Last May, Facebook , which has joined MySpace as one of the leading social networking sites on the Web, launched "Causes," an application that enables its users to raise money for -- well, for just about anything nonprofit. Since then, more than four million Facebook users have joined Causes, according to the Non-Pofit Tech Blog . Some of those users have created Cause pages and initiated great recruitment and fundraising efforts, and some have given simply donated through Causes pages. Read more...

Standalone donor databases are on their way out, integrated Web-based services on their way in.

Fundraising is one of the most important things you do. Yet finding the right software to adequately support all aspects of your fundraising efforts can be a challenge—and bewildering—especially with recent developments in that particular technology niche.

Formerly dominated by large standalone donor databases, the fundraising software space has been undergoing a swift evolution in recent years. New integrated packages that provide a broader range of functionality are coming into their own. And customer relationship management (CRM) packages are gaining popularity due to their ability to provide a more holistic view of all the individuals who might be touched by the fundraising process—no matter how tangentially. Read more...