Causes, the popular Facebook and MySpace application that allows users to donate money and build communities around various benevolent initiatives, has just released the latest stats on its fundraising efforts. The organization has now raised a total of $10 million in just over two years, a huge jump from the $2.5 million it had raised over its first twelve months. Even more encouraging is that Causes raised half of that in the last six months, which means donations are picking up quickly.
Causes co-founder Joe Green writes on the site’s blog that the community currently stands at 70 million users, who are supporting 270,000 different causes and 53,000 nonprofits. Monetary donations have come from a total of 192,000 different users, with an impressive average donation size of $25.
Causes also highlights a few of the site’s best performers: Birthday Wish, which allows users to ask their friends to donate to a Cause of their choice in honor of their birthday, has raised a total of $1.4 million.
Causes also details a few examples showing just how far $10 million can go:
Clean drinking water for 50,000 people for 20 years
1 million bed nets to stop the spread of malaria
Safe, private shelter for 10,000 refugee families of five
First-time internet access for 100,000 low-income households
50,000 baskets of baby chickens for families in Cameroon
For more, be sure to check out the Causes blog.
Excellent. I’m glad so many people in this world are generous donators.
Yeah and we need more of them!
That’s a lot of zeros. Congrats.
It not easy to raise money for for a cause. Raising such a huge sum in little time is certainly surprising.
Numbers like this give me a lot of hope.
its good ieada thnaks alot
Wow those number are terrible!
Out of 70 million users only 192k made donations, not a very large percentage really.
Sure 10 million is great but really its a tiny sum in two years and no mention of the levels of donations going to big well known charities compared to smaller ones.
It would also be good if the app could take donations in the UK or Europe or any where else in the world that isn’t the US. Would probably result in many many more donations.
For now though this is just goodish news but still way under it’s full potential.
Make it function more like a fan page would really help.
i know 4 non-profits who applied for project funds and didn’t get any. Not sure how distribution is determined, anyone know?
Hi Antje,
This is Dave from Causes Support. Our US donations are processed by Network For Good (www.networkforgood.org). Checks are sent to nonprofits on around the 15th of every month. If you have any more questions, feel free to send an email to support@causes.com
Cheers!
Dave
Causes Support
Cheers to the survival of benevolence in such an economically disastrous time. Http://newfiction.com donated to the cause.
Cheers,
Tom Lopy
50,000 baskets of baby chickens for families in Cameroon
wtf
Interesting spin on awful awful numbers. For 70 million installs, which mean 70M people “support” some “cause”, they’ve raised less than 15 cents per install. Yeouch!
The Causes model does not work because there is no call to action to donate. Causes is a badge for you profile that says you care enough to say you care.
People dont even have to care at all.
They only need to care that people think they care:)
Because people installing don’t actually really care the average amount per install is only 15c
That’s my 15c worth
Agreed. Causes provides users with a way to express their opinions and to feel solidarity in their beliefs–and they’ve done it by the millions.
But the approach neither funds projects, nor develops change agents…for precisely the reasons you state. A fundraising organization in which less than two-tenths of one percent of users donate can’t really be held up as a shining example.
It’s an impressive figure, certainly–because it didn’t come from one huge foundation, it came from a couple hundred thousand individuals. And that’s progress.
But I wouldn’t say Causes has cracked micro-philanthropy. Especially when it’s taken them $7.5M to raise that $10M.
It’s good to see that some people are still generous, even when the jobless is at one of the highest rates in decades.
while it is great to think that most people will give out of the goodness of their hearts, there in fact few who even have ever given to charity.
while noble in cause, it is naive to believe an app like this will generate more donations solely reliant on the good will of people.
Check out http://www.amaz...com/causes.aspx
AmazingCauses is a direct mail platform that helps casues reach out to their supporters.
The amount raised to date via Causes is NOT the metric that matters most in determining the impact of Causes. Success will be determined by the lifetime value of those new donors to the recipient nonprofits. If they only give to that charity once, and/or maintain anonymity so that the nonprofit can’t contact them personally to say “thank you” and initiate deeper engagement into their mission – then yes, the impact that Causes is making will be neglible. But if the donors allow themselves to be contacted by the nonprofits, and if the Causes model both facilitates and encourages this, then this would lend itself to greater stewardship, cultivation and future donations – i.e. new donors for life vs. one time donors. It is this lifetime value of the new Causes donors that will determine its eventual impact on the nonprofit community.
10 Million over 2 years? As much as that might sound like a lot, it’s not…especially with “70 million” users…