« Previous post
Next post »

May 24, 2007

Causes On Facebook Launches

Michael Arrington

36 comments »

We wrote about Project Agape, a new startup that is applying viral principles to altruism and social causes, in late March (”Project Agape” is a working name for the service, it is yet to be formally named). Today, the service is launching as one of the initial Facebook Platform partners.

The company was founded by Sean Parker and Joe Green and is designed to help social causes - charities, religions, political parties and candidates, etc.

Integration with Facebook is very, very deep, which isn’t surprising given the founders connections to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO. Parker was Facebook’s founding President, and Green was Zuckerberg’s college roomate.

Facebook already has a popular “groups” application, and many social causes are represented as a group. Groups, however, don’t let users do much more than join. With Agape, users can create causes, take donations, and recruit members. 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.

I spoke with Green and Parker and asked them why they decided to show their service to the public for the first time via Facebook instead of launching on their own site. The answer: Facebook has a huge and active user base (20 million users, each viewing 50 pages daily on Facebook), and they are a demographic that is highly likely to want to become involved actively in causes they believe in. The hugh popularity of Facebook Groups is evidence of this, they say.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2007 at 3:51 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. Dekut.com

    May 24th, 2007 at 4:53 pm

  2. TechCrunch Japanese

    May 25th, 2007 at 1:09 am

  3. Facebook: andere zum Legostein machen - Sajonara.de - Internetmagazin

    May 30th, 2007 at 5:23 pm

  4. The School for Social Entrepreneurs

    June 1st, 2007 at 11:12 am

  5. Facebook Application: Causes | NathenGrass.com

    June 22nd, 2007 at 1:59 pm

  6. See What’s Out There » Blog Archive » An Open API is the New Black

    June 29th, 2007 at 2:56 pm

  7. vincentcassar.com » Non-Profits on Facebook and MySpace

    September 19th, 2007 at 5:44 pm

  8. Buy A Virtual Gift And Fight Malaria teasered @ Feed UP !!

    December 6th, 2007 at 10:01 pm

  9. Josh Williams - Bedroom to Boardroom | Web Directions

    April 14th, 2008 at 9:55 pm

Comments

RSS feed for comments on this post.

  1. the logo homepage

    May 24th, 2007 at 3:54 pm

    with the help of the facebook platform, it’ll be a success…hopefully..

  2. max

    May 24th, 2007 at 4:00 pm

    i hope Change.org takes advantage of this. their new site looks really impressive. can’t wait to see what agape’s full service will be like.

  3. Mik

    May 24th, 2007 at 4:16 pm

    How do you add these applications to your facebook account?

  4. Lach

    May 24th, 2007 at 4:18 pm

    I’d love to see this on the Facebook Home screen. Where will these add-on type of things be listed? I cant wait until this one becomes available!

  5. HKScot

    May 24th, 2007 at 4:22 pm

    Is the print screen above for the Save Darfur group a preview, or is that live on facebook? Just searched and couldn’t find it.

  6. HKScot

    May 24th, 2007 at 4:22 pm

    Looks like we’re all thinking the same thing (I didn’t see your posts)

  7. Michael Arrington

    May 24th, 2007 at 4:25 pm

    you know, I’m actually not sure when this launches. Zuckerberg said “sometime tonight”.

  8. seth

    May 24th, 2007 at 4:25 pm

    good to see i’m not the only one fiending for a chance at playing with platform

  9. Lach

    May 24th, 2007 at 4:26 pm

    Thanks Mike.

  10. seth

    May 24th, 2007 at 4:26 pm

    ahh maaaan, i’m going to be strung out for a while

  11. CRed

    May 24th, 2007 at 4:27 pm

    I just looked and could not find the new application on Facebook. Micheal, do you know where to find it? I would like leverage the new service with my new non-profit called http://www.projecttomorrow.org

    Thanks

  12. Melvin

    May 24th, 2007 at 4:37 pm

    CRed - Took a look at your site. I have something to offer you. Please email me at info AT clickeveryday.co.uk

    This is all launching “sometime tonight”? That must be West Coast USA time - I guess I’ll just have to wake up early because it’s already getting late here in the UK!

  13. CRed

    May 24th, 2007 at 4:39 pm

    thanks michael.

