Under Armour makes a donation to begin a sewing business that works in conjunction with the micro-finance initiative run by the church in Nicaragua in partnership with the ORPHANetwork supported by GraceCity, whose collective mission is to serve a community living in the biggest dump in the poorest country in the Americas.

FORBES: Hope In Hell On Earth: Micro-Finance In Nicaragua

Using its Community Impact Platform to create a fundraising challenge for two local animal rescues, Causecast leveraged social media, real-time reporting, peer recognition, instant donation processing, automatic tracking, micro and macro funding abilities, and good old competition with incentives to fire up the team and get them engaged in giving back.

FORBES: Is Your Company Barking up the Right Fundraising Tree?

Some of the leading crowdfunders fall into different categories like Equity ( see my earlier post), Donation, Reward and Debt (a.k.a.micro finance and peer-to-peer lending).

FORBES: Debt Crowdfunders: The Best Of The Best