Trouble with Facebook

Have you ever used the Causes application and found that it didn’t work?  I have been really disappointed with Facebook as a donor tool.  I had really high hopes when I first started using it and have been disappointed in how poorly it has performed.  I think that we are in a very exciting time where the every day person can start to make a huge difference by asking their network to support issues they believe in.  However it seems that Facebook has so many different and arguably useless applications that people have stopped networking that way.  Is this a problem that you have experienced as well?

In terms of applications that use viral community I have found the Network for Good widget more successful, LinkedIn, or even Ning.  There is a new widget out there that pulls together a number of other online widgets connected to volunteering & activism run by Social Actions (read more about their work).

Currently the most successful way that I have seen online fundraising happen is through businesses that provide an online peer-to-peer model that has partnership applications through Facebook.  Often these organizations have badges or giving pages that can integrate with multiple media outlets and can stand alone. I think that online widgets are a really interesting and upcoming fundraising tool but they do not seem to be all that successful as of yet.

What has your experience been with widgets?  Have you used the Facebook cause application successfully?