More charities are establishing Web sites that make it easy for people to distribute information about charitable causes to their friends and urge them to donate online, reports The Wall Street Journal.

What’s more, many groups are creating online spaces where people who use traditional networking sites like Facebook and MySpace can use the sites to send charitable requests to friends.

People are 100 times more likely to donate when asked by someone they know than by an anonymous solicitor, according to a survey cited by the newspaper. Yet online social networks have raised only about $44-million over the past two years, a tiny sum compared with all charitable giving, the newspaper notes.

That may change, though, as more and more young people are using social networks to give, reports The San Francisco Chronicle. The article says young people are increasingly using Internet promotions to send money overseas.