Fundraisers, by definition, rely on the masses for support. But ad-hoc charities are hitting the social web, raising the question – just who can start a charity or fundraiser?

In the run-up before Christmas, Nick Douglas at Valleywag started diggbait, a series of posts written to get on the front page of Digg. For every post that made the cut, Douglas would donate $10 to Child’s Play (toys for children in hospitals).

A very seasonable proposition, for sure, but as social bookmarker Muhammad Saleem pointed out, the Valleywag blog was filled with advertisements for its own fundraising purposes.

But the idea of socially driven charity didn’t end there. Saleem and a slew of social bookmarkers created Socially Given “an experiment in socially driven charity… All proceeds from advertisements on the site are donated to charity.” (I will see if Saleem can update us on Socially Given’s progress – see comments below). The group blog was similar to Diggbait. All posts, written by guest bloggers were produced with the intent of getting on the front page of Digg. Not only was the content compelling, but I’m sure that some people voted for the story because they knew all profits were going to charity.

And just yesterday another socially driven charity, “8 Wishes,” hit the front page of Digg. This 30-day fundraiser for children with dyslexia is organized by five people who, without any sponsors, are using online tools like their blog, YouTube videos, MySpace profiles and Digg to raise $1 million and seven other wishes that will benefit children with learning disablities.

According to Technically Speaking, who spoke with the organizers by phone yesterday, the group is hard at work trying to reach their goals by next week, when their month long project will come to an end.

But the real development here isn’t just the individual charities (which are all worthy of praise), but the use of social media to try and make a difference. “Is it big enough, and well connected enough to really have an impact in the lives of those who are not part of it?”

Traditional fundraisers rely on sponsors, organizers and some form of PR to get attention. But in all three examples above fundraising has been placed in the hands of individuals and their success is determined by contributors that they connect with horizontally. With enough citizen charities, in true open source fashion, the cream will rise to the top.

Something about all this reminds me of the One Red Paperclip phenomenon, where through a series of trades Kyle MacDonald was able to exchange a paperclip for a house. Although his was a more self-centered fundraiser, it was made possible and went viral through the Internet. And while MacDonald is open about the benefits he stood to gain, other socially driven charities might not be. Right now there is no safe guard against anyone starting a false charity and abusing every tool of social media to dupe people into assuming their clicks are going to a good cause.

As Web 2.0’s continue to march towards big business, it will be interesting to see how they adapt to and form a new age for charity.

David Cohn is editor of NewAssignment.Net. He also submitted one of the posts on Socially Given to Digg.com.