  14. Danny

    May 24th, 2007 at 4:39 pm

    Hey Max,

    This is Danny from Change.org. We’re very excited about the Facebook Platform and are already working on integration, which will hopefully be ready very soon. As you know, we released our full feature set earlier this week and are thrilled with the feedback and enthusiasm.

    In addition to fundraising, this platform will allow us to extend our tools for online activism to the entire Facebook community. For example, on Change.org users can lobby Congress by coordinating emails and internet-based phone calls using the sort of tools that until now have been exclusively available to large organizations. Users can also organize rallies, meet-ups, and volunteer opportunities.

    The Change.org community has grown substantially this week, and we’re looking forward to reaching new people.

  15. MJK

    May 24th, 2007 at 4:43 pm

    Does anyone know how this platform will be offered? Is it going to be open to anyone or just “partners”?

    MJK
    http://www.profilefly.com
    Aggregate and Promote your Online Identity

  16. Project

    May 24th, 2007 at 5:04 pm

    Wow. This is a pretty innovative way to use the platform. I can see it really taking off around sponsored runs at marathons for instance.

  17. Zaid

    May 24th, 2007 at 6:00 pm

    The big big question is: what is facebook’s strategy / attitude towards monetization both for itself and its partners?

    This as technology is a great thing–but you can’t help think about all the conflicts that could arise from successful partners who want to monetize. If all I am getting are a billion views of my widget on facebook–the partner WOULD want to monetize it. Facebook would already be monetizing by getting users to stick around for longer due to the partner’s widgets.

  18. Grant M

    May 24th, 2007 at 6:21 pm

    Arrington & All-

    If anyone wants to toy around in the new facebook, with facebook development documentation, apps and all the features that are soon to be launching this is how you do it:

    Login to facebook like normal:
    http://www.facebook.com

    then visit:
    http://f8.facebook.com

    and you’re in:
    http://developers.f8.facebook.com/

    This whole concept is simply amazing, truly mind boggling.

    -Grant

  19. Miles

    May 24th, 2007 at 7:30 pm

    Looks good to me, now I just need to find a link to it to check it out, don’t see it on my menu.

  20. Dan Birdwhistell

    May 24th, 2007 at 7:50 pm

    Hmmm…yes now showing of it actually on the site just yet. Also, what is this “PhiloticDev” icon on your sidebar, mike?

  21. Jordan Nav

    May 24th, 2007 at 8:35 pm

    http://apps.f8.facebook.com/causes/browse_causes

  22. Jordan Nav

    May 24th, 2007 at 8:35 pm

    P.S. (whoops) you have to add the “Causes” application first, and then you can browse individual causes.

  23. Matt

    May 24th, 2007 at 9:29 pm

    I don’t see college kids shelling out credit card donations to non-profits. These guys think too highly of their target demographic.

  24. Dan Birdwhistell

    May 24th, 2007 at 11:02 pm

    Ok so I got in and have been playing around with it. First off, Matt, you are wrong –> it’s not college kids just on facebook, and even if it was, they will shell out money, especially if it can be seen by other members. It’s a way to articulate one’s identity and functions the exactly as buying a t-shirt with the same cause on it.

    My issue with “causes” as it is structured now is that it’s really actually not that different than the existing groups. the main functionality is that it can be added to one’s profile and allows for donations. It also has a lot of “not really causes” causes on there. I’ll be interesting to see how they moderate it all.

  25. Project

    May 24th, 2007 at 11:18 pm

    Matt, Facebook is no longer the domain of the student. Almost everybody at my workplace has signed up over the past month and love the experience. Thats around 200 people. I think I read that the Microsoft network has 10,000 people. Thats a 6th of its entire workforce. Apple, Google, Yahoo - 3,000 members.

  26. davis

    May 26th, 2007 at 8:07 pm

    why is it that there are so many change.org shills on this discussion! It’s an OK site but very much in the pocket of Big Philanthropy, the kind of organizations that have zero accountability and pay their CEOs $400K per year.

  27. Andrew

    May 26th, 2007 at 8:19 pm

    How is Change.org “in the pocket of Big Philanthropy.”

    Everytime I read TechCrunch, the comments get worse and worse.

« Previous post
Next post »