Causes was founded in 2007 as an online advocacy and fundraising application within Facebook, which is one of the world's largest online social networks. Causes is the world's largest platform for activism with 100 million installed users and $18 million raised for nonprofits. The platform enables users to create grassroots groups that take action on a social issue or support a specific nonprofit organization. These groups, individually called a "cause," are building blocks for most activity on the site[1]. In order to fundraise, a cause must identify a registered nonprofit in the United States or Canada[2]. Causes creates a marketplace of issue-based communities. With over 350,000 causes, the most engaging, impactful and interactive causes are the most likely to garner a user-base willing to support advocacy and fundraising campaigns.[3]
History
editCauses was co-founded by Sean Parker and Joe Green. Sean's previously co-founded a number of successful Internet products such as Napster, Plaxo, and Facebook. Prior to founding Causes, Joe worked in grassroots organizing, including campaigns on the city, state, and presidential level. Additionally, Joe did extensive research on principles of organizing for his senior thesis at Harvard. Sean and Joe combined their knowledge of offline organizing, online social networking, and product design to launch Causes on May 25, 2007. Since then, the community has grown to over 90 million people. Users have created more than 350,000 causes for issues ranging from breast cancer research to stopping genocide to supporting local parks[1].
Mission
editCauses' stated mission is "to empower anyone with a good idea or passion for change to impact the world. Using our platform, individuals mobilize their network of friends to grow lasting social and political movements."[1] Any user can create a cause, whether they work for a nonprofit or are an activist interested in a certain issue. Nonprofits with smaller resources or extensive grassroots networks have been successful at leveraging those resources to build online communities of supporters.[4] Users can publicize their activity to their personal network and use social pressure to engage friends and get more people involved.[5]
Causes Application on Facebook
editCauses is one of the largest applications on Facebook, with 90 million users. Users can create, join or browse causes focused on issues in which they are interested. A cause is a vehicle for community building, education, awareness, advocacy and fundraising. The cause includes tools for communications, such as bulletins, the cause feed, discussion board and top media, as well as fundraising features such as fundraising campaigns, donor choices and Birthday Wish.[6] Causes utilizes communications sources such as email, Facebook notifications and the Facebook News Feed to enable viral growth and outreach. Causes currently has the second largest number of monthly active users on Facebook, with over 31,000,000 monthly active users[7] that have started over 350,000 issue-based causes1. Of these causes, almost 40 percent are raising money for a US nonprofit or Canadian charity, with a median donation of $25.[8]
Features
editBirthday Wish
editThe Birthday Wish tool allows any Facebook user to create a fundraising page that asks their friends to donate to the cause of their choice as a birthday present. Causes provides the user with promotional tools including emails to friends, Facebook News Feed posts and Facebook status message updates. The feature is designed to make charitable giving more personal and give users an easy way to ask for charitable donations for their birthdays.[9][10]
Petitions
editCauses developed a petition tool in early 2009. Only nonprofits can start a petition on Causes, but they can feature it on an unlimited number of causes. The petitions feature includes promotional tools that allow users to promote it within their personal networks. The largest petition on Causes is "Medical Coverage For Breast Cancer Genetic Markers Testing for Family Members of Breast Cancer Patients," which gathered over 3.4 million signatures since it was created on February 20, 2009.[11][12][13]
Top Media
editEach cause has a section called "Top News" that features the most viewed media items on the cause. The media tool on Causes allows users to post media to a cause and spread it throughout their personal networks. In addition to being an educational tool, cause administrators can use media as a recruiting tool. After cause members watch a video, view a photo, or read an article on a given cause, Causes verifies that they have completed viewing the item and then prompts them to post it to their profiles and invite specific friends to view it. This tool is designed to help causes spread meaningful pictures, videos, and articles through their supporters. personal networks.[14]
Nonprofit Partner Center
editIn September 2009, Causes upgraded the Nonprofit Partner Center, which is the central hub of data and tools designed specifically for nonprofit organizations. Setting up a partner account with Causes, which is required to access the Partner Center, is free and simply requires an employee of the organization to verify basic information about the organization. The new Partner Center focuses on helping nonprofits understand their Causes presence and provides ways that they can leverage that presence for greater impact. Nonprofits have access to more data pertaining to their causes and individual supporters of the organization. Through the Partner Center, nonprofits can initiate two-way affiliate relationships with any number of causes. Nonprofits can work with their network of affiliate causes to share action opportunities -- fundraising, media, petition campaigns -- with supporters in a range of causes whose missions align with that of the organization.[15][16]
Initiatives
editGiving Challenge 2007
editThe 2007 Giving Challenge was one of the first large-scale philanthropic competitions organized and conducted online. The Case Foundation sponsored the event on multiple platforms and Causes hosted the social networking component of the Challenge. Challenge prizes rewarded causes that garnered the most unique donors on a daily and overall basis, stressing the value of broad participation.
