Here at Firstgiving, we really believe in the power of connecting people to raise money for the causes they believe in. And social media - blogs, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, social networking, etc. - is the latest way to connect people for a cause or any reason. So we’re running some donation promotions to help people learn more about how to use social media to promote online fundraising:

• First, we talked about tagging, and donated $500 to Debbie DeCerbo’s Fundraising Page
• Then, we dug Digg, and donated $100 to the Bly Family Runs Together for Team Hoyt and $500 to is Caitlyn Langley’s fundraising page for the Aplastic Anemia & MDS Foundation for having the most Diggs during the promotion.
• Right now, we’re in the midst of the Twitter promotion, and will award a $250 donation later today and another one next week to random people who follow @firstgiving and Twitter about Firstgiving fundraising pages.
• As you know, we have a Facebook application and recently relaunched our Facebook group, so you shouldn’t be too surprised if we do a Facebook promotion sometime in August. Just sayin…

Don’t be put off by social media, it’s not that hard. You’re already reading a blog, aren’t you? How about leaving a comment about your experiences and suggestions for effective Web 2.0 fundraising?

Debbie DeCerbo’s Fundraising Page is the winner of Firstgiving’s “winjuly” promotion, and we’ve made a $500 donation to her fundraising page for Lupus Foundation of America’s New Jersey Chapter.  Congratulations, Debbie!  Debbie will be walking the Walk for Lupus Now in October in Union, NJ, and we wish her all the best.

For the rest of the summer, Firstgiving will be running donation promotions where your use of social media to promote your fundraising page could win a free donation for your cause.  This week’s promotion is about Digg and is only running through Friday, so get to work!  Watch this blog for more…