If you haven't been hearing the word "Facebook" on a daily basis, then you likely haven't been paying attention! Over the space of six short months, this social networking site has rocketed its way to centre stage in the lives of millions of people – many of whom had never engaged in online communities before. With the launch of their developer platform in June 2007, they transformed themselves overnight from a website into a "platform", offering anyone the opportunity to create applications for Facebook users.

Some people developed silly things (like the Happy Hour app), some developed absurd things (like the Zombie app)... and some did their best to leverage this opportunity to use Facebook as a tool for social change. With the launch of the "Causes" application, we at Artez wondered whether we were watching the start of Facebook's foray into the world of online fundraising. A few months in, I have some thoughts about this.

I think what we're seeing with Causes is a great example of "low fidelity" engagement. People are quick to declare their support for a cause by "adding" it, but this hasn't readily translated into donations for the charities. Also, while Causes is great in that it raises awareness - and hopefully money - for important charitable organizations, my concern is that it mediates too much of the relationship between the charity and the supporter.

Put it like this: Facebook is great at making "introductions" and getting the word out, but it shouldn't be the one mediating the supporter relationship. We have seen that charities generally want to have direct access to their donors and supporters. Therefore, the responsibility for processing the transaction, receiving the gift, and owning the supporter data shouldn't be left to a third party.

And so... we're developing our own Facebook application, to help our clients continue to develop "high fidelity" engagement with their supporters, and to keep all the important aspects of donor relationships in their control. Read on to learn about how it will help you use Facebook to reach your fundraising goals...

Essentially, we want our clients to be able to offer their fundraisers a way to use Facebook to help reach their fundraising goals. In the early stages, our application will offer a simple way to include their fundraising projects and progress on their Facebook profiles, with a stylized link back to their personalized Artez page... but we're currently developing an "intelligent widget", which will interface directly with the Artez Solution, and continually update your profile with data about your fundraising progress.

So imagine you're trying to raise money for the Run for the Cure. You add the Artez application (customized for the Run for the Cure), and select where to place it on your profile. You select which friends to tell about your goal, and invite them to support you by clicking directly through to your personal Artez page. Your Facebook profile will be updated in real time so that you and your friends can watch in real time as you move towards your fundraising goals. Then, you can get creative with your use of Facebook to help you reach your goals – like by using your status updates to report on your progress, or by changing your profile picture to something unique that will remind your friends to support you. Most importantly, the data about new donors, and the relationships that you create with them, remain in the control of the charity – not a third party without accountability.

As I said, everyone and their cousin is talking about Facebook these days – so we figured we should bring some of our experience with charitable online fundraising to the table. We're excited about offering this to our clients. Watch this space for updates!