Philanthropy blog Give and Take asks the question, “Is Facebook’s Fund Raising a Bust?” Having tried giving via Causes shortly after it first launched the answer to this question is not difficult.

Even with the 4.75% processing fee, the Causes application would probably have broader support from non-profits if gifts were given directly to the non-profit instead of passing through an intermediary.

Since all gifts processed through the Causes application are actually gifts to “Network for Good” designated to support the selected non-profit, the non-profit never has the opportunity to interact with the donor.

There is no benefit for non-profits to invest any resources into encouraging annual fund donors to give to a donor advised fund.

Here’s my first hand feedback on the Facebook/nonprofit topic. The Facebook plug-ins that allow donors to support their favorite causes through the popular social networking site basically amounts to a donor advised fund for a new generation. Gifts given through the Facebook Causes application go to Justgive.org where they take a 3% cut for credit card charges, 1% for gift processing, and .5% goes to Project Agape.

If I was to give directly to the nonprofit where I worked via credit card, they would have deducted 1.8% for credit card processing and the rest would go to the intended purpose. If I send in a check 100% would go to the intended purpose.

The problem is further compounded by the fact that when Justgive.org finally does sends the 95.5% gift to the intended nonprofit, no donor information is given to the nonprofit… which makes stewardship and accountability impossible.