I get the opportunity to meet many bloggers who are passionate about social good. One of the most common questions is: “Do I need a 501c3 to get started?”

As social media “cause marketing” heats up, bloggers are learning to navigate the intersection between business and charity. According to a 2010 Cone LLC study, 85% of consumers have a more positive image of a product or company when it supports a cause they care about and 80% are likely to switch brands, similar in price and quality, to one that supports a cause. Companies looking to create attention-grabbing cause marketing campaigns turn to bloggers for added authenticity and passion.

At a time when bloggers are trying to define what it is they “do”, adding charity into the mix creates another layer of complexity…

At Bloganthropy, we focus on social media and philanthropy. A lot of our members, though, are parents. The ability to use our social media influence to amplify our volunteer efforts may be especially important to those of us with young children. Traditional volunteer opportunities are not always a fit. And yet, it may be even more important to volunteer when we have young children–as a type of “spiritual maintenance” and a social outlet for ourselves and also to set an example for our children.

Shara Lawrence-Weiss of Mommy Perks has a unique way of using social media to raise money for charity: her Twitter profile picture is a photograph of herself wearing branded “Twitter Charity Hats” (real or photoshopped) in exchange for a charitable donation.

Volunteer 4 Long Island, a non-profit, charitable organization, needed volunteers on Thanksgiving morning to assemble packages of food, personal items (toiletries), and clothing for those who are homeless or living in emergency and temporary housing.

We talked about reaching out to corporations for future years and she said that this year they could use more volunteers, so we concentrated on social media volunteer recruitment efforts…