Doing Good with facebook – Kiva.org
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
Posted by Jenn Lowther
Since facebook opened their social networking site to the public in September 2006 (prior to this, you had to be attending a US University), it has become a resounding success. Currently, there are 63 million active users on facebook and it has grown at an astonishing rate of 125% per year. I’ve been on facebook since January 2007 and have found it to be a great source for connecting with my friends and organizing events.
In May 2007, facebook opened their platform to developers to create applications that users could add to their profiles. This brought an onslaught of zobmie bites, sheep tossing, what’s your stripper name, and applications of similar ilk. But through the noise, there was some great applications that were developed. Some were useful in sharing your interests to your friends, like ilike. There are also applications that allow you to support and raise money for your favorite charities.
The most popular of these is the Causes application. Causes has registered 12 million users, with 95,886 daily active users, who are now supporting more than 80,000 non-profit causes worldwide. $2.5 million has been raised for 19,445 different 501(c)(3) charitable organizations.
I’ve had the causes application on my profile for close to a year now, and I am supporting: Invisible Children – who have raised $21,220 through facebook, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) who have raised $6,321 through facebook, and my new one Team Diabetes Easter Island. This is a great way to let your friends know what causes are dear to you, and if so inclined, to help support your cause. Other charitable organizations have seen the resounding success of causes and have started to develop applications to help drive awareness and social consciousness.
Invoke in conjunction with Lochmaddy Foundation and Lundin For Africa is working with Kiva to help them develop an application to help raise awareness and funds to help support their cause. Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepeneurs in the developing world.
The facebook Kiva application lets a user grow their funds by using the facebook platform as a means of soliciting friends for monetary contributions. The Kiva Facebook application has 2 core features including one that simply isn’t available to Kiva users outside of this application.
- New users can create accounts, browse businesses, loan, and track their loans just like they can on the Kiva.org site.
- We have a new feature that allows passionate users to solicit contributions to a large pool of funds for a single user to manage. This creates a scenario where people who think Kiva is an excellent service but dont necessarily have the time to manage an account can still make a difference. It also allows for many many small donations to be pooled and have a huge impact. These managed accounts will be non-withdrawable.
Also, the application increases the brand awareness of Kiva by posting news feeds when specific actions occur. The end result is that a Kiva user can lend to more entrepreneurs and non-Kiva users can contribute without having to having to manage their own funds.
The Kiva facebook application is set to launch in mid to late June. I know that this will be an application that I will add to my facebook so that I can do my small part in raising awareness and funds to this worthwhile cause.
I think that this move towards social responsibility reflects the need and desire of our generation to get involved and help make the world a better place. Today, it is easier than ever to get your voice heard and get involved in organizations that matter to you. Facebook is just one avenue for this and I think that these charitable applications make up for every zombie/vampire bite and sheep toss I received.
May 30th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Great post. This is one of few applications on facebook that provides a function as well as value. This is a great example of how organizations and possibly companies can benefit from the social network that FB has created. It’s funny because our company was debating whether or not we wanted to spend the time and resources to develop a facebook app (gift card md) beyond just poking people. We just launched it, and we’re excited to see how it plays out. Now people are able to regift gift cards, perhaps people can start regifting gift cards that people aren’t using to organizations. Just a crazy thought that just popped in my head. Anyways, I’m a proud supporter of Invisible Children. GO kiva!