Small Business Owners & Non-Profits: Cause.it May Be The App You've Been Waiting For

Cause.it from Kurtis Beavers on Vimeo.

Normally, we aim to point you away from your smartphones, but this one (we must admit) is quite brilliant:

Essentially, Cause.it is an app designed to make it easier and financially beneficial for small businesses to help local charities and nonprofits. There are benefits for volunteers and the nonprofits themselves as well, but Cause.it began with the civic-minded small business owner in mind; those who wants to extend their reach beyond the occasional service, product or monetary donation.

To give you a simple example, it works like this: The owner of a cafe offers incentives like free coffee or discounts on meals that can be redeemed using a point a system. To get points you volunteer your time. For example, planting a tree with one nonprofit gets your 50 points, 7 of which can be redeemed at a local cafe for half off any coffee drink. 

Though Cause.it is still in its initial phases, the more it catches on, the wider the network of volunteers it has the capacity to create; and that's something we can align with. Currently, there are some obvious bugs to work out (the first bug we came across: waiting for over an hour for it download. Maybe too many users?) Either way, once the kinks are smoothed out, we're excited to start navigating the system. Promote a local food drive and get a discount at a small boutique? Why yes, we'll take it.

If you're a small business owner or run a nonprofit, register through Cause.it and begin reaping the benefits of some good old fashioned civic duty!

-- Perrin Drumm