Over the course of the 50-day Challenge, Causes enabled Facebook users to build over 4,000 cause communities, mobilize hundreds of thousands of new members, and convince nearly 26,000 friends to donate to 750 nonprofit beneficiaries. In total, these donors more than doubled the $250,000 in prize money provided by the Case Foundation by giving an additional $571,000 out of their own pockets. At the time, the Causes Application was only 6 months old and supported less than one-tenth of its current userbase.[17]
America’s Giving Challenge 2009
editThe 2009 Giving Challenge was a 30-day, national competition that encouraged people to leverage their personal networks in support of the causes that matter most to them. Awards were given to the nonprofit beneficiaries of the causes that garnered the highest number of unique daily donations between 3:00 p.m. EDT October 7, 2009, and 3:00pm EST on November 6, 2009.[18]
Prizes were awarded based on the number of unique daily donations a cause receives. Unique daily donation was defined as one donation per individual per day. Multiple donations from the same individual to a specific cause in same day only counted once. New to the Giving Challenge 2009 was that Causes opened up the donation form so that anyone could donate to a cause (i.e. even without a Facebook account).[19]
Causes hosted the Challenge while the Case Foundation and Parade Magazine supplied award money and media support, respectively. Additional award money was provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Cause Sponsorships
editCauses runs a Sponsorship Program, which allows companies to support the causes and nonprofits they care about in an authentic and impactful way. Companies sponsor causes by providing a matching grant, which typically ranges from $10,000 to $1,000,000 per cause. The match offer incentivizes cause members to recruit new supporters to the cause and fundraise for its nonprofit beneficiary. Sponsoring a cause with a matching grant allows a company to promote its brand through public philanthropy. Causes has run cause sponsorships with companies such as Ben and Jerry's, Snickers, Microsoft, HP, and Aflac.[20][21]
References
edit- ^ a b c [ http://exchange.causes.com/about], Causes Exchange, About.
- ^ [ http://http://apps.facebook.com/causes/help], Causes Help.
- ^ [1], NTEN, "Raise Money on Facebook: Four Strategies You Need to Know About" (Sept 2009).
- ^ [2], The NonProfit Times, .Hello? Arkansas? Yeah, It's Facebook. (Jun 2009).
- ^ [3], The New York Times, .Clicking for a Cause. (Nov 2009).
- ^ [4], Causes Exchange, Features.
- ^ [5], Causes on Facebook, Application Page.
- ^ [6], The NonProfit Times, "One Charity, The Potential For Thousands Of 'Causes'" (July 2009).
- ^ [7], Causes Exchange, Birthday Wish.
- ^ [8], Blue Avocado, "How I Raised $1,000 on Facebook Without Breaking a Sweat" (Aug 2009).
- ^ [9], Causes Exchange, Petitions.
- ^ [10], Causes Exchange, "Petition Reaches 1.5 Million Signatures in Three Months on Causes" (Jun 2009).
- ^ [11], Causes on Facebook, "Medical Coverage for Breast Cancer Genetic Markers Testing for Family Members of Breast Cancer Patients."
- ^ [12], Causes Exchange, "Viral Media on Causes" (Aug 2009).
- ^ [13], Causes Exchange, Nonprofit Partner Center.
- ^ [14], Inside Facebook, "A Look at Causes' New Nonprofit Partner Center" (October 2009).
- ^ [15], The Case Foundation, "Reflections on America's Giving Challenge" (Jun 2009).
- ^ [16], Causes Exchange, America's Giving Challenge.
- ^ [17], The Case Foundation, America's Giving Challenge Resources for Participating Nonprofits and Individuals.
- ^ [18], Causes Exchange, Resources for Companies.
- ^ [19], Yahoo! Finance, "Aflac 'Causes Campaign on Facebook' Raises $1.16 Million for Fight Against Pediatric Cancer" (Oct 2009).