Causes is a free online platform that provides great tools to help you share ideas, find supporters, make an impact, and raise money for a good cause.
It’s a lot like Change.org, but with more fundraising features.
Causes also fits hand in glove with Facebook, making it a great place to gain support for your organization. Your supporters can see updates from your cause on their Facebook timeline, easily ask friends to join, and donate – without feeling like they’ve ever left home-sweet-Facebook.
Getting Started
We recommend participating in other Causes before you start your own. Take a close look at what larger or more established organizations in your particular field have done that worked. See which campaigns in your field have performed best.
Sample Causes Campaigns
Then follow these tips to get your own cause established.
Make the Most of Causes
Once your cause is set up and you’ve got a clear sense of how it all works because you’ve participated in other people’s campaigns, take note of these three tips to help you make the most of YOUR cause.
1. Communicate Regularly
Communicate regularly – every few weeks – with new and timely information. Always email your actions and updates to your supporters by making sure the email option is checked. When you email your actions to your supporters they will get a notification. Keep your cause in the limelight!
Add Updates. Updates are the best way to keep your members informed on the progress of your cause or to just share relevant articles. Look for the “add update” button on the top right of your action page. Write your update copy, select whether you’d like to send the update to your action-takers or just post it to the action, and add your update. Voila!
Create Targeted Emails. Targeted emails are messages that you send directly to your cause members asking them to take specific actions. These are not posted on your cause page.
You can craft different email messages depending on who you are targeting. To create targeted emails, (1) select the supporters you want to message (2) craft a subject line that is short, inviting, and gives a clear idea of your message content (3) write your message but make sure that it has a clear purposes and action your members can take. Remember the web writer’s mantra: Keep it short!
Add Reasons to Support Your Campaign. The more information you can add, the better. Causes prompts you to share articles, videos, photos and stories to help illustrate why your campaign is so important. They know what works, and that’s why they encourage these four types of content.
How to Add Reasons
2. Grow Your Community
Motivate your supporters to invite their friends. One of the best ways to do this is with compelling campaigns and petitions that they will want to share. But also remember to ask people to invite friends to help you reach key milestones (500 supporters, 10,000 supporters, etc).
Causes is designed to empower and inspire in a grassroots fashion. You can easily share your cause with Facebook friends, and friends of your friends. That’s part of what makes Causes such a powerful advocacy tool.
3. Thank Your Supporters
Remember to thank your members and supporters regularly, in practically every communication. You can keep track of who is participating in your campaigns through the ‘Recent Activity’ feature on your Causes page. Send your top recruiters and donors a personal thank-you message by clicking on the Facebook icon to access their Facebook profile.
Final Tips
What works on Causes is essentially what works elsewhere across the social web.
See our tips on campaigns, visual content, videos, photos, and how to engage your community.