I’m not as interested in the dollars per user figure at this point as I am in the dollars raised by Causes since its release on May 24, 2007. That’s about 84 days – or roughly $3571 a day since then. A straight-line forecast has Causes raising around $1.2 million for its first year of operation. Of course, since Causes is still experiencing exponential user growth, a straight-line forecast will very much underestimate the total take for Causes in its first year.

Just for comparison, sixdegrees.org claims it has raised $739,121 in 227 days or roughly $3256 a day. kiva.org has raised roughly $9 million in 669 days for an astounding $13452 a day but those are loans not outright donations.

So, Causes, with very little work towards optimizing donations has already averaged higher than a similar organization run by people heavily invested in the nonprofit sector and that has a celebrity endorsement and AOL partnership to boot. It would be cool to see someone have a breakthrough campaign but it’s still too early to tell how that will happen. It’s an entirely different fundraising ballgame with Causes and I expect that nonprofits will find unexpected ways to attract new constituents using it.

I think there’s an interesting parallel to the political blogosphere. Nobody took it seriously until it showed that it could raise serious money.

I think Agape faces the same challenge. $300,000 from 2.5 million users is really not very impressive at all, IMHO. I think that’s why not too many folks are taking seriously at this point in time. It would be cool to see someone have a breakthrough campaign.