An American Opinion

In a practical sense the answer seems to be a resounding… NO.

Some may ask, “How can that be… there are Causes with millions of members!”  My answer to that is, “So what?”  The fact is, if that membership doesn’t somehow translate into material support in some form that moves the cause forward, it is of little to no value in the real world and constitutes no real support at all.

When measured by this yardstick, the unfortunate truth appears to be that few causes have been able to convert what is essentially an online “fan club” into substantive real world support.  It is also true that it is not an easy task.

My firm recently undertook the task and we have come to realize just how difficult it really is.  Here’s the story of our attempt, perhaps you will find it interesting.

Recently my company, Corande Publishing launched a new FREE e-Magazine called “Homecare Monthly”.  We developed the publication to provide a means to support the fight against cancer by pledging a portion of advertising revenue to selected nonprofit organizations based upon subscriber choices.  We selected eight separate cancer-oriented nonprofit organizations; each associated with a “Facebook Cause” and set up a free subscription system whereby subscribers could choose which organization they wished to support and we’d pro-rate the contributions based upon subscriber selections.

Since each cause has over one million members, estimates indicate that the members of each cause have the potential to raise up to a $100,000 per month or more by simply accepting one FREE email per month. That’s a potential of over a million dollars per year for each cause to fund the fight against cancer.

It sounds promising doesn’t it?  The members get a free publication, the cause gets support, and the advertising pays for it all.  Simply subscribe free and raise millions of dollars for your cause to fight cancer!  We really thought we had found a way to help fund a worthy and important cause.

Unfortunately thus far it hasn’t lived up to the promise…

We published comments with subscription links on each cause page announcing that cause members could raise funds for their cause by simply subscribing free to a new family-oriented monthly e-magazine.

The results: almost nothing, zero, nada, zilch.  After a week we have received one single subscription from one member of one cause.  Though millions of users have enlisted as members to these eight causes, over the course of a week, only one was willing to accept a free subscription to help fund their cause!

So the question we’re left with is… WHY?

I have yet to arrive at an answer, only more questions seem to arise.

…Do they not “get it”?  Surely the concept isn’t that difficult to comprehend, manufacturers have been doing this for years.

…Are millions of people simply pretending to care?  I don’t really believe this but you have to wonder why they joined the causes.

…Are they afraid of something? The website clearly indicates a strong privacy policy.

I would welcome reader comment and input…perhaps together we can solve what is thus far to me a mystery.

Quick Apology
It has been some time since my last post, but we’ve been dealing with some issues including the launch of a new product.  Now that I’ve cleared some things off my plate I’ll try to resume regular posting.