Tech: Philanthropy on Facebook | Newsweek Technology | Newsweek.com

Tech: Philanthropy on Facebook | Newsweek Technology | Newsweek.com: "Eric Ding had grown frustrated with the toll that stagnant federal grant money was taking on his department. So at the end of May, the 24-year-old doctoral candidate in public health did something unorthodox: hat in hand, he logged onto Facebook. Ding, who conducts research at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital, used the popular networking site's 'Causes' feature and created the group Support the Campaign for Breast Cancer Research. At first, Ding's group was drawing several thousand of the site's estimated 50 million active users. 'Then it was 50,000 a day,' recalls Ding. Today he's got more than 2.2 million subscribers. 'Within the span of six months, we've created a critical mass of supporters,' says Ding. 'It's just amazing.'"