Facebook Causes 2.0 – a non-profit wish list

When I last posted about Facebook Causes, just under 200,000 people had signed up for the Causes app. Just three weeks later, over 1.1 million people have Causes on their Facebook – and it’s still growing (to give you some context, there are about 24 million Facebook users today). Some individual causes have been showing similar logarithmic growth – Save Darfur is up to almost 220,000 members and $17,000 raised, The ONE Campaign is at almost 40,000 members and $4,500, and Support Breast Cancer Research, a cause that wasn’t even on the radar three weeks ago, is at nearly 400,000 members and $10,000 donated. So there’s clearly potential for groups to build a network and raise money, at very little cost of funds. But what’s next?

Well, for one thing, Project Agape founder Joe Green has hinted that new features are coming later this month or in early July. What’s going to be included in these new features? They’re not saying yet (there are some hints at interviews he’s done for Personal Democracy Forum and MyDD – read the tea leaves however you’d like), but I thought I’d write up my own personal wish list here:
 

1. Integrated Email signup - I’d like to be able to add an organization’s quick registration form right on the Cause page. Impossible with the myriad of standardless CRMs out there? Probably. But maybe modules for a few of the big ones, and an API for the rest (or would that be a sub-API, since Causes itself is built on the Facebook API?). Alternately, it could work like donations in that a third party collects the member info and passes it along to the organizations. While we’re at it, how about…
    
2. Integrated Advocacy - Facebook Causes was built by some of the folks who build Essembly (a social network that I was always hoping would break out from the pack, but alas, it seems to have largely atrophied), so you’d think that this will be on the way soon. I’d like to see a way to plug petitions and pledges right into the Cause page, so people can do more than just be a member. Of course, you’d have to find some way to let people know about a new petition so how about…
    
3. Mass Messaging - So I’ve got a Cause going – now what do I do with it? We’ll hopefully see some messaging features coming with the new release, but be prepared for some disappointment – Facebook prohibits groups over 1,000 from messaging to all their members, and this will likely be the case with Causes. So how do we get around this? Maybe a Cause “Message of the Day” that sends an alert when it gets updated, similar to how you see friend updates in your right column? This would let you ask for a donation, remind members to tell their friends, or tell them about…
    
4. Flash and video - While it can be argued that the lack of Flash/embedded video is one of the things that makes the sleek and attractive Facebook distinct from the gaudy Baroque of MySpace, tasteful use of embedded video could also add a lot to a cause. And Facebook has the ability to show video – it has its own application plug-in, and feed ads often feature pages with video. So is this just a choice by Project Agape? I’d like to have the ability to record a testimonial on why I’m supporting <my cause>. It’s something that we’ve seen increases the chance people will donate. And speaking of donations…
    
5. Donor info - As a part of Facebook’s dogma of privacy, no donor info is passed along with the check to (C)3’s that get contributions via Causes. While it’s understandable that some people might not want their info shared, I know that if I’m making a gift to a group that I support, I want to hear about what they’re doing, so I certainly would like the option to sign up for their list, or at least have my info passed along. This is a feature we’re almost certainly going to see in the next release, if they add support for political candidates, due to their reporting requirements. Now, the question for organizations is this: once you get their email and snail mail address, how do you engage them? Email might work better for you, but they’ve chosen to engage you via Facebook – will that make this the best way to continue your relationship?

So there’s my wish list – what about you? Post a comment below with what you’d like to see for the next Causes release.