About
Causes was founded on the belief that in a healthy society, anyone can participate in change by informing and inspiring others. The most successful movements have always been born out of and held together by the bonds of real world relationships, and online social networks present never before seen opportunities for organizing. We strive to build tools for people to mobilize their friends for collective action, spread the word to friends of friends and acquaintances, and eventually launch movements that span local communities or even the globe.
Because we believe there are infinite ways to positively impact our world, anyone can create a user-created advocacy group on Causes. This group, called a “cause,” is the building block for all activity on the site. We strive for equal opportunity activism, which means that causes created by nonprofits and causes created by concerned individuals share the same level-playing field. Unlike other models that favor organizations with large budgets, causes rise and fall based on how well leaders organize and keep their communities engaged and mobilized. Cause administrators can post announcements to the cause and communicate with members through email and Facebook notifications. Members can discuss the issues, share their experiences, post media, and sign petitions. Causes can choose whether or not to fundraise by selecting a beneficiary organization to receive donations; these donations are automatically delivered monthly by Network for Good.
There is no one way to measure a cause’s success: a cause can spread awareness to a new demographic, teach users how to make changes in their daily lives, raise money to reach important goals, or encourage people to share personal stories and find support. Read cause success stories.
Whether you are an activist who wants to stop genocide or a nonprofit that promotes literacy, Causes can be your platform. It is a tool to help people go from caring about issues to doing something to make change. Anyone can change the world. How will you?
Causes History
Causes was co-founded by Sean Parker and Joe Green. Sean’s background is in consumer internet products such as Napster, Plaxo, and Facebook. Joe comes from a background of grassroots organizing, having worked on the ground in political campaigns on the city, state, and presidential level. They combined their knowledge of offline organizing and online social networking to create Causes. Causes was launched on May 25, 2007 and since then, the community has grown by over 90 million people and over $16 million has been donated through the application. Over 300,000 causes have been created by users on every topic from breast cancer research to stopping genocide to supporting local parks. Movements are being sparked, communities are coming together, and individuals are being empowered to use their social networks to change the world.
Causes is built and maintained by seven outstanding software engineers: Brad Fults, Jimmy Kittiyachavalit, Kristján F’jord Pétursson, Ryan Kabir, Jon Gefaell, Okay Zed, and Fred Wulff and ably led by our Director of Engineering, Michel Weksler. The look and feel is designed by Christopher Chan with inspiration and support from Josh Williams.
We also place a high priority on building and maintaining close relationships with nonprofits. This effort is led by our Nonprofit Director and Director of Business Development, Matt Mahan, and ably supported by Susan Gordon and Sarah Koch. David Abramovich leads our user and nonprofit support. We are based in downtown Berkeley, CA, where our office is managed by Sydney Fleischer.
Who Makes Causes?
Founders
Joe Green
About Joe: Joe Green is the co-founder and president of Causes, the largest online platform for activism. Causes aims to empower any individual to effect positive change by leveraging their social network. Joe’s approach to building these online tools is rooted in his offline experience as a grassroots political organizer for federal, state, and local campaigns. Previously, Joe founded Essembly, a non-partisan networking site devoted to open and intelligent debate of political issues. Joe graduated from Harvard College in 2006 with a degree in Social Studies. He was born and raised in Santa Monica, CA, where he first become engaged in the political process while serving on the local public school board.
Why Joe Works Here: “In my experience as a grassroots organizer, from rural Arizona to Ohio to Las Vegas, I have learned that everyone has something valuable to contribute towards improving society, but most people have no idea how to get started. The reason for having a democratic society is not only about what gets decided, but how we reach those decisions. The process of grassroots organizing is about building capacity in individuals to come together and take collective action, to take ownership of their society. I founded Causes to help as many people as possible discover the potential within themselves to make a difference.”
Sean Parker
About Sean: Sean Parker, Chairman and Co-Founder of Causes, is an entrepreneur with a record of launching genre-defining companies that reinvent ways to spread information online. In 1999, at the age of 19, Sean co-founded Napster Inc. with Shawn Fanning and changed how people think about and share music. In 2001, Sean co-founded Plaxo, pioneering viral engineering technology for updating contact information. Sean served as Plaxo’s president until 2004, around which time he joined with Mark Zuckerberg to launch the online social network Facebook. Sean was the founding president of Facebook from 2004-2005, again turning a technology start-up into an industry giant. Sean is also a Managing Partner of venture capital firm Founders Fund, where he looks for and supports this spirit of innovation in up-and-coming developers.
Why Sean Works Here: “According to the historical Buddha, we cannot strive to make all men happy; this is up to them. We can, however, strive to create the conditions under which happiness flourishes: a world more free of the suffering and fear which stifle our better instincts.”
Product Design
Christopher Chan
About Chris: Chris leads the design of the Causes user interface, assists with engineering development, and dabbles in graphic design. He hails from Castro Valley, CA, an unincorporated district so hardcore that it refuses to become a city. His weaknesses are that he works too hard, cares too much, and sometimes can be too invested in his job. Note that his weaknesses are actually strengths.
