Causes.com is a civic-technology app and website that enables users to organize grassroots and public awareness campaigns. The Causes platform presents summaries of breaking news, legislation, and trending topics and allows users to react, comment, share, or contact representatives about an issue. Users can also create their own “Cause” and seek support from other users. In 2019, Causes was acquired by Countable Corporation. In 2020, Countable.us and its associated app merged with Causes.com.

Mission

Causes' stated mission is "to empower people to create change in the world through online organizing. Causes connects people who share a common vision and build the tools they need to make an impact. Any user can create a campaign on Causes, whether they work for a nonprofit or are an

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

, interested in a certain issue. Nonprofits with smaller

resource Resource refers to all the materials available in our environment which are technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and wants. Resources can broadly be classified upon thei ...

s or extensive grassroots networks have been leveraging those resources to build online communities of supporters.Hello? Arkansas? Yeah, It's Facebook
, ''The NonProfit Times'', June 2009. Users can publicize their activity to their personal network and use social pressure to engage friends and get more people involved. Causes is a for-profit business. Investors include

Sean Parker Sean Parker (born December 3, 1979) is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist, most notable for co-founding the file-sharing computer service Napster, and serving as the first president of the social networking website Facebook. He also ...

, Founders Fund, the Case Foundation and NEA.

History

Causes launched in 2007 as the first social advocacy application for Facebook. Users could create, join or browse causes focused on cause-related issues. Causes was used as a vehicle for

community building Community building is a field of practices directed toward the creation or enhancement of community among individuals within a regional area (such as a neighborhood) or with a common need or interest. It is often encompassed under the fields of c ...

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

awareness Awareness is the state of being conscious of something. More specifically, it is the ability to directly know and perceive, to feel, or to be cognizant of events. Another definition describes it as a state wherein a subject is aware of some infor ...

, advocacy and fundraising. Causes was co-founded by

and Joe Green. Parker had previously worked with Napster,

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

, and co-founded

Plaxo Plaxo was an online address book that launched in 2002. It was a subsidiary of cable television company Comcast from 2008 to 2017. At one point it offered a social networking service. History The company was founded by Sean Parker and two Stanfo ...

, and Green worked in grassroots organizing, including campaigns on the presidential levels. Parker and Green combined their knowledge of offline organizing, online social networking and product design to create Causes. The platform is responsible for over 20 million messages to Congress and was featured in a 2014 New York Times piece on political apps. It has also been featured in Wired, and TechCrunch.

Acquisition by Countable

Causes and its parent company Brigade Media were acquired by Countable Corporation in 2019. In 2020, Countable.us and its associated app merged with Causes.com.

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Causes (Company) American political websites Online petitions Charity fundraisers Internet properties established in 2007 2007 establishments in the United States