People are always talking about how online activism—also sometimes referred to as “armchair activism”—and causes on social networks don’t make much of a difference, if any at all. Having worked for a nonprofit organization for several years, I can attest that this is not true. In a single organization alone, we raised money for dozens of organizations—including ones that helped homeless children, shelters, animal sanctuaries, and a program to get toilets in a developing country. We also raised awareness through hundreds of debates, articles, online and offline discussions and training sessions, and helped develop hundreds of projects across the globe with our site’s resources. You bet online campaigns and activism work!

I’ve also worked directly through my computer (in conjunction with my phone) to volunteer from home. I’ve mentored, completed an at-risk pen pal program, and phone banked for causes and candidates from home. Granted, these aren’t the same things as social networks or signing petitions, but they are still mostly web-based.

Right now, there is a direct way you can generate an instant donation for the African Wildlife Foundation from your computer, absolutely for free. The donation will go to a specific program, sponsored by the foundation in partnership with explore.org, to send Rwandan students on a conservation trip to see endangered mountain gorillas. The aim of the program is to make the students aware of the gorilla’s plight, encouraging them to protect the gorillas as adults through advocacy and protection against poaching. As most gorillas live in Rwanda, it is very important that the citizens of the nation grow to become stewards of what’s left of the species.

To make the donation, all you have to do is join the cause here on Facebook. So far, less than 2,000 people have joined—raising $1,829 dollars as of this post—though explore.org has pledged a matching grant of $50,000! To help the African Wildlife Foundation meet this goal, we can all join and then ask our friends to join. It’s the easiest way to raise funds there could possibly be. Just click “Join Cause.” Then invite all of your friends and/or post a note about the cause on your wall for your friends to see.

Once you join the cause, you can also browse around at some of the cool things posted there—such as a video made by Craig Sholley, founder of the program, about its importance, or a video about how gorillas are “98.6% human,” with only 720 left in the wild.