There's a new app to help charities engage their Facebook fans in reaching a broader audience and fundraising within their own networks. FanFunder lets charities specify exactly what they want to raise money for in order to appeal to subsections of their fan base. Their fans can then create personalized campaigns to raise money from their own groups of friends.

FanFunder has two elements: appeals and campaigns. Charities can create "appeals" for specific needs and purposes, such as ten new wheelchairs that cost $1,000 each or $10,000 for mosquito nets to prevent malaria in Africa.

App's users take on pieces of an appeal

Individual users make a nonprofit's appeal more personal, customized and relevant to their own friends, thereby creating a "campaign." They can also use campaigns to break up a charity's larger appeal into smaller sub-appeals that can be easier to achieve and connect with.

For example, with that appeal for ten wheelchairs costing $1000 each, one FanFunder can create and promote a personalized campaign to raise enough to buy just one wheelchair.

"Most nonprofits have a limited number of fans and these fans have a limited ability to donate," said FanFunder co-founder Neil Closner. "But the fans likely have thousands or even millions of friends amongst them. Imagine the possibilities if a nonprofit could get all of its fans to promote a cause to all of their friends and then those friends promote it to their friends."

"Nonprofits on Facebook are constantly looking for ways to engage their audience from within their fan pages", said co-founder Israel Schachter. "FanFunder provides nonprofits with advanced tools to create relevant fundraising campaigns, engage their audience and to ultimately raise funds without having to direct their fans and supporters outside of their fan page."

Nonprofits and users can access the app through http://www.Facebook.com/FanFunder.