• The Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, November 30, 2010 1:03 PM

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes has officially launched Jumo, which he calls a social network for social activism. "The idea behind Jumo is to help people discover causes that matter to them and to their friends and, over time, deepen their ties to those causes," The Los Angeles Times paraphrases Hughes as saying. "That would realize an elusive goal for nonprofits and charitable organizations," according to the L.A. Times.

"Social networking has yet to deliver on its promise of connecting individuals and nonprofits to raise money for causes more efficiently and less expensively than traditional means." According to the paper, Web-based fundraising still lags behind direct mail, events and other ways of soliciting donations. Of the $263 billion that Americans give to charity each year, 5.7% is given online, according to Blackbaud's index of online giving, which tracks fundraising. Of that, less than 1% comes from social media, according to Steve MacLaughlin, director of Internet solutions at Blackbaud.

Read the whole story at The Los Angeles Times »