Peter Deitz, Micro-Philanthropy Consultant

When it comes to online fundraising, an obvious tip is to meet your current and potential donors where they are. Today, millions of prospective donors between the ages of 18 and 35 find themselves on Facebook.

In June 2007, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the release of FBML, a scripting language that assists developers in creating custom "applications" for the popular social network and its 40 million active users. Each application enhances the functionality of Facebook in one way or another. Some build bridges to external web sites. Others help friends on Facebook interact in new ways.

To help tech-savvy nonprofits sort through the fundraising options, this brief guide includes:

• An introduction to Causes, Change.org, ChipIn and Fundraising
• Suggestions for leveraging several fundraising applications at the same time