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Giving is big business. Every year non-profit organizations solicit companies in the hope of obtaining

Giving USA reports corporate giving increased 5.5% to $14.1 billion in 2009.

Businesses are willing to give, but are often confused as to which causes might be best for them.

Bell Canada, for example, receives 9,200 requests for either philanthropic or sponsorship support each year

ell faces a major challenge in dealing with these applications, and making the difficult decisions concerning which to support and which to turn down, while striving to get good value for its sponsorship investments. Overall, she points out, the objective is "to connect to the things that matter"

Bell does not sponsor individual athletes, individuals who simply have an idea or cause they wish to promote, or business launches. If applicable, Foster points out,

Virtual Volunteers - How to Recruit Online Volunteers For Nonprofit Fundraising

Most parent organizations, charities, teams, and other non-profits can always use as many volunteers and donors as they can get.Organizations have difficulty finding volunteers for a variety of reasons.

the smaller and more local the organization is, the smaller the number of potential volunteers there are available.

Flash forward to 2011, and philanthropy is the new black. Everywhere you turn, people are spending a few months abroad to build a school

volunteering at the blood bank in the evenings after they finish their 9-to-5 job. Everyone has a cause

This nouveau philanthropic righteousness is definitely making the world a better place and is empowering a generation to believe that they, as concerned citizens of the world, can make a difference to global issues

Corporations have, not surprisingly, turned their marketing lens to the social networks, and they're running their corporate giving programs like a race for prom king.

Too often, it's the popular kid, and not the most deserving one, who wins. This type of giving poses definite ethical questions. That corporate marketing divisions are using social responsibility as a way to boost the bottom line is the least of these. The aforementioned $200,000 is actually but a part of the $5 million Chase claims to have donated

There's another advantage for Chase to hand out money this way: they're splashed all over your Facebook news feed as good-hearted bankers with whom you might just want to do business. But are these dollars solely devoted to helping charitable organizations, or are they just another way of advertising? A multi-billion dollar corporation shouldn't be allowed to write-off advertising as a charitable contribution.

GamesThatGive is one company helping brands take advantage of the social gaming boom via Facebook

GTG makes custom-branded Facebook games with charitable twist. For example, its You Play, We Give campaign for MasterCard donates as much as 10 cents to Junior Achievement Hudson Valley for every minute a person plays the game, which has more than 30,000 Likes and gets more than 80% of visits from returning visitors. On average, gamers spend 45 minutes on the game page each visit.The concept and execution are the same for GTG’s other big-name clients — Pepsi, Propel, Starbucks and Quaker. A user can play those companies’ custom-branded games on Facebook for a short amount a time until a pop-up box appears requesting that the user “like” the company in order to “double your donation.”“Not only are thousands of dollars going to charity as a result of people playing games, but large companies are successfully using branded social games to turn Facebook fans into customers,” Archer says.