Why Chris Works Here: “I feel deeply privileged to be working at Causes because I can do more for the world in one day than at any other place I’ve ever been or could imagine being. Though I’ll never be the activist out on the street collecting signatures or at a phone bank making calls, I’m happy to lend those folks a helping hand.”
Engineering
Michel Weksler
About Michel: Michel is the Director of Engineering at Causes. Born in Rio De Janeiro, he grew up in Israel and has been living in Albany with his family for the past 6 years. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Psychology from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an MBA from Presidio School of Management. Before joining Causes, he was Lead Architect at Progress Financial, a Director of Engineering at PlayCafe, an Architect and Manager at PayPal, a network administrator at Avaya, a truck driver and a tank commander. Now that he’s all settled down and domesticated, he has finally cut his pony tail and is growing tomatoes in the front yard of his house where he lives with his wife, two kids and their dog.
Why Michel Works Here: “I used to work for a nonprofit in Israel that worked with immigrants who were in incredibly tough situations. I was so inspired by working with people who didn’t wait for the government or policy changes to make things better; these individuals just went ahead and started working. Their efforts made a huge impact on the lives of others and through their work, landmark legislation was passed that improved the lives of immigrants throughout the country. Causes expands on that idea of citizen activism – you don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to start a cause or change the world. I’ve learned how important that is to creating a better society.”
Jimmy Kittiyachavalit
About Jimmy: Jimmy is the local rock climbing, Rails and debugging specialist. He’s from Santa Monica, CA and went to UC Berkeley before joining the founding team at Causes. He works mostly on the back end, making sure that Rails is behaving, donations are working and everyone else is as productive as they can be.
Why Jimmy Works Here: “Causes is an awesome place to work. I love being part of a small team working hard to create a positive impact in the world. I am continually amazed by what people can accomplish when given the proper tools and opportunity. Here at Causes, I get to create those tools and opportunities and see what people do with them — it doesn’t get much better than that.”
Kristján Pétursson
About Kristján: Kristján moved down from Seattle to play drums for the infamous Stanford Band, earning a BS and MS in Computer Science during his free time. Upon graduating, he moved into enemy territory to work on the Causes back end. Other than coding, Kristján cooks, climbs, and listens to music with interesting time signatures.
Why Kristján Works Here: “Our democracy suffers from an excess of uninformed voters making effectively random decisions unless swayed by a colorful ad campaign. If we want this system to work, people need access to information and knowledge about how to actually influence the world they’re a part of. Causes is a first step to spreading this information and empowering the population to make thoughtful, meaningful choices.”
Brad Fults
About Brad: Brad is focused on mid-tier and front-end development for the team. He comes from a background of hiring great front-end teams and developing responsive interfaces. Originally from a suburb of Los Angeles, he holds degrees in Math-Computer Science and Philosophy from UC San Diego. Outside of work he enjoys traveling, writing and driving.
Why Brad Works Here: “I come from a background where I had to work hard for everything I achieved. Growing up, I saw the difference it made when people competed on equal footing and later became convinced that competitive individual production and personal freedom bring out the best humanity has to offer. Causes increases individual power and encourages competition toward solving big problems. Combined with the efficiency of online organizing and fundraising, I think Causes can play an important part in improving every individual’s life (and thus humankind overall).”
Kevin Ball
About Kevin: After studying Physics at UCSD, Kevin got into computing by working on performance at a supercomputing startup, detoured into political organizing in late 2007 with the Obama Campaign, and then started work at Causes as a way to combine the two. When he’s not working he enjoys dancing, reading, traveling, and spending time with his amazing wife.
Why Kevin Works Here: “I learned while I was working for the Obama campaign that I like doing something that makes a difference in people’s lives. But I also love technical problem solving. At Causes, I can focus on making the world a better place, while working with a top-quality technical team and learning about cutting edge technologies.”
Ryan Kabir
About Ryan: Ryan hails from the glorious winter-lands of the north east. A native of Canada, he defected to the US to get his degree from MIT. He spent the last few years finding himself, and is now fortunate to find himself at Causes on a daily basis, where he busts out all manner of code and ideas with ruthless abandon. Outside the office he makes and listens to great music, writes fiction, and devours reading material (tasty!).
Why Ryan Works Here: “I was born and brought up in Canada, but my family originally hails from Bangladesh. I’ve learned to be grateful for so much that we take for granted on a daily basis, and appreciate that my life could have been very different. There aren’t many more places where I could enjoy my day churning out code that’s helping raise awareness and funds for such a diverse set of ideals.”
Jon Gefaell
About Jon: Jon is an old school BOFH who zealously guards the T[r]oll Bridge at the bottom of the Causes engineering stack. Jon is responsible for Infrastructure Architecture and Operations. He brings with him a wealth of experience in Unix Systems Engineering, Operations and Architecture from companies like Napster, Yahoo!, NetApp, Apple and Sun. He likes to spend time away from work with his pets and friends hacking Amateur Radio, Astronomy, Photography, Motorcycling, Kite Flying and other esoteric hobbies. He’s most happy when he can do 3 or more of these activities together, simultaneously.
