This is super cool — using a blog to raise money for a good cause. (See updates here and here.) Hat tip: Eric Muller.

  I've been wondering about this, actually, ever since I read this post by Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber. It seems to me that lots of blogreaders have a strong identification with the blogs they read. For lots of blogreaders, our favorite blogs are not just websites; they're communities that we experience on a pretty personal level. If I'm right about that, then blogs may have a mostly untapped potential to get people aware of and interested in some of the many great charitable causes out there.

  For example, why not have a Volokh Conspiracy charity-of-the-month, in which we plug a great charity and then raise money here at the VC to donate to the cause? It might not work, as it might make the VC seem like a PBS pledge drive or just reshuffle charitable dollars from one cause to another. On the other hand, it might be a way of taking all the time and energy that we give to blogging (and reading) and channeling it to do some good.