Can Change.org Change FaceBook Organizing?

Last week Change.org, a social network for social justice and political action, released their own FaceBook application.  It's a smart move for them.  Like most social networks that have aimed at creating political change (Essembly comes immediately to mind), Change.org tried to create new online communities centered around particular issues and nonprofits.  These communities were to be dedicated to achieving some sort of communications, policy or electoral goal - raising awareness about Darfur, donating money to the Sierra Club, or even just electing your preferred candidate to office.  

The problem with such endeavors is that the model is necessarily limiting.  It takes a lot of work to build a new online community from scratch.  Most of the time, only hardcore activists with a certain amount of tech savvy will ever make their way onto a new social network.  And even then, since the only thing to do on these networks is talk about or donate to a single issue, it's tough for these types of strategies to ever achieve a critical mass of membership and become self-sustained and effective communities. There's just not enough incentive to come back on a daily basis.  

Now Change.org is looking to change that.  They've left the walled-garden of their online community and, rather than create a new social network and community from scratch, they've gone to where the users are: FaceBook.  Last week Change.org launched a new Application that essentially ported their whole network and functionality over to FaceBook via the F8 platform.

It's too early to make any real judgments, but the strategy seems to be at least a jump in the right direction.  People stop by FaceBook everyday - for long periods - because they can find information useful and relevant to their daily lives (mostly about their friends).  If you want to create awareness or build a constituency for a cause or for a politician, doesn't it make sense to integrate that advocacy and awareness as much as possible into the daily lives of your potential constituents?  Isn't that part of the philosophy behind a group like Drinking Liberally?  FaceBook is where millions of Americans hang out online.  If you want to engage them in online activism, it makes sense to do it through these highly trafficked, existing communities rather than attempt to create new communities whole-cloth.

Change.org isn't the first to try this.  We've all read (and I've written) about the "Causes" Application, which first sought to raise money for nonprofit organizations and now raises money for candidates as well.  The numbers have not been impressive - probably not much more than $100,000 has been raised, with Darfur and Global Warming being the most successful causes at fundraising, with money raised in the low tens of thousands.  It's particularly unimpressive when you consider the disposable income of FaceBook's core user base.   Getting young people to donate to issues or to political campaigns has always been challenging, and FaceBook Causes has proved to be no panacea.  

Nor will Change.org's App. But after playing around with the App. for a while today I can say that, in 90% of the cases, it is way ahead of its older cousin and (I hope) will get us closer towards creating an engaged online youth community willing to part with some of its cash to support the change they want to see.  

Whereas Causes is purely functional, allowing the user only to recruit people and donate money, Change.org's application actually takes advantage of the social functions and possibilities of FaceBook.  Users can not only recruit and raise money, they can look at their friends and see how much of an impact each friend has had on any given issue (in recruits or $ amounts).  I can discuss the issue with my fellow supporters in a bulletin board/forum.  I can take action or leave testimonials as to why I support an issue.  I can recommend relevant nonprofits for fellow supporters to investigate and join (or see what others have recommended).  Ditto for politicians and relevant web video.  While there are still a few quibbles (the display window within my user profile isn't as interactive or informative as that for the Causes Application), technologically and functionally it is a giant leap ahead of Causes.

Change.org has literally taken all of the community features from their own website/network and brought them to FaceBook, creating the potential for truly active sub communities within the larger FaceBook community.   Now the challenge is to actually get nonprofits to incorporate FaceBook fundraising and volunteer recruitment (and, yes, community building) into their overall strategy so that people actually use these tools.  Right now, folks are just throwing up profiles, hoping something will stick and gain traction on its own.  I don't think I've seen anyone put together and execute a successful strategic plan for incorporating FaceBook into their fundraising and volunteer strategy.  Without that focused effort, all the technology in the world will be for naught.

Have any readers tried the Change.org App yet?  What do you think?