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The deadly tornado that ripped through Oklahoma has Americans coming together to raise money for the relief effort. One way they’re doing this is through crowdfunding and one platform helping people launch fundraising efforts is called Fundly; the company’s CEO is also an Oklahoma native.

Social media’s reaction to the Oklahoma tornado disaster quickly turned to crowd-funding relief efforts. Fundly CEO Dave Boyce joins digits with a look at what philanthropy looks like now.

People have flocked to crowdfunding to support and raise funds for the victims of the tornado that swept through Oklahoma.  The appeal of knowing where your donation is going and the direct result draws people in huge numbers with some campaigns reaching over $1 million already.

In the aftermath of last week’s Boston Marathon bombings, social platforms have become an important tool not just for sharing information about the events, but for raising funds for its victims.

Fundly CEO Dave Boyce talks about the role of crowdfunding in the wake of national disaster and tragedy.

A whole new generation of do-gooders are more comfortable with technology then they are with mailing checks and crowdfunding sites like Fundly are the place they go to give.

Indiana University Cyclists compete on the track for speed and off the track to see who can raise the most money for scholarships.

The world’s largest crowdfunding-for-good platform, Fundly (www.fundly.com), and Indiana University’s “Little 500″, the country’s largest collegiate bike race, have teamed up to launch the first-ever crowdfunding campaign in the 63-year old annual fundraising event’s history.

Major Gregory Stone, Staff Sgt. Jason Faley and Staff Sgt. Jacob Frazier were all there with their Air Force brothers from the same community, waiting for the start of a long run March 28.

But even seconds before kickoff time, they were nowhere to be seen — only their names etched into the side of a baton as a stark reminder that Tactical Air Control Party … doesn’t forget its fallen.

Now in its 63rd year, Little 500 at Indiana University Bloomington remains an important cycling event, and it also continues to be a crucial means of raising money for student scholarships…

…Competitors in the bike races this year also are getting more involved with Little 500′s philanthropic aspect. Individual team pages, “Cycling for Scholarships” have been created through Fundly.com…

The world’s largest crowdfunding-for-good platform, Fundly (http://fundly.com/), today announced that Charity Dynamics, a leading online marketing agency focused on leveraging technology for nonprofits, has become a Fundly Premier Partner.

Out of the navy and attending college, neither Plym or Enis currently has health insurance, and they are seeking help with their medical bills through the Fundly website.

Before platforms like Causora, its unrelated cousins including Fundly, Causes.com, Crowdrise, StartSomeGood and Razoo (among many others) cropped up to address a similar question: what is the best way, or an alternative way, for people to give back, when donating money is the status quo?

Check out how our Customer Experience Officer (CEO) “does what he loves for a living” in Business News Daily…

Vivienne Harr is a nine year old firecracker from Marin County, California who came across a wretchedly gripping photo taken by professional photographer Lisa Kristine, a remarkable artist who captures honest, but horrific portraits, of human slavery.

The picture is haunting. And it didn’t sit well with little Vivienne Harr.

Traditional fundraising usually involves something like a bake sale or auction. Now, social media has opened up a vast new arena where almost anybody can raise money for almost any goal. It’s called crowd funding and apparently it really works.

A healthy gift this holiday season. While crowds packed the stores on black Friday and others shopped online — some chose to give a miracle. It’s a new campaign aimed at offering a chance to fulfill holiday wishes with a gift from the heart.

Crowdfunding, employer relief funds and employer-supported volunteerism are among ways employers are assisting communities—and their own employees—that are struggling to regain their footing from the destructive force of Hurricane Sandy and a nor’easter that created new storm-related woes.

A pilot in New York I have never met in person … tweeted out as … that she was organizing a “Grillin’ For Rockaway” event on www.fundly.com to raise $1,000 and fry up a mess of hot food for NYC-area peeps displaced by Superstorm Sandy. I tweeted a few times challenging the rest of the aviation family to throw down for this good cause, and in no time, … aviators … joined me in helping Tracy out. At one point, Tracy said “@Av8rdan I think you’re campaigning harder than I am for this, ha ha. No amount of thank you’s is enough ” to which I replied, “Tracy, no prob, it’s what we Airplanistas do.”

Frank Murtagh watched in disbelief as his Long Beach, N.Y. home filled with water during Hurricane Sandy. But for the 53-year-old father-of-two, the experience was much different than most, as he had to be lifted into an attic crawl space by family members during the worst of the storm.

Murtagh has been living with cerebral palsy since birth. He wears a full-body brace and relies on a specialized electric wheelchair to get around.

The new social media-based Give Miracles fundraising program provides charitable donors with a tangible holiday giving experience. By choosing which pediatric medical item to give to their local children’s hospital, donors can see the gift’s direct impact on the children in their community. Holiday do-gooders can visit http://givemiracles.org to purchase a gift individually, or use the site’s social media functions to rally friends and family to crowdfund a gift.

As a scientist who has depended entirely on major grants to fund my projects — a painstaking process with a low success rate — I became extremely interested in the concept of crowdfunding for science research and education.

The instant communication flow afforded by social media is increasingly becoming a part of everyday life—and when natural disasters hit, time is critical. During Hurricane Sandy, many who were left in dire straits found a way to communicate and reach out for assistance through social media.

Banking that America has a huge headache from round-the-clock divisively negative political advertising, Asq.US, an Ann Arbor technology firm, has engaged crowdfunding platform Fundly to help take the money out of politics without a constitutional amendment.

