Facebook for good

Causes, a company that helps Facebook users donate to charitable organisations, raised $9 million (€6.48 million) in funding from New Enterprise Associates, Founders Fund Manafement LLC, Run Conway and Marc Benioff.

Many observers say that the growth of Causes could be an indication of the end of traditional fundraising events and street protests and the growth of social media activism.

According to the Blackbord Index of Online Giving, online charity makes up roughly five per cent of all donations in America.

Supporters of the online movement say that social media will be the means through which the next generation of activists and philanthropist mobilize.  

Marc Benioff says that the company’s founders Sean Parker and Joe Green are “modern social revolutionaries, if they were born in the ‘60s, they would be protesting the war. Instead they’re trying to change the world through the internet.”

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is another firm support of the company. On its website the organisation boasts that it is “lucky to be connected to more than 300 Causes with a total of more than five million dedicated members.”

In September the animal rights organisation published a list of its 10 most active members who use Causesand encouraged others to utilise the application to gather signatures or recruit supporters to the organisations.

Not everyone is so keen on the idea of revolutions through social media. In early October Malcolm Gladwell, an American bestselling author, published Small Change: why the revolution will not be tweeted.

He argues that “social networks are only effective at increasing participation – by lessening the level of motivation that participation requires.”

He points out that the largest Causes group raising money for aid to Darfur, the Save Darfur Coalition, has 1,282,339 members but members only give an average of 9 cents.

“Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the thing that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice.”

Facts and figures

The for-profit company with a social mission was founded in 2007 in Berkeley,  California. In its first year the Facebook application boasted 12 million users and raised $2.5 million for 19,455 charitable organisations. Three years later 119 million people use it to give and support a range of different charities.

Aflac Inc.’s Cancer Center has raised $1.17 million through Causes, more than any other organization. The Nature Conservancy is second with $399,716, followed by the Humane Society of the United States with $372,005.