Philanthropic trendsetters launch new ideas

October seems to be a hot month for inspirational and innovative philanthropic projects!  Here are three new initiatives that caught our attention this week:

Google's Project 10 to the 100

Last year, Google solicited ideas from around the world for high impact social projects... and received more than 150,000 suggestions!  From this list, they narrowed it down to sixteen "big ideas" (see them here).  They're now asking for your help to vote on the ideas before their advisory board chooses which five to fund.  

Of course, we're especially partial to their project to "Help social entrepreneurs drive change," but there's not a bad one in the bunch.

Today is the last day to vote so check it out!

America's Giving Challenge

This project was launched yesterday by the Case Foundation, Causes on Facebook and PARADE publications.  

Over the next month, any nonprofit cause can enter the challenge and compete for up to $50,000.  The competition is based on the number of unique daily donations that the cause can inspire through the site or through Facebook.  There are also prizes every day and a live leader board.  

Check it out here.

Virtual goods in Farmville to help farmers in Haiti

Over the weekend, Fred Wilson (VC and blogger), wrote about a new type of giving launched last week... via a Facebook game!  Farmville (the most popular social game ever with twenty million players every day) introduced a virtual gift called "Sweet Seeds for Haiti" that players can purchase with in-game currency.  In less than a week of availability, these virtual goods have already generated more than $320,000 (in real money) for two nonprofits in Haiti.  These micro-donations (less than $3 per person) can make a tremendous difference at this scale.

The seeds are only available until October 15th.