A documentary inspired Matthew Combs to help the children of Uganda, but he struggled to find the right charity and raise money.

Rather than complaining, Mr. Combs decided to fix the problem by building a Web site.

The site he built, Your Cause.com, lists 1.5 million registered charities and lets users donate instantly to any of them.

But it doesn't stop there. It also helps users wring donations from friends and family.

Each user supplies words and images. YourCause supplies a personal Web page that displays each pitch and accepts donations.

The system even gives donors the receipts they need to deduct contributions from their taxes.

"The idea is simple: to encourage charitable giving by making it easier for people to tap their social networks," said Mr. Combs, who lives in Dallas.

"A rich Web page with compelling pictures and a click-to-donate feature will raise more than a mass e-mail and a request that people write and mail checks."

YourCause operates as part of BlastOff Ventures, a tiny company Mr. Combs runs with two partners, Ray Clark and William Esping.

A little more than a month after the site's formal launch, YourCause users have sent $25,000 to 431 organizations.

Among the earliest beneficiaries was Feral Friends, a Dallas-area group dedicated to helping stray cats.

"We haven't raised much through YourCause yet, but every little bit helps, and it's an interesting idea," said Kelly Richert, the group's president.

Other pages seek money to protect the rain forest, cure deadly diseases, support the arts and redevelop blighted neighborhoods.

"A site like YourCause could be particularly helpful to smaller charities that have trouble publicizing themselves," Ms. Richert said. "It's not hard to find information about the SPCA, but it can be very hard to find out about Feral Friends."

Like many Web sites, YourCause launched with just a fraction of the features envisioned by its founders.

The site's six employees have already made one big addition: a feature that shows which celebrities support which charity.

One pending improvement will let members add video to their pages. Another will alert them to donations. A third will let them design mugs, T-shirts and other fundraising products.

"Video will be a huge addition," Mr. Combs said. "It's one thing to tell people why they should support a cause. It's another thing to show them."

Mr. Combs plans to keep employment under 20 people by outsourcing as many jobs as possible.

For example, YourCause taps a site called Network for Good to supply its list of charities and its payment system.

To pay those costs they can't avoid, Mr. Combs and his partners use Glam Media to sell ads on the site.

Leftover money gets plowed back into member causes. YourCause picks a user's page at random each day and donates $100 to that cause.

"We'd like to make it more, but we don't have the money yet," Mr. Combs said. "We won't do anybody any good if we don't pay our own bills."