Why Jon Works Here: “I have had an unusual background which has exposed me to the range of the human condition. During my travels I learned that empathy and compassion were the things which made me the most content and satisfied. I’ve thrived by trying to live by those ideals, no matter how short I come at times. Causes is an opportunity to do more better good. Agape”
Okay Zed
About Okay: Okay is so strong his normal talking sounds like yelling and he can shout raw bits into USB ports. A NY expatriate, Okay spends much of his time not being sad about the steady summer weather. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and spends much of his time learning more about everything.
Why Okay Works Here: “I am driven by a personal philosophy of empathy and a belief in equality. I see people all around me talking about how outraged they are about what’s happening in the world but not doing anything about it. I work here so that I can create technologies that allow individuals to act on their empathy in a way that creates a more equal world.”
Fred Wulff
About Fred: Fred is a master’s student by day and Causes developer by Tuesday. Originally from Dallas, he enjoys creating scalable backends, cool and useful frontends, and long walks on the beach. He once was attacked by a goat bridge in central Texas. He’s looking forward to going full-time this summer.
Why Fred Works Here: “I was a Causes newbie when I joined. I am consistently amazed at the inventive and persuasive ways in which people are spreading the word about the endeavors they care about; it really makes each day in the office exciting. While I have picked up a couple of causes along the way, I still very much feel like I’m learning the ropes. I hope that I can build on that experience by making Causes a more intuitive and useful way for those who are still finding what they’re passionate about to get involved.”
Nonprofit and Activist Team
Matt Mahan (Washington D.C. office)
About Matt: Matt Mahan, Nonprofit and Business Development Director, oversees Causes’ work with activists, nonprofit partners, and numerous companies and foundations that believe in the power of decentralized organizing and philanthropy. Matt joined Causes after two years with Teach for America, where he taught middle school, and a one-year Rockefeller Fellowship, through which he built windmills and irrigation systems in Bolivia. Matt graduated from Harvard College, where he served as student body president. He is a native of Watsonville, a farming community on California’s Central Coast famous for its strawberries.
Why Matt Works Here: “Since high school I’ve been privileged to work and live in different communities as a student, machine shop “grease monkey”, middle school teacher, and now, with Causes. What has struck me in each context is that human beings seem to be fulfilled more by having personal agency than wealth or status. I think that we yearn to be active in the world, to use our skills to contribute to progress and create good. I believe in Causes because our work is fundamentally about lowering barriers to this kind of civic participation, especially as done through advocacy and service. We are just scratching the surface of the potential for online technology, coupled with greater human awareness, to make our world a more just and joyful place. That inspires me.”
Susan Gordon (Berkeley office)
About Susan: Susan is Causes’ Nonprofit Coordinator. She received her B.A. in History from Dartmouth, where she focused on issues of race, ethnicity, and immigration. She has worked as a political organizer, communications specialist for a women’s nonprofit in Cambodia, and leader of an organization providing outdoor activities and mentors for rural youth in New Hampshire. Susan joined the Causes team back in March 2007, long before we had all the fancy things like catering, a blog, or a name.
Why Susan Works Here: “During a political discussion with my co-workers one day when I was working in Cambodia, my friend Socheata said, ‘Susan, you are so lucky to live in the States where you can vote for your government. Your government has a big impact on our lives here but we can’t do much about who gets elected. But you have voters all around you! At the store, in your classes, they’re everywhere!’ I had never thought about my influence like that but it is true. Just by talking to our friends, we can impact not only elections but also bring about social change. I work at Causes because these tools are all about empowering people to recognize that influence and start tapping into it in order to bring about the change that we so desperately need. Plus, I promised her I wouldn’t waste the opportunity.”
Sarah Koch (Washington D.C. office)
About Sarah: Sarah Koch focuses her work with Causes on helping nonprofits and users develop effective and impactful online campaigns. She received her B.A. in Sociology and Spanish from Luther College, looking specifically at the effect of acculturation and integration on Latin American immigrants in the Midwest. Since that time, she has worked in the nonprofit sphere as a community health educator and grant writer and transitioned into a fitting position leading communications and development campaigns on Causes.
Why Sarah Works Here: “My time spent with working with the Latino community helped frame how I look at social justice and how to create positive impact in the world. As a community health educator, I led a team of doctors, nurses and lay health promoters from Latin America who were working in DC as maids, painters or baby-sitters. Struggling through the system in their new country didn’t push these health advocates down, but rather formed them into leaders and advocates for their community. These individuals are my inspiration and constant reminder of the valuable work being done in communities and nonprofits around the world. I aim to bring that passion and understanding into my position leading communications and development campaigns on Causes.”
User Support
David Abramovich
About David: David Abramovich is Causes’ resident support guru – when any of our millions of users have an issue or a suggestion, he is the first to hear about it. Born in Moscow and raised in Boston, David holds a degree from Boston University and is fairly new to the Bay Area. He has recently lived in Buenos Aires for close to a year and is extremely passionate about traveling the world. Music is his other obsession, and he DJs semi-regularly throughout Oakland and San Francisco.
Why David Works Here: “I believe strongly in the power of social media to do good in the world and I am happy to be a part of an organization that helps so many organizations do just that.”
