CauseWired

In December, 2007 the foundation created by America Online founder Steve Case and his wife Jean launched an online program aimed at inspiring everyday people to adopt wired causes, and to motivate nonprofit organizations to begin to take advantage of the burgeoning social Internet. Through the first-ever America’s Giving Challenge and Causes Giving Challenge, the Case Foundation staked $750,000 in a series of fundraising contests that ran from mid-December through the following January. The foundation’s leading partners were Facebook and its Causes application created by Project Agape, and Parade, the glossy Sunday newspaper supplement with its massive circulation of 32 million people weekly.

The rules were pretty simple. More than 2,500 organizations were represented by causes created during the Challenge. The Causes Giving Challenge awarded $50,000 to the cause with the most unique donors, $25,000 to the second and third place causes, and $10,000 to the next ten causes. Throughout the Challenge, Causes on Facebook awarded daily winners $1,000 for having the most unique donations in a single day. Any Facebook user could participate by using the Causes application to promote their cause through direct user-to-user messages, and feature it on their profile. In the end, a total of 32,886 donations accounted for $571,686 in donations supporting 747 different organizations - an average gift of $17.38. The Parade portion, which brought in contributions via the magazine’s website, accounted for another $1.2 million from 48,711 donors - for an average donation of about $24, slightly higher. These online fundraisers used widgets - bits of code users could pass around and put on their blogs to urge donations and involvemenet - and relied on charity donation sites Network for Good and GlobalGiving to process gifts. [An important disclosure is necessary: the Case Foundation is a client of Changing Our World, Inc., the consulting firm where I work, and the company has been involved in some of the online causes work of the foundation, although none of the information in this book comes from that relationship.]

As Jean Case, the foundation’s chief executive, observed: ““Thousands of people embraced new technologies, built new online communities, and proved that simple daily actions and small donations can inspire others and tap into their energy and passion to make a difference.” I’d argue that the manner in which the causes were supported on Facebook and through blog-based widgets and other tools on the Parade side of the ledger may count for more in the end than the money that was raised - because getting those contributions involved creating and activating a social network, a group of people who in the process probably learned a bit more about the causes they were supporting - and a group that may well be more open to real activism in the future than names on an email list. Further, I’d suggest that the online social activism portion of the program best-served one of the key goals of the Case commitment - priming the pump of activism with leadership.

And raising that money online took real leadership indeed.

Let’s take one of the top eight finishers in the Parade.com challenge as an example. Route Out of Poverty for Cambodian Children, a grassroots project of the Sharing Foundation, garnered 1,650 donations totaling $41,673 - and won a $50,000 grant from the Case Foundation for finishing in the top four among international causes. I know a little more about the foundation’s work in Cambodia, and the Route Out of Poverty program, which teaches Khmer to 100 children of illiterate farmers, and English to over 500 students seeking to move beyond subsistence farming. I know that thousands of Cambodian children grow up illiterate, with very few educational options. I also know that the Sharing Foundation’s Khmer literacy school helps farm children learn their native alphabet and numbers well enough to attend elementary school. I know that its English Language Program offers village students from eight to 18 the opportunity to learn Cambodia’s language of commerce, allowing them to obtain jobs in tourism and word processing. But I don’t know this because of a website, or a Facebook profile, or a cool blog widget, or a well-publicized giving challenge.

I know all of this because of Beth Kanter.

GlobalGiving tracked 1,650 donations to Route Out of Poverty for Cambodian Children - and one of them was mine. And I made the list because of Beth, a Boston-based consultant who is one of the Web’s most ardent champions of online social activism. In addition to her blogging, coaching work and consulting, Beth is passionate about the southeast Asian nation of Cambodia. A few years ago, sheadopted two Khmer children, and is quite passionate about helping them to know about their homeland and celebrate their culture. Beth writes about Khmer culture and technology at Cambodia4kids blog and maintains a web site with the same name that provides information for U.S. teachers and parents. Her Typing To Learn Khmer blog is where she practices her very basic Khmer language skills using Khmer Unicode. She has covered the Cambodian Blogosphere as an author for Global Voices Online, a project of the Berkman Center for Internet and Law at Harvard University.

