Charitable Facebook Applications

I admit I spend way too much time on Facebook. I read the top 25 lists, make the random Wikipedia-based album covers and list all my favorite books (pretending someone else cares). But I am trying to make my Facebook time more productive, so I learned I could save the rainforest while "poking" my friends, and help fund breast cancer research by launching a Facebook application. It's all about volume - the more we all click, the more each Facebook application will give, so let's get clicking. Granted, cancer won't be cured tomorrow just because you used a Facebook application, but every little bit helps and none of this will cost you a dime. Many more charitable Facebook applications are easily found with a quick Facebook application search.

1. Lil Green Patch: This was the first charitable Facebook application I discovered. A friend gave me a virtual plant and asked for one back. I thought it was a cute, friendly and ultimately meaningless gesture. But it's actually saving rainforests. The sponsors of this very popular Facebook application donate money to organizations working to protect threatened rainforests. And your friends know you're thinking about them when you use this Facebook application to send them a cute plant.

2. Save the Rainforest: So you handed out some digital bansai, but you're still bored? How about a word game that helps, you guessed it, save the rainforest. This Facebook application gives you a word and you guess the synonym from the multiple choice list. For every six words you get right, the sponsors will adopt one square foot of rainforest. May not seem like much, but the Facebook application has already adopted more than 225,000 square feet of rainforest. A few wordsmiths on a rainy afternoon could really boost that total.

3. Zoo Builder: I like all the charitable Facebook applications on this list, but this is my favorite. You get to run a zoo without actually shoveling elephant dung or worrying about giving them big enough enclosures (in my imaginary zoo, all the animals have huge habitats, yet they are always easily visible and doing cute things. Don't you want to visit my zoo now?). So you buy animals and ice cream stands, etc., and encourage friends to visit your zoo. That brings in more money and you can get cooler animals and better vendor options. All the while, money is being raised for the World Wildlife Fund. The Facebook application is really new, still in beta phase, but it has already raised $2,000 for the WWF.

4. Click a Day to Support Animal Rescue: This Facebook application is basically a click-through for an existing campaign. Click on a purple button as many times as you want. It links you through to the Animal Rescue Site, run by Petfinder.com, and gives money to this organization. So where does the Facebook application come into this? Once you "join" the application, you can invite friends and tally your invites and clicks, then rank yourself against other members. So maybe it's not really in the charitable spirit to want to be No. 1, but there are worse things to excel at, right?

5. Facebook Causes: Remember how I said this wouldn't cost you a dime? Facebook Causes is the exception, but I have to mention this Facebook application. Regular Facebook users have probably been harassed by friends about a children's hospital or religious organization. If so, they know about Causes, the world's most popular Facebook application. There's no gimmick here. It's about actual monetary donations for actual charities - updated for the Facebook social networking generation. Grassroots charities can skip the expensive TV ads or mass mailings (who needs more mailing labels for the snail mail envelopes nobody sends anymore?). Instead, they can use the broad, interwoven network of millions of Facebook users. They get free advertising. You get personal donation recommendations you can trust. The group has nearly 24 million active users, and had raised more than $5 million by April 2008, according to Project Agape, which launched the Facebook application. By the way, since we're friends now, can I recommend contributing to the St. Bernard Project, a great grassroots organization that is rebuilding homes outside New Orleans that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Get giving. Maybe I'll see you at my zoo.