 16 August Tuesday 17 August Wednesday 18 August Thursday 19 August Friday 20 August Saturday 21 August Sunday 22 August Monday 23 August Tuesday 24 August Wednesday 25 August Thursday 26 August Friday 27 August Saturday 28 August Sunday 29 August Monday 30 August Tuesday 31 August Wednesday 1 September Thursday 2 September Friday 3 September Saturday 4 September Sunday 5 September Monday 6 September Tuesday 7 September Wednesday 8 September Thursday 9 September Friday 10 September Saturday 11 September Sunday 12 September Monday 13 September Tuesday 14 September Wednesday 15 September Thursday 16 September Friday 17 September Saturday 18 September Sunday 19 September Monday 20 September Tuesday 21 September Wednesday 22 September Thursday 23 September Friday 24 September Saturday 25 September Sunday 26 September Monday 27 September Tuesday 28 September Wednesday 29 September Thursday 30 September Friday 1 October Saturday 2 October You build yourself an avatar, usually one that somewhat resembles you except that it has a giant head and a tiny body.
At first, your character has a limited amount of clothes and accessories it can wear. That'll change as you accrue virtual money. Your YoVille character starts in its own apartment, and with your mouse you can move it around, by clicking on doors. As the name suggests, your character lives in the town of YoVille, which has a bank, gym, casino, diner, nightclub, shops and even an animal shelter, if you'd like your avatar to get a pet.
A factory on the outskirts of town provides your character with employment -- the more money you earn, the more stuff you can buy.
If your friends have the application installed, you can socialize with them in YoVille. Or you can make new friends in YoVille by walking up to someone else's character and initiating a chat. If all goes well, you can add that person as a buddy.
Your friends can visit you in your apartment, or you can meet up at the diner or nightclub. Your game of YoVille can continue indefinitely.
It's constantly adding new features and locales to the game. Your YoVille character can live a solitary life. But it's better if you start or join a "crew. There's really no strategy to Lil Green Patch. You just plant things in your garden and send friends things to plant in theirs, hoping they'll return the favor.
Supposedly, for every 10 friends you send a plant, you'll save one square foot of rainforest. The donations are possible through advertising dollars. The more plants you send, the more people you get to sign up and that means more eyes on the ads. To maintain your Lil Green Patch, you need certain supplies. Of course these are available in the store, where you can make purchases with GreenBucks. You receive GreenBucks every time you tend to a garden.
You can also remove plants from your garden and sell them in the Marketplace. Lil Green Patch is a simple game: Plant flowers and fruit with your friends and save the rainforest at the same time. Lil Green Patch simulates a garden in your profile. As you tend to your garden and help friends tend to theirs, sponsors donate money to the Nature Conservancy's Adopt an Acre program and other reforestation projects.
The developers of Lil Green Patch state that, to date, they've saved more than 59,, square feet 5,, square meters of rainforest on the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica [source: Lil Green Patch ].
The game has 5. Some Facebook users report viruses or spyware downloading during game play. These destructive programs can disable the game, send out spam, infect an entire computer -- the varieties of attacks are nearly endless. Because Facebook games are hosted and maintained by third-party developers, hackers can get into those servers and load up the games with nasty surprises.
Experts strongly recommend you install anti-virus and anti-spyware applications on your computer. You may have noticed postings like this one on your friends' walls, "Pete Smith has requested help against a Rival Family in Mafia Wars," and wondered what the heck was going on. It's Mafia Wars, a social game with more than 9. The object of Mafia Wars is to work your way up to Godfather by performing tasks and getting your friends to play the game.
Mafia Wars has three main points of play -- Rank, Fighting and Respect. To ascend in the game you must increase these, which happens through recruiting other players and friends to your "family," earning virtual money from criminal activities, arming your family with weapons, and fighting other mafia families. Good clean family fun. When you first begin playing the game, an elder named Luco guides you along.
He'll show you how to recruit your Facebook friends to the game and offer other tips on how to build a large family.
The game is text-based -- not a simulation or virtual world.
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