Causes

Causes, launched in May 2007, is applying viral principles to altruism and social causes. The company was founded by Sean Parker and Joe Green and is designed to help social causes - charities, religions, political parties and candidates, etc.

Whenever someone creates a cause or joins one, it shows up in their news feed for their friends to see. Information about the cause is also included in the profile itself, including total amount raised by that user and new users recruited.

There’s a multi level marketing approach, too. Any money donated by other users you’ve recruited is also included in your “money raised” total (see top image). Gaining status by recruiting members and getting donations will be a big incentive for users to not only join a cause that they feel strongly about, but will also get them to participate on an ongoing basis.

In its first year, Causes registered 12 million users who had supported 80,000 non-profit causes worldwide. And $2.5 million had been raised for 19,445 different 501(c)(3) charitable organizations.