PayPal Gets In To The Game

It looks like PayPal has joined the trend of providing badges and widgets for individual users to integrate into their own online profiles. A number of companies - like Network For Good and Chipin - are doing similar things, but the entrance of the financial juggernaut PayPal could change the conversation quite a bit.


A new PayPal Facebook application has popped up which allows users to both create a donation badge and track who else in their network has added the badge to their profiles. It's interesting not only because the average web user is likely to associate a certain amount of information security with the PayPal brand, but also because the Facebook integration allows a user to actually track activity on their network.

Privacy issues aside, this could be a new way for someone working on behalf of a non-profit to actually take full advantage of the network effect generated by online fund raising. Yet another example of why non-profits should be joining the activity on Web 2.0 sooner, rather than later.