Max Gladwell

You can now browse, discover, and deploy do-good widget applications on MySpace. We look at Causes, EcoPerks, My Favorite Nonprofits, and SocialVibe.

MySpace on Thursday launched an application gallery where users can browse and integrate various applications into their MySpace home page and profile. Within the Causes category, you’ll find 30 different applications to choose from, many of which may be familiar from Facebook. Following are some hightlights:

Causes is the king (or queen) of green widgetry. It has 77,621 active users on Facebook and 7,373 on MySpace so far. From Causes:

“The Internet presents an unprecedented opportunity to engage our generation in seizing the future and making a difference in the world around us. Our generation cares deeply, but the current system has alienated us. Causes provides the tools so that any person can leverage their network of real friends to effect positive change.

The goal of all this is what we call ‘equal opportunity activism.’ We’re trying to level the playing field by empowering individuals to change the world. Existing nonprofits must raise hundreds of millions of dollars and leverage massive direct marketing campaigns to attract members. We’re democratizing activism by empowering activists with an arsenal of tools for users of MySpace who want to support a cause and champion it among their network of friends.”

Causes categories are divided into Animals, Education, The Environment, Political Campaigns, Religion, Arts & Culture, Health, Human Services, International, and Public Advocacy. Within The Environment alone, there are 366 individual causes ranging from Stop Global Warming and Surfrider Foundation to Save Water, Shower with Friends. This is your one-stop-shop for doing good through social media.

SocialVibe matches you with sponsors like Coke, Burton, PowerBar, Billabong, and Sprint. You feature them on your MySpace page. In turn, they contribute to your cause of choice based on page views. You also win prizes from sweepstakes related to your sponsorship activity. The Max Gladwell cause is Environment, which “focuses on supporting top-ranked charities concerned with improving and preserving our natural resources for future generations. Areas of support include water quality, global warming research and preventative measures, global wildlife, agriculture, and rainforest preservation and sustainable production of food and building materials.

EcoPerks is a widget from EcoPerks. It currently has 654 active users and works in conjunction with the main site by generating EcoPoints rewards. This is available exclusively through MySpace, so no Facebook option today.

“EcoPerks makes it easy for you to help the planet and earn EcoPoints for participating on MySpace and on ecoperks. com. You can redeem your points for carbon offsets, eco-friendly products and experiences or you can donate them to the cause of your choice.

My Favorite Nonprofits has 481 active users at last count and is another site that’s leveraging MySpace to drive traffic, awareness, and goodness for its main site, Change.org. “My Favorite Nonprofits allows you to list your top 6 favorite nonprofits on your MySpace profile. You can also support these nonprofits by recruiting friends and seeing how much money you help raise.

Like Causes, you can choose to support a broad spectrum of nonprofits in nine different categories. We selected the NRDC. This prompts you to enter your login info for Change.org, at which point you can post a MySpace bulletin and invite friends to join you. Within Change.org’s NRDC support page (which is viewed within MySpace), you can see others who support the same nonprofit, as well as the top recruiters to this nonprofit. Users whose names are also links means they are active in both MySpace and Change.org, so you can network with them in either locale. MFN is available both for MySpace and Facebook.

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