Facebook Giving: Altruism or Gimmick?

So, by now you've probably joined one or more "causes" on Facebook. If you haven't, I'm not judging you. It seems like every time I sign into my Facebook page, I've got about 10 requests to add something to my (Lil) Green Patch (sadly, not a euphemism), 10 more for Sea Garden and (Lil) Blue Cove (also not euphemisms), and invitations for a handful of random, unsolicited campaigns. Also, each request redirects my browser, so I try to click through them all really fast and only get redirected once. It's hard being me.

I don't want all this stuff gunking up my Facebook page, but it's hard to click "ignore" to things like Cancer-Stricken Single Mothers with Critically Boring Children or Save This Exact Acre of Rainforest We Found on the Moon. It makes me feel like a jerk. (But I would totally not ignore either of those.) It's akin to walking by panhandlers every day. Which I already do. This added Facebook challenge feels so, so unnecessary. Except... it's for charity, right?

Many of these applications have a page which tells you how much money has been donated to their respective causes through the tireless clicking of individuals such as yourself and myself. Usually, you can find it through the FAQ section. You can also visit your Causes home page, which tells you how many people you've recruited, how much you've donated, and how much you've raised — "raised" meaning money donated by people you recruited.

Now, I never send Cause items, but I do tend to accept them if I've already added the cause. So ... is it worth it? Causes is run by Project Agape and the contributions are processed by Network for Good, a reputable company that skims a reasonable 4.5 percent processing fee off of donations.

Sea Garden, a popular Facebook Application, benefits the Cause Surfrider Foundation. Sea Garden generates money via ad revenue from you clicking around their stuff and sending fish to your friends. Through Causes, it's also very easy to make an individual donation to Surfrider. According to Surfrider's Communications Manager Alexis Henry, the organization didn't even start its Facebook Cause. Surfrider had (and has) a Facebook Page, and one day an activist in New Jersey started the Cause — anyone can start a Cause. When the Surfrider Foundation found out about it, they requested to be added as an Admin on the Cause page. The activist got busy with school, and now the Cause is handled by Surfrider itself.

Henry says Facebook has given the Surfrider Foundation the kind of global exposure that nonprofits dream about. Their increased visibility has allowed them to get massive amounts of online "signatures" on petitions (Henry mentioned one where their goal was 10,000 and they got over 20,000). Henry also confrmed the numbers. As of Jan. 28, Facebook as a whole has donated $16,766 to the Surfrider Foundation — no small amount. That's great, but this Cause has 86,709 members.

So really, when you think about all the people and all the clicking, and the fact that that's nowhere near each member even contributing $1, don't you feel a little used? Don't you just want to give them a dollar in "real life" and block the application? Every click you make is like a raindrop in an ocean. How does Facebook get us to keep doing this? I think I know the answer. It's not that they made it fun. It's not fun. Stop kidding yourself.

It's because we're vain. If we support a charity, we want people to know. That's fine! Visibility is good for the charity! But every time one of you folks sends me a Garden Gnome or some fish with a cute name, don't think I don't know that your motivations are tainted with vanity. Yes, you wanted to kill five minutes for charity, but you only wanted to do it if your friends would know about it. Or if you could at least use it as a kind of communication currency, like "Hi, I'm thinking of you, please think of me back."

Consider this: Would you have clicked through all that crap to donate half a cent to The Surfrider Foundation (which I confess I had never heard of before Sea Garden) if no one would ever know you did it?