Web Based Companies Doing Good for the Nonprofit Sector

More and more companies are signing on to use their platform to help the struggling nonprofit sector and many of them are using the Internet to do so. One such company, Groupon.com, father company of a new group-purchasing web site called CauseOn, has put effort in a handful of ways to bring awareness and funds to charities by getting the attention of their close to 12 million online subscribers.

CauseOn was unveiled by Groupon in mid-August and upon unveiling it was announced that 20 percent of CauseOn's profits will go to local nonprofit organizations and CauseOn users will have a say in which organizations benefit.

Groupon offers several ways to help charities. A quite successful partnership in May with the nonprofit Donors Choose, an organization that helps teachers raise awareness for classroom projects that need funding, raised $162,000 for the cause as Groupon's featured deal. The success of this partnership was due in part to Donors Choose's grant from Pershing Square Foundation that allowed Donors Choose to match all donations from Groupon. According to Donors Choose, close to 1,500 coupons were sold to Groupon users previously unfamiliar with Donors Choose.

However, even for nonprofits that do not have the funds to match donations, there are other ways that Groupon tries to help. Currently, Groupon allows nonprofits to advertise on their web site for free. Groupon and CauseOn generate most of their charitable efforts toward local nonprofits in their cities of operation, Chicago and Portland.

CauseOn has already signed on five local charities, including Susan G. Komen for the Cure Oregon and South Washington and the director of this Komen affiliate, Christine McDonald, believes this will be a beneficial partnership with little effort on her organizations behalf, "We see this as a revenue stream that will grow and grow." CauseOn is expected to generate between $50,000 and $75,000 every month for the nonprofits in Portland.

CauseOn is privately funded and is in the process of hiring more than 100 employees in hopes of expanding to over 45 U.S. cities including New York and Los Angeles. CauseOn and GroupOn company officials are excited for the positive affects of the newly established CauseOn. Craig Barns, CEO, says, "We see traditional group buying as a win-win proposition, for the customers and the businesses. CauseOn becomes more of a win-win-win."