In addition to her many accomplishments, Beth is something of a noodge - which in the kinder version of the Yiddish translation means “someone who pushes you, sometimes to the point of annoyance.” When I asked Beth for some information related to this book, she very kindly held her hand out, digital palm up. A member of the board of the Sharing Foundation, she was passionately committed to ensuring that its Cambodian cause made the top four finishers in the Case Foundation contest - and an inquiring journalist who is an only an online acquaintance simply didn’t qualify for a free pass. Every time I asked a question, Beth would shoot back some version of: “the deadline’s coming, did you make your gift yet?”

Beth bugged a lot of people, posted to her blog, and urged others to post the widget - a small graphic showing Cambodian children with the current giving levels of the campaign. I finally made a small gift, and posted the widget to my own blog. Other people asked me about and I told them what I knew. And some them went on to make donations. Now we’re all savvy about the small foundation changing the lives of poor Cambodian children. Beth’s leadership brought in needed funds, but it also created real awareness and a network of potential supporters for the future.

And there was a small reward, in addition to Beth’s hearty thanks. In March, two months after the Case challenges ended, Dr. Nancy Hendrie, the president of the Sharing Foundation, sent Beth a video that she posted to her blog and sent around the donors. Only ten seconds long, it nonetheless connected a frenzied online giving contest with real-world recipients. It shows dozens of small children sitting on the porch of the Roteang Orphanage. Prompted by an adult voice off camera, the smiling children shout a few words as loud as their voices would allow them - Thankyou! American! Challenge! Yaaaay!

Last night, over at the barn, our pick-up band trotted out some old Neil Young licks and we bashed away on our guitars on some classic Boomer rock. In the midst of the audio carnage, one of the guys picked out the lead lines from Ohio, that brilliant protest song recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young way back in 1970 (when the record will clearly show that I was eight years old). It’s vicious little riff as guitar songs go, but the whole song is evocative of that era’s mass protest, student marches, and the edge of violence in civil disobedience.

None of this resonates particularly with the CauseWired generation, dominated by millennials who were born after 1980 and see 9/11 as their defining national moment. As I explore the intersection of activism and politics and social causes in this book, I’ll be looking (hopefully with a clear eye) and both sides of Facebook activists - the massive numbers and widespread involvement, but also the kind of passive “friending” of social change. It’s a bit “tastes great, less filling,” to quote the vintage light beer ads.

Two weeks ago in the Times, Streeter Seidell, the editor of CollegeHumor.com, took a sardonic look at his generation’s attitude towards the protesting Boomers. He’s playing it for yucks, no doubt, but there’s some truth there as well - and it cuts both ways:

I know, I know, you threw rocks at National Guardsmen at Kent State and got arrested at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. You were there when the young people rose up and for the first time told the establishment, “We are here and we will be heard!” And we’re going to do that, too, as soon as we get done watching this thing on YouTube. It’s hysterical. It’s this German kid screaming at his computer or something, I don’t even know. You gotta see it.

And don’t for a second think that we’re not informed when it comes to the candidates. I may not be out marching but you better believe I’m going to post about my support on Obama’s Facebook wall. Once I post it there it’s going to show up in my friends’ News Feeds and that’s just as effective as passing out flyers, right? Right.

“Studies” by “scientists” are claiming that we’re the “look at me” generation — that we’re all a bunch of self-absorbed, egotistic narcissists hell-bent on being the center of attention at all times. We’re flattered you’re talking about us but I believe that honor belongs to our mentors: the generation responsible for the boob job, the tummy tuck and jogging. The most self-absorbed thing we’ve invented is a secret language that cannot be understood by anyone over thirty and l00k5 5om3th1n6 l1k3 th1s.

We’re not bad kids; we have ideals, too. We know we’re in an unethical war signed, sealed and delivered by a shady group of men working at the behest of the military industrial complex. And we promise we’re going to tear down this regime as soon as the new season of “Lost” is over and we finally find out what’s up with Jacob. That dude creeps me out, for real.

The business pages are filled with stories of start-up companies and massive valuations. Google grows ever more rapidly into a global powerhouse. And the reach of social networks like Facebook stretches every day. Americans are living more of their lives in public, creating vast lists of online “friends” and professional colleagues, sharing their experiences, their taste in music, their political choices, and even their personal lives.

No trend is hotter than the rush to create social networks, the vast intertwined next generation of the web that promises real-time connection and communication. Americans of all ages are taking part, but no group is more enthusiastic – and more empowered – than the so-called “millennials,” that demographic slice of our society that has never known life without the Internet. These young men and women now entering the workforce for the first time have lived much of their lives online, and they bring with them in their introduction to the national economy – and our society – great expectations for lightning-fast communications, openness and transparency, and the ability to change the landscape quickly.

