Though it hasn’t launched yet, Jumo, another non-for-profit tool developed by Facebook founder Chris Huges, received lots of attention from the media this week, with an innovative marketing and awareness service for charity.  The application will connect people interested in following nonprofits and charitable organizations, working similar to Yelp as a socially driven resource and recommendation guide.

Chris Hughes mentioned that Jumo is about helping “people find and evaluate them.”  The new tool will concern a wide array of topics, including rural schooling in Africa or gays rights campaigns.  As to be expected, Jumo will also be present on a number of social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, where it can be easily followed, becoming part of ongoing social conversation and network leveraging.

The main mechanism of Jumo will not be in funding or gathering online support for charities, but to connect people involved in like causes. The aim, as Chris Hughes says, is to connect “that individual is to an issue they care about, the higher probability there is they will stay involved over a longer period of time.”  Jumo’s intent, therefore, is to allow small causes to be made more visible through social media.

Facebook might seem to be a competitor to the newly Jumo tool, but Facebook’s co-founder explains that the latter represents the involvement of people in charitable work more responsible than a “like” or “follow.”

Another challenge that Jumo will face is the level of anonymous charitable acts that will appear afterwards. Currently, there is a growing influence of social media, and celebrities, too, to get involved in charitable actions. For example, Alicia Keys’s project of helping to raise $1 million for HIV infected children in India and Africa will begin starting with 1^st of December on Twitter and Facebook. The project is intended to gather a large number of celebrities, bringing their financial support and popularity into this play.

A recent survey, ordered by an online fundraising organization in Texas – Convio, related the fact that Americans spend on average during the holiday season about $280, while donors who have social relationships spend more with almost $100. As an overall perspective of the charitable phenomenon, it is expected that $8 billion will be raised during the holiday seasn, with social media evolving its influential role in this movement.

The effectiveness of social media in charitable missions was proven by Twitter recently, with the TwitChange campaign, which made possible the online celebrity charity auction. This was a successful representation of the power of monetization of social media platforms and to raise awareness about social issues.