Will Facebook, Twitter, Fundly and the like be the fundraisers of the future?

As we move into the meat of the 2012 election season, think of the accelerating convergence of social networking and campaign fundraising as the anti-Super PAC movement.

Super PAC money rolls into campaign coffers in the form of six-zero checks signed by supporters who possess unfathomable means and political interests that they'll spend tens of millions to protect. The social network money, on the other hand, comes from no-name nobodies, kicking in $20 or $50 or maybe $200 at a time, in part because one of their Facebook friends did the same. "That kind of social media fundraising, we tend to view that as the really healthy, great kind, that shows people are engaged and participating and are basically not trying to buy anyone off," says Mary Boyle, a spokeswoman for Common Cause, the Washington, D.C., political watchdog group. It is still the early days for campaign fundraising through social media, but it's clear Silicon Valley can take credit for incubating many of the tools that are launching the revolution. The ubiquity of Facebook and Twitter and the rise of money-gathering platforms like Fundly, of Palo Alto, are clear signs that a change is taking hold in one of the world's oldest professions: political fundraising.