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Facebook Causes: Not just for Individuals

By Amy Sample Ward

Amy Sample Ward covers some of the questions to consider when using the Facebook Causes application and looks at examples of how non profits are already using it successfully.

Social media platforms from blogs to social networks have enabled billions of people around the world to connect, share, communicate and campaign. 

These new social technologies have changed the face of social benefit work by enabling individuals to promote and fundraise for organisations and charities through their online networks.

Facebook is one of the most popular social networking websites, with over 350 million users worldwide (as of 10 December, 2009). It is free to use and open to anyone to register. On the Facebook platform there are countless applications, some built by Facebook developers, some by for-profit companies, others by individuals. Many of these applications are designed to leverage the social benefit activity and interest of individual users by letting them campaign or fundraise within the social network. 

One application in particular, Causes, has garnered a great deal of interest and activity, and at the time of writing is Facebook’s second largest third-party application. Causes offers a chance for both individuals and organisations to get involved. It offers an integrated way for individuals and organisations to campaign on, raise funds for, and heighten awareness of important issues and social benefit work.

With 28 million monthly active users and over $20 million (≈£13 million) raised already, the Causes application is certainly worth learning more about.

What is Causes and how does it work?

The Causes application is designed as a platform within Facebook where any user (an organisation or an individual) can set up a "cause", raise funds and awareness, and leverage the networks they belong to within Facebook. 

There have been many different data sets referenced when describing the activity on Causes, so to clarify: there are approximately 250,000 "causes" on Facebook, but a cause does not need to be associated with a nonprofit organisation, and most (around 200,000) are not. 

Of the remaining causes, less than 10,000 of them are using Network for Good, the organisation partnering with Causes to process the donations, meaning less than 10,000 have updated profiles and are actively using that platform (and thus, providing data).  More causes are created every day, by organisations and individuals, and the use of the platform outside the US is expanding.

The developers of the Causes application describe their project in this way:

"Facebook presents an unprecedented opportunity to engage our generation, most of whom are on Facebook, in seizing the future and making a difference in the world around us. Our generation cares deeply, but the current system has alienated us. Causes provides the tools so that any Facebook user can leverage their network of real friends to effect positive change.

The goal of all this is what we call "equal opportunity activism." We're trying to level the playing field by empowering individuals to change the world. Existing nonprofits must raise hundreds of millions of dollars and leverage massive direct marketing campaigns to attract members. We're democratising activism by empowering activists with an arsenal of tools for users of Facebook who want to leverage their network on Facebook to effect positive change."

Learn more about how Causes operates in the rest of this article, or online on the Facebook application page.

Is Causes right for our organisation?

Since November 2009, Causes is only available on Facebook, after discontinuing availability on MySpace.  This means, organisations need to first consider whether their community and supporters are on Facebook. 

As of December 2009, though, Facebook reported to have over 350 million users, so the chances that your organisation has supporters on Facebook are pretty good.  Which leads to the second question to consider: are your supporters on Facebook engaged in cause-related activity in their use of the platform. You don't want to waste time and energy using a social media tool without any of the other people to make it social (and worthwhile).

What's the best way to find out if your community members are on Facebook, and, if they are, if they'd be interested in using applications like Causes?  Ask!  If you have a blog, post there asking for feedback about where people spend their time online.  If you have a newsletter, include questions with an email address or survey link for people to give you feedback. If you are already present on Facebook, search for your organisation and see what you find!

Causes currently only directly supports beneficiaries in the US and Canada but plans to add more countries in the future. In the mean time UK charities can still benefit from Causes by including a link to their website in the description or media board of their Cause so that people can donate directly.

How can organisations use it?

Causes has recently created a Nonprofit Partner Center, enriching and expanding the ways organisations can leverage the Facebook platform via this application.  The new functionality is specifically helpful for organisations with multiple branches. 

As Causes explained:

"We’re adding to our nonprofit-specific tools because nonprofits 1) play a critical role in the Causes ecosystem and 2) have unique needs and goals that can’t be addressed solely by the current cause-based model we’ve pioneered through our application." 

The new Partner Centre improves communication options, fundraising options as well as access to statistics.  For example, administrators can now link causes together to show affinity or collaboration by nominating them as an "Affiliate Cause;" or an administrator can create a petition and share it across all affiliate causes; and administrators can even target communications to different groups (all admins, supporters, donors, etc.). 

For more information about the features of the Nonprofit Partner Center:  read a review from Inside Facebook or visit the Nonprofit Partner Center on Facebook to sign up.

Cause Studies

Causes provides snapshots of some successful uses of its platform. You can review all of the case studies on the Causes blog.

"The ‘Stop Global Warming’ cause grew exponentially as soon as Causes was launched on Facebook.  Now with over 2.7 million members, it is not uncommon for the cause to increase its membership by 1,500 people in one day.  The cause originally benefited a UN climate change effort but the cause membership and administrator decided, through discussions on the cause wall and discussion board, to change their beneficiary to Al Gore’s new organisation, the Alliance for Climate Protection, after Gore was award the Noble Peace Prize."

This is a great example of the way that individuals are using Facebook to campaign on behalf of organisations, without having any formal tie.  It's also proof that no matter how large your community, simply asking for their thoughts can make a big difference - the difference between, in this case, the beneficiaries of funds!

"The ‘Save Darfur’ cause exemplifies the two-way nature of organising on Causes. Unlike the majority of causes, started by individual activists unaffiliated with a non-profit, an employee of the Save Darfur Coalition launched this cause as part of the organisation’s outreach strategy. The hundreds of Facebook users who were initially invited to the cause have, in turn, recruited thousands of new members through their personal social networks—bringing in people the non-profit would otherwise have a difficult time finding.  Since its launch in June 2007, Save Darfur has united over 1,100,000 Facebook users around three straightforward goals and generated over $86,000 in donations for its on- and off-line awareness-raising campaign."

This case study really highlights the power of working in a networked way, empowering supporters to take action (whether by inviting their friends, donating money, promoting campaigns or anything else) with and for the organisation. It is also important to consider the fact that the Causes application use is only one element of the organisation's larger social media strategy.

Questions to Consider

In addition to the questions above about whether Causes is right for your organisation, here are a few more general questions to ask before you get started:

• How does Causes fit in with the rest of your communications, fundraising, and outreach strategies?
• What else are you doing in social media and how does it connect with, link between, or impact your use of Causes?
• How are you empowering and encouraging individuals passionate about your work or your sector to get involved?
• How will you weave opportunities to get involved with the organisation outside of Facebook into your Causes presence?

To continue learning about the way organisations are using the Causes application on Facebook, visit the Facebook profile for Causes

For questions about the Causes application visit the Causes Help Centre