'Click Here to Save Darfur'

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In 2007, the year eBay's (EBAY) online payment service PayPal created its "donate now" feature, more than 42,000 people downloaded the button, which makes it easier to contribute money to charitable causes. The feature helped fuel a greater than 40% annual increase in payments to nonprofits, according to PayPal's data.

The increase in online fund-raising is, in part, fueled by new donors. Organizations can now reach smaller givers who previously would have been considered too expensive to court due to the high cost of mass mailings. Some are simply more inclined to give because of the convenience of the Web. "It is much easier and accessible to make a donation online," says Ajaz Ahmed, a 30-year-old media executive from London who donated more than $6,000 through Causes to aid Africa. His recent blitz of giving, which included $2,000 to help eradicate malaria on the continent, was the first time he had become involved. "I think the Internet will play a huge role in solving a lot of these issues," he says.

The Significance of Action Beyond the Web

There are also potential drawbacks to new Web forms of organizing. The tools help online organizers tap new sources of funding, but they increase the threshold for what is required to be taken seriously. Since anyone can advocate a cause on a Web page, sign an online petition, or forward a form e-mail to a senator with a mere click of a button, those actions have begun to carry less weight with those in political power, say advocates. As a result, organizers have to ensure that the large numbers they grab online do more than the minimum in order to truly count. Moreover, they have to make sure that those who take action send a clear, unified message to political officials, rather than a cacophony of discordant views. "It's easier to build the movement, it is a little harder to organize the movement," says Sarosh Syed, director of online communications for SaveDarfur.

Still, new social tools are making it much easier for the average person to go beyond adding a name to an e-mail list. More than 4,000 of SaveDarfur's 800,000 Facebook members, for example, wrote personal e-mails to local representatives in a matter of hours after the group sent an appeal to its group list on Causes. At least 11,000 people called their senators last year urging action against genocide thanks to a 1-800-Genocide Web site and accompanying hotline that uses Internet-calling technology to automatically place a call to a legislator, says Genocide Intervention's Hanis. More than 39 senators took additional action on genocide following the campaign, says Hanis.

And where an organizer can't use Web tools to rally constituents, a close friend can. The nature of social networks themselves lets activists harness peer pressure, says Joe Green, co-founder of Project Agape, the company behind the Causes application, which has 11 million users on Facebook alone. It's harder to turn a deaf ear when a big portion of a person's peer group is not only affiliated with a cause but showing up for an early morning rally or coughing up cash for it. "It allows you to apply social pressure," says Green. "There is this power locked into everyone's social network."

Check out the BusinessWeek.com slide show to learn more about the people and organizations helping to fuel this new wave of Web activism.

Holahan is a writer for BusinessWeek.com in New York .