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Can social networks and virtual communities revolutionize charitable giving?

This is the question that Georgia Levenson asks in a post on Slate entitled “The Facebook Philantropos” (link). Although many people expect that philantropy will be democratised by viral marketing tools like Facebook’s ‘Causes’ application, or MySpace’s Impact add-on, the cold reality is that philantropy is yet another area of modern life where the 80/20 Pareto rule still is alive and kicking: 80% of the contributions to social causes come from 20% of contributors.

Should this discourage us from active participation? After all, a primary motivation for those donating money or time to worthwhile causes is to ‘make a difference’. When you put your contribution into context, it begs the question of ‘is it wortwhile’?

Because only you can answer that question, I’d like to share my perspective on the question. Every time I decide to conduct a Randm Act of Kindness, to donate money to a wortwhile charity, or to give some of my time to making a difference, I remind myself of the following: Only I can give my time, my money, my kindness. And when I do, I make a difference – no matter how small it may be – to someone’s life. To the millions of people that get helped by the millionaire’s contributions, my assistance meant nothing at all. But for the one person that my action helped, it meant the world. And that is why I choose to continue giving to others.