At the same time, the world is a smaller place. Genocide in remote villages in the east African nation of Darfur is covered by Google maps that show the devastation and religious cleansing, while hundreds of bloggers write about the terrible story – not merely passing along links from mainstream media organizations, but urging action and placing a premium on their own opinion. On Facebook, the fastest-growing online social network in the world, hundreds of thousands of people – students, young professionals, political action committees, and even gray-haired CEOs and captains of industry – signal their support for stopping the slaughter and helping the victims by placing badges on their individual profiles. Video sharing brings the story home, and thousands of digital photographs are trade and posted on blogs and social networks. Keywords and tags allow anyone interested in the topic to explore a massive cultural document – the living expansion of the topic in public consciousness – through blog networks and search engines. Darfur becomes more than a yellowing news-clipping down in the backroom of the public library, more than a research report, more than a news story from far away. It becomes a cause. More accurately, Darfur becomes CauseWired.

This is a term of art – first employed in this book I’m writing, I think– and it’s absolutely essential for anyone interested in the public consciousness to understand, in my view. So who’ll want to read it? Or, on the more business-oriented side, who should read it? Here’s what I think:

For consumer marketers, causes are a vital path to successful brands – never before have consumers cared more about the ethical righteousness of companies.

For employers, it’s also a vital concept: studies show that talented young people only want to work for companies and organizations they believe contribute to the public good.

For nonprofit organizations and the philanthropists who support them, a grasp of the coming influence of social networks in causes will be, frankly, key to survival in a world where your grandfather’s style of check-writing charity no longer applies.

For government and anyone involved in politics, the hopes and dreams of the “Facebook generation” and the older early adopters like them are crucial aspects of winning electoral support in elections ranging from national Presidential contests to the vote for local council seats.

Finally, well-informed and interested consumers themselves will seek a better understanding of the very trend they’re creating. This is expected – after all, anyone who is CauseWired understands that fact quite clearly. This group discusses the very trends it is in involved in with a transparent self-awareness that is really unprecedented in public discourse. CauseWired consumers are super-informed consumers who expect to create and support causes, change politics, and have personal involvement in the brands they support economically.

While many books have covered the impact of digital media – from blogs to video to the rise of social networks – I think this will be the first to track the impact on causes, from the charitable to the political, and provide a road map to anyone serious about understanding the social impact on the social web.

So, stay with if you’d like. Send in your ideas and comments and stories. I’ll be post links here to some of the stuff I’m writing about. The del.ici.ous feed in the right column will let you know what I’m reading - feel free to suggest others. Oh yeah, the book is due in about four months!

The Christian Science Monitor notes that “90 percent of college-bound high school seniors have done community service – partly to be attractive to colleges, but partly out of goodwill,” and goes on to take a look how that translates online. The piece focuses on the work of the Case Foundation (disclosure: my firm does work for it) and the $750,000 it has committed to the America’s Giving Challenge and the Causes Giving Challenge on Facebook. And it also notes the growth of philanthropy among the elementary school set in the popular Club Penguin:

Over the holidays, 2.5 million children who play on the popular Club Penguin site (owned by Walt Disney), donated virtual coins earned by their virtual penguins. Club Penguin turned the play donations into a real gift of $1 million, dividing it among three major charities based on the children’s preferences.

The article’s conclusion: “The Internet and young givers are a natural match.”

Ben Casnocha, the author of My Start-Up Life: What a (Very) Young CEO Learned on His Journey Through Silicon Valley has interesting post on his blog about a young Duke University student with a rare disease who has - in part -used Facebook Causes in his battle to fund life-saving research. Ben writes about Josh Sommer, a junior who was diagnosed with chordoma, a rare bone cancer with low survival rates:

He and his mom launched the Chordoma Foundation to promote research of potential cures and galvanize the research community. He works 30 hours a week in Duke labs with professors who have agreed to study the problem. In the meantime, he lobbies congress to implement legislation that would better prevent the accumulation of toxic mold in buildings as toxic mold in his house partly caused his disease.

A few weeks ago, Josh raised $4,200 over three days for his foundation on Facebook “Causes”. By securing the most individual donations within a 24 hour period, he won Facebook’s $1k prize. About 1,300 people (mostly college students - like me) contributed small amounts of money to the cause. Talk about micro-philanthropy!

