Comments on: Causes raised $2.5 million in first year of operation

By: Noel Garland

Noel Garland — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:08:09 +0000

I tried to sign our non profit up to Facebook causes last year. Unfortunately the issues I found were that you could not register a Canadian NP at the time (I don’t know if that has changed now.) There also seems to be a lot of complaints of shell charities routing donations to dubious recipients and claims of no real validation of the charities registering. I personally don’t know how much of that is true but it does cast a cloud over something that I thought was a good idea. I was just disappointed not to be able to register since our organization does have a Facebook presence.

By: Tom W.

Tom W. — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:59:23 +0000

I was talking with Sean Parker on the CECP panel last week, they’re pleased with the growth and reaching out to corporate partners to do more campaigns. Their second year should be interesting to watch…And yeah, they’re well-founded, but then again Sean’s not just a founder, he’s a funder too.

By: Allan Benamer

Allan Benamer — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:58:27 +0000

It’s a startup with $7.35 million in financing. It just raised $5 million in the second round. I think the investors are sufficiently farsighted so far. I’m not worried yet. Talk to me at the end of 2009 though.

By: Tom W.

Tom W. — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:09:54 +0000

Allan – I agree with you about Causes. Not bad for the first year, and frankly, when you look at the Case contest and some of the other “supporter-building” successes they’ve had, the growth is remarkable. It’s all about potential, making some mistakes, trying a few things, and seeing where it goes – after all, it’s a startup.

By: Allan Benamer

Allan Benamer — Sat, 31 May 2008 16:17:19 +0000

Jon, I’m going to have to take issue with the notion that the donation revenue was “low”. Again… let’s start with the basics. It’s the first year of operation and they raised $2.5 million in donations. That amount is actually greater than the first year revenue for Kiva, GlobalGiving and DonorsChoose COMBINED. This notion that Causes “doesn’t work” simply flies in the face of the numbers they’re producing. I’m antsy that they didn’t deliver more but it’s certainly extremely good for a first year of operation. Sustainability of course is a huge issue and they’re certainly not sustainable right now. I’d say that they did a credible job their first year. Your mileage may vary.

By: Josiah

Josiah — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:37:54 +0000

I’d like to see a number to indicate how many orgs received it and what the average per org involved was. I admit that I’m somewhat skeptical that the facebook audience, overall, is interested this sort of app. They are at facebook to interact with friends, not find causes.

Hopefully I’ll be proven wrong.

By: Helpedia - Blog » Blog Archive » Helpedia-News vom 20.-31. Mai 2008

Helpedia - Blog » Blog Archive » Helpedia-News vom 20.-31. Mai 2008 — Sat, 31 May 2008 13:42:45 +0000

[...] Causes raised $2.5 million in first year of operation (englisch) Allan Benamer berichtet über die Ergebnisse von Project Agape bzw. deren, insbesondere durch Facebook bekannt gewordenen, Applikation Causes. In den Kommentaren des entsprechenden Techcrunch-Artikels kann man verschiedene Stimmen finden, die sich von den 2,5 Millionen US$ nicht sonderlich beeindruckt zeigen. Auf der anderen Seite darf man auch nicht unterschätzen wie viel zusätzliche Aufmerksamkeit Causes auf diverse gemeinnützige Organisationen gelenkt hat. [...]

By: Jon Biedermann

Jon Biedermann — Fri, 30 May 2008 17:51:09 +0000

It’s unfortunate the number was that low, as it really could have been a huge boon to the NP space.

In previous interviews they said they collected 1.5% (and even most of that was given to one of their vendors), but let’s say it was 1.5%, so they made……$37,500.00….in one year.

With the enormous cost of infrastructure/salary that’s required to operate a Facebook app, I’m thinking they will need to change their business model soon or end up looking like Kintera.

I still think the secret sauce is to partner with the non-profits, and integrate directly with the CRM’s they have. Non profits are simply not willing to let most of their donors give anonomously, as the true potential of a donor is never on the first gift- it’s on the second.

As soon as a donor gives that second gift, their propensity to give an additional gift skyrockets (i.e., someone who gives once to an organization has about a 40% chance of giving another gift. Someone who has given twice has a nearly 90+% chance of giving another gift, and this 90+% calculation keeps rising as they give more gifts, approaching 98% until they or the organization moves or dies).

That’s why it’s so critical to know who your donors are, and is perhaps one of the reasons that the adoption rate for causes is so slow.

-Jon Biedermann
Vice President
DonorPerfect.com