YourCause (http://www.yourcause.com)

Launched in April 2008, YourCause is still a little rough around the edges, but overall it's a great destination for parents on a mission to teach activism. YourCause is a social network of people who want to help established charities. Here's how it works: you choose one of the nonprofits listed, give your campaign a unique name (e.g. Help Mary Stop Hunger), set up a page and ask people you know to visit and make donations, which are tax deductible. With 1.5 million charities from which to choose the selection is excellent, ranging from big names such as the American Cancer Society to local animal rescues. Search charities by topic, location, even celebrity; just FYI, Justin Timberlake supports the Memphis Music Foundation. The Cause Pages are attractive and can be customized with a photograph and mission statement. Users may have a little trouble figuring out how everything works at first, but the site provides a detailed FAQ page that should help guide users.

Online interaction: Registered users can friend each other by sending a request through the “Cause Connect” button on users’ cause-related pages. Once the request is accepted, you can add testimonials about the person and email each other through the site. It’s also easy to import contacts from your email address book to encourage people you know to view the Cause page you’ve created on the site.