Foundations
Why give a grant of $100,000 behind the scenes when you can give $100,000 in a way that activates another 100,000 engaged supporters and/or matched dollars? Foundations can now use Causes to partner with their nonprofit beneficiaries in way that builds organizational capacity and gets more mileage out of each dollar they give. By taking an existing philanthropic commitment online—in the form of a matching grant for a specific cause—foundations can directly engage a nonprofit’s passionate supporters and multiply the impact of their giving.
To learn more about sponsoring a cause, read our one page overview and email us at foundations@causes.com. Then, take a look at some of the other ways we’ve worked with innovative foundations:
Causes and the Case Foundation: America’s Giving Challenge
In 2008, Causes worked closely with the Case Foundation to implement the social networking element of America’s Giving Challenge. The challenge spanned 50 days during which the Case Foundation awarded $250,000 to non-profit organizations. Any Causes user was able to participate by creating his or her own cause, joining other causes, and recruiting and fundraising through his or her personal social network. $50,000 was awarded to the cause with the most unique donors at the end of the Challenge, $25,000 to the next top two, and $10,000 to the next top ten. As a daily incentive, an additional $1,000 was awarded to the cause with the most unique donors that day.
Thanks to the prize incentives and nonprofits’ tireless organizing efforts, more than double the total awards was ultimately raised by Causes users ($572,000), with the most unique donations to a single cause in a 24-hour period reaching 7,545 donors. In all, over 26,000 Facebook users donated to a nonprofit of their choice. Smaller nonprofits, surprisingly, won the majority of the awards as they more effectively implemented grassroots strategies for recruiting and fundraising. The creator of the cause that won the Challenge, for instance, was new to Facebook and runs a small nonprofit with an all-volunteer staff. Like other winning causes, her organization used many offline tactics, such as bringing laptops to high school and college classrooms, holding local events, and appointing ambassadors to get their colleagues to donate at their respective workplaces. Check out coverage of the Challenge in the New York Times and The Washington Post.
This fall, Causes plans to work the Case Foundation and other key partners to launch an even bigger Giving Challenge. If your foundation is interested in partnering with us for this exciting event, please email foundations@causes.com.
Friends of the World Food Program/The Prem Rawat Foundation
In the spring of 2008 Friends of the World Food Program created a cause to Feed Hungry Children in Haiti in response to the “silent tsunami” of food shortages that led to violent protests around the world. The Program raises funds for the United Nations World Food Program, which can provide a meal to a child in Haiti for $0.25. The cause’s administrators partnered with the Prem Rawat Foundation to match, dollar-for-dollar, every donation made through the cause up to $50,000. Thus far, the cause’s members have donated over $24,000 that Prem Rawat has matched, bringing the total amount of money donated to over $48,000. In all, the cause has provided nearly 200,000 meals to hungry children in Haiti.
