Uniting Volunteers and Businesses with Cause Based Mobile App

I love this app. What better way to build interaction between the consumer, businesses, and nonprofits than design an app that connects all three of them? This app does and it does it well. There are so many times when politics get in the way of doing good and raising money. Cause.it changes that.   Zak Stone from Good Magazine wrote an excellent article defining the features and ability for the Cause.it app to boost community engagement and unite the business and cause based worlds. (Full Disclaimer – I am an shareholder at Cause.it. It is still an awesome app)

Cause.it from Kurtis Beavers on Vimeo.

Indianapolis-based start-up Cause.it, LLC unveiled its smart phone application before thousands of social entrepreneurs and technology industry insiders attending two key presentations during the March 9-13 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. The app seeks to establish itself as the central hub for non-profit causes, their supporters and volunteers and local businesses and governments.

While it has assisted dozens of non-profit clients around the country over the last few years under different names, the company, renamed “Cause.it” to reflect its new focus on driving real-time and personalized engagement, will offer a new easily accessible and affordable tool to all non-profits and businesses seeking to maximize their cause-related marketing efforts. This tool, which comes in the form of a smart phone application, will be at the heart of the Cause.it presentations at the SXSW “Pitch Some Good” and “Good Capitalist Party” events.

“Cause.it is set to blow up the non-profit sector, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to join the team,” board advisor and non-profit software veteran Steve Rusche said. “Together, we intend to change the way volunteers, businesses and non-profits interact as we know it.” Rusche recently began working with Cause.it after co-founding Indianapolis-based eTapestry.com, Inc. – widely considered to have created the non-profit industry’s premier web-based fundraising software.

In October, Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard introduced Cause.it to hundreds gathered to hear the company’s pitch for what would become its smart phone application at local startup gathering, Verge Indy. While the city, universities, and large non-profits have benefited from the firm’s customized services, it became apparent to Cause.it founder, 20 year old Gagan Dhillon, that only the top 10% of organizations within the community had the capital and staff to utilize the company’s services.

“We came to recognize the need to help the remaining 90% of non-profits out there who needed the same help,” Dhillon said. “Our mission is to facilitate compelling movements, and that wasn’t limited to only those who could afford our existing services.”

Using a mix of revenue from its successful campaign platform and investor capital, he and the Cause.it team – including Bloomington, Indiana-based SproutBox, LLC – have developed their smart phone application and supporting web services to benefit the often-overlooked remaining non-profits as well as the volunteers and businesses seeking to support them. The application will connect volunteers or “causers” of a non-profit event or “cause” with the products and services of primary sponsors.

For example:
A non-profit lists an event using the application. Volunteers then find and participate in that event and are awarded points as a result. Local businesses then offer volunteers discounts on services or products by allowing them a chance to redeem those points.

“This creates a win-win for all parties involved,” Director of Community Development AJ Feeney-Ruiz said. “Non-profits get personalized information for what supporters look for when they volunteer or participate. Individuals can redeem good deals on what they want, and local businesses can better understand what social causes are most likely to increase sales.”