Causes! What’s yours?

Would you like to donate for your Birthday? Have you heard of Causes.com?

Causes helps you find and start online cause platforms through social media for issues you care about. It is an online advocacy and fundraising network for thousands of various causes and non-profit organizations. For you, it is your tool to start a fund-raising campaign to celebrate your special occasion say your wedding or memorialize your loved ones. Per Craig Newman (of Craig’s List fame and now craigconnects.org) there is a growing number of organizations that have created services, platforms or programs that help us help each other. Causes is one of them.
The Causes was co-founded in 2007 by Sean Parker and Joe Green. It is an online advocacy and fundraising application within Facebook, an online social network site. Check out http://www.facebook.com/causes or http://exchange.causes.com/. It is a for-profit business. Causes is the world’s largest online platform for activism with 100 million installed users and $30 million raised for nonprofits.

The platform enables users to create grassroots groups that take action on a social issue or support a specific non-profit organization. These groups, individually called a “cause,” are building blocks for most activity on the site. In order to fundraise, a cause must identify a registered nonprofit in the United States or Canada. Causes’ stated mission is “to empower anyone with a good idea or passion for change to impact the world. Using our platform, individuals mobilize their network of friends to grow lasting social and political movements.(Source: Wikipedia.com) Causes has relaunched their Birthday Wish Tool , this is geared mainly for the casual user.  Wishes section expands the idea to let users donate birthdays, weddings, holidays, memorials, runs or any other personal moments. The concept is similar to basically setting up a fundraising page around an event but Wishes does manage to simplify the process. The page is clearly geared towards more casual users who may not be philanthropic activists but wish to do some good instead of getting another mess of gifts. So far Wishes users have donated more than $11 million dollars just through birthdays and holidays. (Source: Mashable.com)