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Previous research from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has found that a fifth of US adults have made a charitable contribution online, and that 9% have done so using texting. But a new survey of 863 individuals who contributed money to the Haiti earthquake efforts using texting donations shows that this behaviour can be replicated, but only in other high-profile disasters such as the BP Gulf oil spill or the Japanese tsumani. Think of this as impuse charity, very much in the moment.

Clothes for a cause are a time-honored trope on the Web. The mass production of garments became synonymous with exploitative labor in the 20th century, but the tone has changed in the 21st. Now that the Web has reduced the cost of retail and made international, 24/7 business possible, clothing companies can use their spare change to do some good.

Sevenly is one such company, and it uses the Web with aplomb. It has only been around since June, but it has raised over $175,000 for charities so far. Sevenly chooses a different charity each week, and it sells limited-run t-shirts and hoodies for that charity for seven days only. The hype is driven by Facebook and Twitter. "About 85% of our sales come from social media," Palmer says. The campaigns work by putting the cause right at the top.

A Swedish charity is claiming a first after setting up a paywall on Twitter in which people pay to read Tweets from some of the country's celebrities.

Author Susanna Alakoski, pop singer Niklas Strömstedt, music journalist Fredrik Strage, director and actor Felix Tobias Herngren and television host Gry Forssell are among 15 noted Swedes who have spent the past week Tweeting for Stockholms Stadsmission, a charity that focuses on homelessness in the Swedish capital. More than 500 people have forked over the equivalent of $4 U.S. to follow the celebrities in the fundraiser, which ends Wednesday.

Think about how much stuff you have. Are you at your desk? Open the drawer next to you. What's in there? Do you really need all that stuff, or is some of it just taking up space? Is any of it electronic stuff? Any old cell phones or chargers for cameras that broke? What about CDs or DVDs for old operating systems? Does your computer even use those anymore?

There's value in all that stuff. Los Angeles-based startup KarmaGoat is working on capturing it, and then giving you 900 ways to give it away to charity. Sell your excess stuff online and donate the proceeds to the cause of your choice. It's just an experiment for now, friends exchanging things with one another. But lots of folks are buying a new phone every year. What do they do with the old ones? If KarmaGoat can scale up, all those phones could be re-sold as a swarm of little mini-fundraisers for any of almost 1,000 causes (so far).

The social Web has a tendency to fold in on itself. Shortly after the launch of Google Plus, for example, users began to complain that it was only being used to talk about Google Plus. Drew Olanoff, currently the community manager for Get Satisfaction, would prefer that social networks revolved around their people instead of themselves. After being diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2009, Olanoff built his experience into a Web phenomenon that offered connections, support, and some hopeful levity to people affected by cancer. His work is now bolstered by the launch of a new social network called I Had Cancer, which has created an engaging, Web-centric support system for cancer fighters, survivors, and their friends and family.

The charitable giving service SwipeGood is launching a new feature today called "SmartGiving" that will enable its users to donate to different charities based on their monthly spending patterns.

SwipeGood's goal, according to co-founder Steli Efti, is to build a "simple, elegant solution to giving." By tying donations in to your regular spending habits, SwipeGood has certainly made it simple. The company rounds up to the nearest dollar on every credit card transaction you make, and then donates that lump sum to a charitable organization. That works out to a roughly $20 donation per person who's joined the platform so far - spare change adds up.

In times of horrific disaster, we want to reach out and help. That's especially true if we've actually seen events unfold in front of us as they happened, whether it's on live TV or Twitter.

For the organizations and agencies that raise money to provide relief, this is a critical time. Potential donors are seized with the urgency of the situation - and are flocking to their websites.

Which means usability suddenly takes on even greater importance. Add one form field too many, program in an unnecessary intermediate step, put a button here instead of there, and you can lose those donors... and the money they might have given.

With Thanksgiving and the holidays right around the corner, the urge to give may be welling up inside. Also welling up may be the laziness that comes with the cold, grey winter months, but don't let that stop you - giving can be as simple as a Tweet or Facebook update.

HelpAttack! is an Austin-based startup that connects your online activities with donations to the offline world and Twitter and Facebook are just the beginning for a company that looks to bring donations to the data-driven Web.

This past weekend marked the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's destructive landfall in New Orleans, Louisiana. While the flooding caused by the hurricane was horrific, the events brought out the best in humanitarians - many of whom leveraged the power of the Web to help raise money and gather supplies for relief efforts. Half a decade later, the Web has become a power platform through which to donate to charitable organizations, and one company - Endorse for a Cause (EFAC) - hopes their platform can take this trend to a whole new social level.

A group of podcasters in Portland, Oregon have teamed up with internet friends around the world to create a new type of charity fundraiser, a live streaming telethon. Called 30 Hour Day, the event begins this evening. It will use streaming media services to deliver the content, the Causes Facebook application to collect donations, and Twitter to spread the word.

30 consecutive hours of music, variety acts, podcasts and other entertainment will raise money for local charity organizations. Will it work? Portland has a deep community of geeks and connections all around the web, so perhaps this group will be able to keep people entertained around the clock.