For everyone who ever had the urge to join or donate to a worthy cause and chose not to because they could not find one Causes is for them.
Essentially every cause ever thought of, and some created just for the application, is here ready to be joined and receive donations.
Users are not obligated to actually do anything more than click "join" and instantly they are part of a movement.
If someone is feeling a bit more generous its easy to donate money, connect with other members, and recruit others to the cause.
Sweet Parts: The concept itself is pretty sweet.
Raising money for worthy causes is never a bad thing.
It is also a nice way to see who is putting their money where their mouth is so to speak (the legalize marijuana cause has raised only $68 dollars despite 33,000 member suggesting it may be illegal for a while longer).
There is also an informative value in seeing the numbers behind some of these movements, and even more in the lack there of in some cases.
Another curious and fun development is the pattern already familiar in Facebook Groups where people passionately opposed to the cause/group join and attempt to educate those believers.
This results in an elevated and stirring discourse between the two sides.
Not As Sweet: Hard to find much to fault here but there are several complaints on the discussion board about organizations not receiving the money donated (potentially a big problem), and recruits/donations not being displayed in the user's profile (not as big of a problem).
Other than that the application appears to be very stable.
The only other nit to pick is the number of terrible racist groups.
I would not suggest censoring groups that have members (hey everyone is entitled to their "cause" whatever it is) but if some thing like "Send Them Back to Africa" is going to be displayed it should at least have one member claiming responsibility for it.
Hopefully the owners will consider deleting causes with 0 members.
Monetization Possibility: I think that is the point.
Actually, in addition to raising money, there is a raising awareness aspect as well (I had no idea there was a movement to "Put Paris Hilton Back in the Slammer" until seeing it on Causes.
Only two members at this point.
).
It most cases it is pretty small amounts of money that have been raised with the exceptions being Save Darfur, Invisible Children, and Support Breast Cancer Research.
These are obviously causes that exist outside of Facebook, but perhaps the platform has enabled an easy way to donate money.
Any application that aspires to monetize should take a good look at how seamlessly its been done here.
The donate button directs to a secure website where a a credit card is processed, and the user is redirected to Facebook.
The donated money shows up in the "my causes" area.
It could not be any easier to donate.
It is not clear how they are verifying 501(c)3 status of the organizations, and I doubt many of the "causes" have such a status.
Something to check on before taking the tax deduction.
Is it Contagious: Causes is another application with a top twenty user base (joining previously profiled Where I've Been).
The viral strategy of Causes borrows a page from the old George Bush Rangers/Pioneers playbook (and now copied by all aspiring presidential candidates).
It consists of the following (over complexization included): 1.
I support X cause.
2.
I publicly join X cause.
3.
I donate Y amount of money to X.
4.
I get others to join X cause.
5.
They donate Y amount of money.
6.
I get public credit for a.
) the money I donated b.
) the people I recruited to the cause c.
) the money I and they donated to said cause 7.
I get a warm feeling for doing good (or bad in some cases there is not requirement that the cause be a noble one).
So far the strategy seems to be working.
Though very few of my friends are members which suggests I have very apathetic friends.
The ease of joining a cause seen on someone else's page or donating is very easy, and they have done a great job of utilizing their box space for maximum effect.
Raise enough money and become listed in the "Hall of Fame" for that cause.
Personally it seems as though converting someone from a competing cause should be worth more than getting someone unaffiliated.
This might encourage even more heated discussions on the cause walls.
(Credit Appaholic for the chart)
Essentially every cause ever thought of, and some created just for the application, is here ready to be joined and receive donations.
Users are not obligated to actually do anything more than click "join" and instantly they are part of a movement.
If someone is feeling a bit more generous its easy to donate money, connect with other members, and recruit others to the cause.
Sweet Parts: The concept itself is pretty sweet.
Raising money for worthy causes is never a bad thing.
It is also a nice way to see who is putting their money where their mouth is so to speak (the legalize marijuana cause has raised only $68 dollars despite 33,000 member suggesting it may be illegal for a while longer).
There is also an informative value in seeing the numbers behind some of these movements, and even more in the lack there of in some cases.
Another curious and fun development is the pattern already familiar in Facebook Groups where people passionately opposed to the cause/group join and attempt to educate those believers.
This results in an elevated and stirring discourse between the two sides.
Not As Sweet: Hard to find much to fault here but there are several complaints on the discussion board about organizations not receiving the money donated (potentially a big problem), and recruits/donations not being displayed in the user's profile (not as big of a problem).
Other than that the application appears to be very stable.
The only other nit to pick is the number of terrible racist groups.
I would not suggest censoring groups that have members (hey everyone is entitled to their "cause" whatever it is) but if some thing like "Send Them Back to Africa" is going to be displayed it should at least have one member claiming responsibility for it.
Hopefully the owners will consider deleting causes with 0 members.
Monetization Possibility: I think that is the point.
Actually, in addition to raising money, there is a raising awareness aspect as well (I had no idea there was a movement to "Put Paris Hilton Back in the Slammer" until seeing it on Causes.
Only two members at this point.
).
It most cases it is pretty small amounts of money that have been raised with the exceptions being Save Darfur, Invisible Children, and Support Breast Cancer Research.
These are obviously causes that exist outside of Facebook, but perhaps the platform has enabled an easy way to donate money.
Any application that aspires to monetize should take a good look at how seamlessly its been done here.
The donate button directs to a secure website where a a credit card is processed, and the user is redirected to Facebook.
The donated money shows up in the "my causes" area.
It could not be any easier to donate.
It is not clear how they are verifying 501(c)3 status of the organizations, and I doubt many of the "causes" have such a status.
Something to check on before taking the tax deduction.
Is it Contagious: Causes is another application with a top twenty user base (joining previously profiled Where I've Been).
The viral strategy of Causes borrows a page from the old George Bush Rangers/Pioneers playbook (and now copied by all aspiring presidential candidates).
It consists of the following (over complexization included): 1.
I support X cause.
2.
I publicly join X cause.
3.
I donate Y amount of money to X.
4.
I get others to join X cause.
5.
They donate Y amount of money.
6.
I get public credit for a.
) the money I donated b.
) the people I recruited to the cause c.
) the money I and they donated to said cause 7.
I get a warm feeling for doing good (or bad in some cases there is not requirement that the cause be a noble one).
So far the strategy seems to be working.
Though very few of my friends are members which suggests I have very apathetic friends.
The ease of joining a cause seen on someone else's page or donating is very easy, and they have done a great job of utilizing their box space for maximum effect.
Raise enough money and become listed in the "Hall of Fame" for that cause.
Personally it seems as though converting someone from a competing cause should be worth more than getting someone unaffiliated.
This might encourage even more heated discussions on the cause walls.
(Credit Appaholic for the chart)
Source...