Micro-philanthropy indeed. I’ve said a bunch of times that the actual funds raised through Causes may be small, but the large numbers of people participating actually sets the table to future involvement and larger fundraising. Here’s a full profile of Josh in the Charlotte News & Observer.

Want proof that social networks are effective tools for social change? Just watch the dictators in action. Facebook, the popular social site often used by political activists to organize members around global causes has been banned in Syria, reportedly over fears of Israeli “infiltration,” reports the Associated Press. Comments the Seattle PI’s Monica Guzman:

The move comes as no surprise to some Web-savvy Syrians whose online reaction has been translated and summarized on Global Voices Online. But as American lives become more and more entrenched in the online world, it can be easy to forget that some governments wield the Internet switch as a political tool, protecting their hegemony by restricting their citizens’ participation in the global network.

Guzman also notes that 1,800 people have joined the Facebook group “Don’t Block FACEBOOK In SYRIA !! …”

I’d missed this great piece in the Washington Post the week before last about the cause of liberal democracy in the Arab Middle East, and how young activists are using social networking tools to plan for a more open, democratic future. Six months ago, Ahmed Samih, the 28-year-old director of the Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies in Cair, founded a Facebook group called “What happens when Hosni Mubarak dies?” writes Jackson Diehl. Now the group has 2,741 members, almost all of them Egyptian. Reports Diehl:

Facebook and YouTube are where the young Egyptian democracy movement lives — mostly out of reach of Mubarak’s secret police. There are more than 60 Facebook groups devoted to liberal Egyptian causes; many of them have thousands of members. On YouTube, one can find hundreds of video clips showing demonstrations for human rights in Egypt, speeches by liberal activists, sermons by reformist Muslim clerics — and torture by Mubarak’s security forces, captured on cellphones.

It’s another example of social networks being used for serious, real-world organizing.

When 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan died on Dec. 20th while awaiting a liver transplant her insurance company refused to pay for until it was too late, her case moved beyond one family’s desperate struggle to save a young life and become a cause for thousands of people who discovered her case on the Internet - on blogs, in Facebook, on YouTube, in their Twitter feeds. I found out about Nataline from Jason Calacanis, an old friend from our Silicon Alley days in the 90s. Jason posted on his blog and into his Twitter stream (I don’t remember which I saw first) and like many others, I was immediately struck by the story.

A leukemia patient, Nataline needed a new liver after her treatment for the blood disorder caused series complications. Her insurer, Cigna, derided the operation as “too experimental.” The family hired a lawyer and organized friends to pressure Cigna to change its mind. Cigna appears to have reversed its decision to deny the transplant after about 150 teenagers and nurses protested outside its Glendale office Thursday, according to ABC News. But it was too late. After the teen’s death, family attorney Mark Geragos said that Cigna “maliciously killed her” and asked for murder or manslaughter charges against Cigna HealthCare.

I’d read nothing of this until this headline showed up in my feeds - CIGNA kills Nataline Sarkisyan. Wow, Jason’s headline certainly got my attention and as it did for thousands of others, the full story pulled at the heartstrings and stoked a sense of anger and outrage. Now, Jason Calacanis is more than your average blogger - the man’s a brilliant promoter and created a series of successful Internet properties during a decade-long career that began when he crossed the river from Brooklyn as a young lad with a certain, shall we say, attitude toward those who might get in his way. “15 Billion dollar market cap… almost 20B in revenue… you can’t afford a transplant?!” he ranted. Then he posted the names and titles of Cigna’s top executives, asking his considerable readership to go after them directly. And as the CEO of the startup Mahalo, a socially-wired search engine with results created by human editors instead of algorithms, he directed the creation of a section dedicated to the case. The page is filled with links to mainstream media stories and blog posts about Nataline, but it leads with a moving video that was created and post on YouTube by Nataline’s brother - after she was denied by Cigna, but before her death.

Nataline Sarkisyan was already a cause before her death became a national headline. An hour or so after I read Jason’s post, I checked in on Facebook to deal with the usual requests to test my movie knowledge, poke somebody back, or rate a new band. And there was an invitation to join a new group - CIGNA is Sicko - with 80 new members. Meanwhile, the YouTube video has been seen more than 15,000 times. The memorial service was yesterday in California, but the cause is still growing. Who’s willing to be the death of Nataline Sarkisyan becomes an issue in the 2008 Presidential campaign? Especially given the importance of the health insurance debate. The progressive group blog DailyKos has already made it a top story. We’ll stay tuned.