On March 8th, I asked how the world's youngest billionaire (Facebook Zuckerberg) will use his wealth for good? The folks over at the Global Giving Blog offered 450 answers.
Meanwhile, there he was finally asked this question by a journalist. (Hat tip Rachel!) Valley Wag "Zuck: Superpoking Platform Makes the World A Better Place."
The answer:
Not yet, Zuck said. ""We're not incredibly profitable, we're not at that stage. For now, he said, people should remember that Facebook itself is a charitable gift to the world. But I'd like to think that just what the company is trying to do in general, just helping people communicate, is actually making the world better. A lot of people are actually building really interesting applications that are more to the tone of traditional philanthropy, like the Causes application. Just by making this development platform, we're enabling some of those things. The way that we're going about it isn't by donating money directly to charity.
One of the commenters suggests "If "just helping people communicate" makes the world better, then AT&T is frickin Jesus."
I'm not sure I'd describe Causes as the tone of traditional philanthropy given that the dollar amounts have been pretty low, although the numbers of people recruited high.
I think there is some validity in what Mark had to say about the philanthropic nature of the type of communication, and community, that Facebook enables.
That comment about AT&T and Jesus is absolutely ludicrous. The communication on Facebook has the ability to create a different level of awareness of a cause or nonprofit.
Coincidentally, just yesterday I donated a small amount through Facebook to a nonprofit that I would have never known about had a friend not shared it with me through the site (Invisible Children). So, the point you make about the number recruited is important, too.
Posted by: Kristen Forbriger | March 13, 2008 at 06:17 AM
Kristen:
The benefit of FB is its ability to be like a net in catching new prospects. I learned from the America's Giving Challenge campaign. And, lots of groups of caught lots of people in the net - although not dollars. So, the opportunity and challenge is to learn how to engage those people in the cause and get them to contribute. It seems like the act of self-expression of joining and promoting the cause on their profile seems to satisfy the urge to help. What would encourage donations?
Also, I wonder when Bill Gates started his foundation? How mature was the company?
Posted by: Beth Kanter | March 13, 2008 at 06:57 AM
I would agree that people feel they are "contributing" just by promoting/supporting the cause on their profile.
What caused me to take that extra step and make a *cash* contribution? It was the extra step taken by the nonprofit to reach out to me -- a person, not an organization -- through Facebook, and explain why the money was needed now.
It probably goes back to the fundamental rule about marketing on SNs - it has to be a conversation, not just another platform to push information and promote your organization. These nonprofits need to start engaging with the FB users who are kind enough to make an endorsement. And by engaging, I don't mean spam my inbox.
Posted by: Kristen Forbriger | March 13, 2008 at 09:23 AM