This post was written for Craig Newmark’s CraigConnects initiative in response to this blog. 

Watching Google Zetigeist’s 2011 in Retrospect video yesterday reminded me that we’ve had a rough year.  A really rough year.  The recession and its effects have shaken the American dream to its core.  Crackdowns on protesters worldwide have shown how much injustice has been inflicted just beneath our consciousness.  From child abuse to animal cruelty to human rights abuses, we have work to do.  And while I maintain rock-solid optimism for 2012, it is only because I’ve been inspired by the promise of passionate activists combined with revolutionary technology.  This is why I’m so excited – giddy, really – for what’s ahead on Causes.

Over the past year, we’ve seen passionate activists use the tools on Causes for real, off-line impact.  Eric Ding funded his first cancer research study from donations through the cause he started from his med school dorm room.  The Cove campaign turned the Empire State Building red to raise awareness of the bloody slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan.  Causes users sent over 1350 “Welcome Home” messages to our troops coming home from Iraq.  We’re on to something.

In 2012, we want YOU to change the world. The people who are building the most powerful movements on Causes are people just like you.  But you really do have the ability now, like never before, to create movements for the change you want to see.  Causes has always been a platform for bottom-up grassroots movements to take form and gain teeth.  But in 2012, we’ll take this to a whole new level.  If you’ve been on Causes.com or any cause in the past month, you’ve seen that we’ve already started updating the 600,000 causes on our platform.  From the Campaign for Cancer Prevention to Keep the Arts in Public Schools, we’re working hard to make each community a more effective tool to create change.  You can see a sneak preview of our new pledge feature at www.causes.com/itcanwait, and this is just the beginning.

In 2012, we’re going to launch new tools that better enable organizers to get things done.  We’re going to continue supporting the activists and nonprofits organizing campaigns that will change the world.  And in 2012, we will continue the fight for a more open and transparent democracy where anyone can change the world.  You can join us at www.causes.com.   By this time next year, I hope we can all come together and talk about the big wins that were accomplished in 2012 by the biggest world-changer of the year…you.