Causes Starts Social Network Focused on Charitable Passions

Causes, a company that got its start as a Facebook application for donating money to charity, today transformed itself into a full-fledged social network.

The company’s new platform is designed to be a place where people can discuss the social issues they care about, connect with like-minded people and nonprofits, and take action by making donations, signing petitions, and raising money.

“The Internet today has a big gap,” says Matt Mahan, chief executive of Causes. “There’s no really excellent, dedicated place for people to build a cause-related identity and publicly declare what their values are.”

Past attempts to build social networks focused on philanthropy have been largely unsuccessful. Jumo, a social network created by Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook, burst onto the nonprofit scene in late 2010, then merged quietly with Good magazine, which still runs a social network but has discontinued the publication and has had two rounds of layoffs.

Mr. Mahan says that things will be different this time because lots of people already use Causes. He says 6 million people visit the Web site each month, and as a result the company has more than a billion pieces of data showing what members have done on the site.

“So rather than inviting people to a party where there are just a few people wandering about, we actually have a really robust database on what people care about and can help people form meaningful supporter connections around shared causes,” he says.

Demand From Activists

People asked for the new network because their attempts to draw attention to important issues using Facebook elicited few responses, according to Mr. Mahan.

Too often, he says, posts about social issues go unrecognized or even draw negative feedback: “It is fundamentally a social space for them to connect in noncontroversial ways with friends and family members, to post baby pictures and birthday wishes.”

That’s not to say that the company is cutting ties with the giants of social networking.

Causes will use its data about member behavior to help people determine who in their networks on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are likely to share their charitable passions. People will also be able to distribute the videos, articles, and other content they post on Causes to their connections on the other sites.

Causes is a for-profit and makes money by charging companies to run campaigns promoting charitable causes on the site. For example, AT&T is running a campaign promising to pay $1 to Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, a youth-leadership group, for every person who pledges not to text while driving.

Mr. Mahan says the company-sponsored campaigns “enhance the experience for users” and are more palatable than the alternatives: taking a percentage of donations made through the site or selling contact information from users.

Says Mr. Mahan: “We’ve settled on a nice third path here.”