Causes Exchange

Love Without Boundaries Foundation

A small nonprofit with just 3% overhead and an all-volunteer staff, Love Without Boundaries provides medical care to orphans in China in hopes of readying them for adoption.  In 2008, the organization outcompeted a number of larger, better-funded non-profits to win the Causes Giving Challenge.  Over the course of the 50-day challenge, the organiation raised $144,898 from 4,115 donors.  Its staff, many of whom signed up for Facebook in order to join the challenge, used the organization’s incredible stories and touching photos to bring in thousands of new donors and reach tens of thousands of Facebook users who had never before heard of their small non-profit.  Love Without Boundaries used every dollar of the $50,000 prize for heart surgeries that saved 10 babies’ lives.

Link: www.causes.com/lwb

The Alliance for Climate Protection

The ‘Stop Global Warming’ cause grew exponentially as soon as Causes was launched on Facebook.  Now with over 2.7 million members, it is not uncommon for the cause to increase its membership by 1,500 people in one day.  The cause originally benefited a UN climate change effort but the cause membership and administrator decided, through discussions on the cause wall and discussion board, to change their beneficiary to Al Gore’s new organization, the Alliance for Climate Protection, after Gore was award the Noble Peace Prize. Stop Global Warming has thereby demonstrated that even the largest causes can successfully engage in collective decision-making.

Link: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/24

Save Darfur Coalition

The ‘Save Darfur’ cause exemplifies the two-way nature of organizing on Causes. Unlike the majority of causes, started by individual activists unaffiliated with a non-profit, an employee of the Save Darfur Coalition (an official 501c3) launched this cause as part of the organization’s outreach strategy. The hundreds of Facebook users who were initially invited to the cause have, in turn, recruited thousands of new members through their personal social networks—bringing in people the non-profit would otherwise have a difficult time finding.  Since its launch in June 2007, Save Darfur has united over 1,100,000 Facebook users around three straightforward goals and generated over $86,000 in donations for its on- and off-line awareness-raising campaign.

Link: www.causes.com/savedarfur

Friends of the World Food Program

Friends of the World Food Program created the “Feed Hungry Children in Haiti” cause in response to the “silent tsunami” of food shortages that has devastated Haiti over the past year.  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 itself has pioneered a new model on Causes by partnering 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 40,000 members have raised over $23,000 that Prem Rawat has matched, bringing the total amount of money donated to over $46,000.  Thus, roughly ten months since its inception, the cause has provided over 185,000 meals to hungry children in Haiti.

Link: http://www.causes.com/feedhaiti

Students for a Free Tibet

The student-driven “Tibetan Freedom Movement” cause has 34,000 members has raised over $125,000 for Students for a Free Tibet. The cause administrators, who—being in the US and Tibet—are physically a world apart, have collaborated via Facebook to mount a global organizing campaign for Tibet’s political freedom. Featured in the New York Times, the cause has become a forum for discussion of political sovereignty and human rights. Currently, the nonprofit is mobilizing its cause community for an “Athlete Wanted” campaign that seeks to make Tibetan self-determination a high-visibility issue at Beijing’s upcoming Olympic Games.

Link: http://www.causes.com/SFT

FACE AIDS

Katie Bollbach, Jonny Dorsey, and Lauren Young, three Stanford University students, went to Zambia in 2006, where they met Mama Katele, the only openly HIV-positive person in a camp of over 24,000 refugees. The trio began a small income-generating project for the woman so that she could afford treatment. It began with creating beaded AIDS awareness pins to sell and ultimately blossomed into the nonprofit FACE AIDS. By appealing to their fellow students and spreading their mission through new chapters of their organization on college nationwide, the leaders behind FACE AIDS were able to garner over $43,000 in donations through their cause “Fight AIDS Now” and were a runner-up in the Giving Challenge.  The cause fueled its donation drive with innovative fundraising techniques, such as setting up banks of laptops and computers for students to sit down and immediately donate to the cause while passing through the center of campus.

Link: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/47154

Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation

In 2000, Alexandra “Alex” Scott set up a lemonade stand with her brother on their front lawn. She declared that she was going to raise money so that her doctors would find a cure for kids who, like her, suffered from cancer. Alex was only four years old at the time. Alex passed away in 2004 at the age of eight, after having raised over a million dollars that year. As of June 2008, Alex’s Lemonade Stand has raised over $19 million for childhood cancer research. The grassroots nature of the physical lemonade stands that have cropped up across the nation is mirrored by the cause’s rapid growth to over 100,000 members in just four months. Cause members communicate through wall posts and discussion threads by sharing stories, videos, and photos that inspire individuals to connect and take action. In February, the cause launched an “Our Heroes” series that each week features a picture and the personal story of a child affected by cancer. Over 8,000 lemonade stands now have a central place to gather, support each other, and inspire others to donate directly to the organization.

Link: http://www.causes.com/alsf

Amnesty International

The cause for Amnesty International was started by Brian Glasscock, a 16-year old high school student in San Francisco who was a volunteer for Amnesty International in the summer of 2007.  The cause has grown to over 438,000 members and Brian maintains it daily by posting announcements, raising awareness about new campaigns, and starting discussions on important topics.  The cause and Brian impressed Amnesty International so much that they have hired him to coordinate their online organizing efforts.

Link: http://www.causes.com/amnesty

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