The Company
Causes is an organizing tool that enables average citizens to take action on issues they care about by using Facebook to spread awareness, fundraise and advocate for change. Causes endeavors to create a culture of civic-engagement and a generation of engaged citizens. Causes was co-founded by Sean Parker (founder of Napster and Plaxo and current partner at Founders Fund) and Joseph Green (experienced political field organizer and founder of Essembly.com, a political social network).
The Causes application provides socially conscious individuals with tools to help them change the world. By unlocking the power of their social networks, Facebook users are able to raise money and awareness for the causes they care about.
– Sean Parker, Chairman and Co-founder, Causes
The Causes application aims to give everyone the power to leverage their social network on Facebook to make the world a better place.
– Joe Green, President and Co-founder, Causes
How Facebook is helping to change activism
Traditional fund-raising requires non-profits to actively market to potential donors via many different methods: postal mail, email, online advertising, phone calls...leaving fewer donated funds available for the cause itself. Causes is run by a lean staff of 15 people creating tools that build capacity for average citizens to be directly engaged in the causes they care about and share information about the issues important to them with the people in their lives. Causes is building a two-way relationship between citizens who care and organizations that do the daily work of service and activism. Effective organizations no longer have to rely primarily on expensive direct mail campaigns because Causes has built a model in which the donor is empowered to discover, learn about, and directly support causes they believe in. Facebook users are embracing Causes to help them raise awareness about issues that are important to them and educate their friends.
Facebook is part of people's everyday lives, which is perfect for us because we're looking to create a culture of service, volunteerism and philanthropy. Using Facebook, we can weave these things into a person's everyday life and conversations with his friends
– Matt Mahan, Non-profit Relations, Causes
In addition, Causes helps users put a new, online twist on traditional fund-raising mechanisms. For example, when making a donation to an organization, like a $10 to the American National Red Cross to purchase emergency blankets, users can also choose to gift that donation to another user, and that user is given a virtual gift to display the donation.
Helping users support the war against cancer
One of the largest communities supported on Causes is the Campaign for Cancer Prevention, with nearly 4.3M supporters. The cause was started by a former medical student, Dr. Eric Ding, who felt that many large cancer research foundations were not able to raise funds effectively (due to high marketing costs), and he wanted to find a way to donate directly to cutting-edge research. He determined that the Nurses' Health Study of Brigham and Women's Hospital was one of the largest and longest-running studies in the world to understand cancer causes and preventions, and so started a cause on Facebook to directly support it.
Today he is joined by well over 4 million people who support that cause, and have raised over $75,000 to help fund its research. There are over 8,500 posts on the cause's wall where users share their experiences with cancer and urge each other to help support the cause, in addition to a leaderboard detailing users who have recruited the most friends.
By using Facebook, a product that connects friends and is part of many people's everyday lives, the cause spread like wildfire through the medical student community. It is now one of the largest cancer-related communities in the world. Causes enables users to spread awareness and build movements in a way they never could before.
Donors rely on information from people in their own social networks to make decisions. For example, if a friend sends me articles from the New York Times, I read those articles because I trust her and I care what she thinks. Users feel the same way about Causes on Facebook. If a trusted friend invites them to a cause and they understand why that person is passionate about it...they're going to listen.
– Matt Mahan, Non-profit Relations, Causes