Charities can no longer count on traditional donation dollars – considering the economy, company and personal budgets are tight and donations are skimpy or non-existent. Will we see a disappearance of charities?

John Casasanta and Phill Ryu beg to differ, aiming to donate $1 million to a worldwide charity (e.g., Direct Relief International, Save Darfur or Alliance for Climate Protection) this year.

How? They’re engaging the widely-expanding Mac community in this fundraising initiative. The best part about it is these Mac enthusiasts aren’t “giving up” their dollars; instead, John and Phil have devised a creative way to get this audience on board, playing into their interests, while executing a business model that allows them to drive donation dollars.

Specifically, John and Phil founded MacHeist, which is an online game that Mac enthusiasts can play to obtain a discounted price to purchase some great software. With the profits MacHeist earns from these sales, John and Phil donate a huge chunk of money (far beyond the meager 1% most companies donate).

In short, John and Phil identified the growing audience around the Apple craze, and linked this active community to charity – two previously unrelated groups.

It’s clear this method of engagement has worked (MacHeist 1 raise $200,000 for charity; MacHeist 2 raised $500,000), and they’ve recently attracted even more of a following in the past months (http://twitterholic.com/macheist/), promising an even better turnout this year with MacHeist 3.

So, will charities disappear? Of course not, but the days of fundraising events, direct mailers, cold-calling and the traditional fundraising tactics are coming to an end.  Innovative approaches to engagement will be mandatory to earn donation dollars.