When nonprofits marry tried-and-true fundraising techniques with social media, social fundraising is the result. Social fundraising is only a couple of years old and very much an emerging practice, but it has already shown tremendous power and promise in its ability to turn an organization’s stakeholders into fundraisers. With 90 percent of nonprofits having a presence on Facebook in 2011 and virtually all nonprofits having some presence in social media, best practices in social fundraising are evolving quickly as nonprofits use measurement to learn what works best.

In Issaquah, native New Yorker Sabina Honig awaited word from family and friends as Hurricane Sandy walloped the East Coast.

Lingering damage from Hurricane Sandy led organizers to cancel the New York City Marathon, but Honig did not let the setback interrupt her race. Instead, she set out from home in the Issaquah Highlands on race day, Nov. 4, and logged 26.2 miles on local streets.

As Kimberly Bellinger watched the devastation of Superstorm Sandy strike her fellow New Yorkers, she knew she had to do something. As a resident of the Upper East Side in Manhattan, Bellinger, 31, never lost power. But she watched the devastation unfold across several social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Hurricane Sandy has had an astonishing impact on the eastern seaboard of the United States. Dozens are dead. New York officials estimate that up to 40,000 people were left homeless by the storm. The FEMA trailers made famous in the wake of Hurricane Katrina could be on their way back in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

…crowdfunding portals such as Fundly are making an effort to rush aid to those in need.

While telethons and canned food drives still abound, social media is fast-transforming the speed and scale of Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, as storm victims appeal to family and friends – and friends of friends – for support through platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Fundly. Thanks to these social media channels, those in need don’t have to wait for FEMA or the Red Cross to show up at their door – now, anyone with an Internet connection can immediately start fundraising on their behalf.

Prior to Sandy, had you ever had to deal with a disaster situation at this or any restaurant?

“This is the first one we’ve really dealt with. When Irene was here, it wasn’t a problem. We didn’t have water come anywhere near us. This time, we got hit very hard; the whole downtown area is in a bad situation.”

When he was rushed to Maricopa County Medical Center five months ago with serious burns over 90 percent of his body, Boyd Smith was not expected to survive.

Smith, however, beat the odds and this week he is slated to leave the facility’s Arizona Burn Center and head for an extended-stay in rehab as he continues his miraculous recovery.

Maple Valley resident Ryan Light earned a spot to run in the NYC Marathon, the largest event of its kind.

But Hurricane-turned-storm-Sandy may thwart Light’s dream to run the NYC Marathon and raise awareness for Go For Hope International, a charity that supports educational opportunities for children in South America.

Many non-profit organizations are turning to social media to raise money, sometimes from donors thousands of miles away. We continue our look this week at crowd funding with Erika Miller on how one social media site is changing the school fundraiser.

Many non-profit organizations are turning to social media to raise money, sometimes from donors thousands of miles away. We continue our look this week at crowd funding with Erika Miller on how one social media site is changing the school fundraiser.

Dave Boyce grew frustrated after spending countless hours reaching out to friends and family trying to sell wrapping paper and greeting cards for his children’s school fundraising campaigns. “There had to be an easier way to reach out to social networks to help fund causes we care about, but I couldn’t find one,” he says.

Go behind the scenes with Dave Boyce, CEO of Fundly and see what inspired him to get into crowdfunding before the craze and where he see’s the industry headed in the future.

Social networks play a big role in cause-focused and political fundraising, according to start-up Fundly, a platform that lets you put your various social networks to work for a cause. Founded in 2009 by serial entrepreneur Dave Boyce, the site aims to tackle one of the biggest challenges of fundraising—getting the word out via social networks.

Portfolio interviews Dave Boyce, CEO of Fundly, and learns his secret – that to truly be successful at the practice one has to fully embrace the first part of the name and believe in the power of the crowd.

Sites like YouCaring.com, IndieGoGo.com, GiveForward.com, and Fundly.com help patients raise funds for high out-of-pocket expenses like hospital visits, home nursing, surgeries, copays or medications.

Fundly, a philanthropy website which launched three years ago, says that more than 10,000 campaigns on its website have raised more than $240m. This is “a leading indicator that crowdfunding works – people are looking to get involved,” says David Boyce, chief executive of Fundly. Combined with the ability to make a return on the investment, he forecasts that some of the early online platforms are set to turn into vibrant start-up exchanges.

Dave Boyce, CEO of Fundly, talks about the impact of social media fundraising, including an effort to help a local family cover the expenses of a very sick child.

“The big idea is that giving is social. It always has been,” says Boyce, sitting in a glass conference room looking out at a team of programmers in an office decorated in startup chic. “Friends ask friends to join them in supporting a cause.” Why wouldn’t that social transaction move to the Web; the way buying books, picking a restaurant, planning a trip and purchasing songs has?

Crowdfunding—where one posts an imagined project online and asks people to chip in to fund it—has taken off in the past couple of years. But the process can still be difficult, particularly if the person(s) behind the project don’t see momentum building early on.

In a recent post on PhilanTopic, our CEO, Dave Boyce, describes a new generation of fundraisers, “one that simultaneously distrusts traditional institutions and places great value in social networks.”  This generation has demanded a way to directly impact the causes they care about and they’re getting it through crowdfunding. I highly recommend this quick read to anyone who has ever considered fundraising for any cause, whether that cause is a registered nonprofit, a local organization or a personal endeavor.

Teen kids News does a great overview about how inspiring teens are using CrowdFunding to raise money for causes they believe in. View the segment on the Teen Kids News website for from Fundly’s Vimeo page.