so let's say you have found a cause you care about.  what do you do now?  finding causes that you care about is the first step, now support them! the most obvious way to support a cause is to click the "support" button. when you click the support button, then your profile picture appears to the right in the list of supporters for that cause. also when you go to view all causes, by default the causes are listed by number of supporters. so by clicking support you can actually move a cause higher up on the page. also later this year, we'll be rolling out a new feature for supporters that will allow you to stay in the loop and receive important updates about that cause.

Contribute

clicking the support button alone will not help a cause become addressed though. the progress bar indicating %-to-goal does not move up either. in order to help a cause progress you must go beyond clicking the support button and really get involved. contributing time, money, materials, expertise, and facilities is the only way to help a cause get addressed! so roll up your sleeves, pull out that wallet, or put on your thinking cap and contribute in whatever way fits you! you can also help by then tweeting, sharing on facebook, or posting to google+ that you have contributed to a cause. at causeway we call this "rallying support." you may know someone that loves to volunteer, or that is passionate about education, but they have no idea about causeway. share causes you care about and let's help these causes reach their goals! 

so the next time you have an itch to volunteer in chattanooga and want to know where you can contribute your time, head over to causeway and see what causes have been posted or updated. we want to be a resource for chattanooga to find ways to get involved. there is often a disconnect between people who love to serve and people and organizations that need help and volunteers. causeway helps to make that connection. so post your local causes on causeway and find other causes that you want to get involved with.  that's what we're here for! local connections and local causes. 

it was exciting to see an article in our Times Free Press newspaper this past week detailing a little bit of what causeway is all about. we have seen a huge jump in activity since the beta site launched last september. the exposure by the Times Free Press has helped us reach a larger audience and get others in the chattanooga area excited about giving and being involved in our community. 

we love chattanooga and believe strongly that we are not alone in this.  chattanoogans are famous for rising up and helping out in our community.  help us as we champion more community involvement so chattanoogans will take ownership of our city and contribute towards its improvement.  find a cause you care about, help think of a way to get it done, contribute and rally support, and let's see results.  jump over to the Times Free Press site here and see their take on what this startup called causeway is all about.

here are the top 10-ish reasons why you might want to get involved with causeway:

1. you love chattanooga.
2. you think we, as individuals and as a community, can help ourselves better than, say, the government can. (not starting any fights here-- government officials have suggested the same to us...)
3. you like the idea of supporting civic entrepreneurism, connecting folks who have good local causes with folks who have good ways to address them (“cause-way”).
4. you think it’d be cool if it were easier for people to contribute to their community on a level playing field, according to their means-- for example, if someone can’t give money, maybe they’ve got time, tools, facilities, or expertise, which can be just as good, and just as worthy of recognition, as money.
5. you like the idea of a place to see “civic business plans” come to life-- a place to create, review and even crowdsource plans to improve our community-- in other words, a place to treat chattanooga like it’s our business, because ... chattanooga IS our business.
6. you’re tired of giving money or time to something and not really knowing... where it went.  (causeway passes 100%- actually 110%- through, and even covers credit card fees.)
7. you’re a businessperson, or you simply like the idea of seeing results of projects, good OR bad, so chattanoogans can learn from other chattanoogans, and our community can keeping getting smarter and better.
8. you’d agree that, even if one small project doesn’t save the world, it can set an example for others-- others who might have a great idea and just need a little inspiration.
9. you like local-- buying local, hiring local, designing local, giving local.  and you like local grassroots efforts, even if, like CW, they’re a little crazy or underfunded at first, like a startup.
10. you’d love to have one place to choose and track all your local giving-- including all the local nonprofits you already know and love. causeway can support both new causes and existing ones-- and can provide a platform for every charitable event or organization in town, without bias or territorialism, or taking a cut for ourselves.
11. you like folks who give 110%.  The volunteers at causeway-- and we are all volunteers--give 110%, literally.  not only do we put 11 items in our top 10 lists, but we’ll pass 110% of donations to causes in 2012-- by providing a 10% match up to an additional $1000 per cause (until we can afford more).  Why? because sometimes good ideas, and entrepreneurs-- for profit or nonprofit-- just need a little boost to get going. (and on the flipside, people who contribute want to see their full contribution go to the cause they support).

like those entrepreneurs, causeway is just getting started.  but if any of these points strikes your fancy, find a cause you’d like to support, submit your own cause, or contribute directly to causeway-- why? to help folks in our community to help each other, and to help themselves.  

because in chattanooga, and at causeway, we believe where there’s a cause, there’s a way.

we are extending the 10 for 10 causeway challenge into 2012! last year creative action in unlikely places did an amazing job using the 10 for 10 causeway challenge to raise support in december, and we believe there are more causes that can rise to the challenge in 2012.  causeway wants to help as many civic entrepreneurs as possible this year, and the 10 for 10 causeway challenge is one way to see that happen. the causeway 10 for 10 challenge could end anytime, so carpe diem...

so what is the 10 for 10 challenge?

for every cause that receives 10 monetary contributions of $10 or more, causeway will give a 10 percent match up to $1,000.  this is a huge opportunity for causes to gain momentum!  remember that it requires 10 different contributors, so start rallying support to your favorite causes.  use your networks of social media, email, and word of mouth so others can be a part of bettering chattanooga and seeing a change. be sure to include the link to the cause you are trying to raise support for so it's easy for your friends.  in order to recieve the 10 for 10 match, cause owners must meet their initial goals (e.g., contributions of money, time, etc, and a complete plan for how they will address their cause) and be willing to share their results with causeway and their supporters.

a couple things to note:

all monetary donations to causeway are tax deductible.  when you contribute to a cause, our goal is to pass 100% of your contributions to the cause (rather than to overhead, slush funds, etc), and let you track results, transparently (more reporting features coming online soon...).  to do this, causeway covers the website costs, credit card transaction fees, etc., which is why we accept separate donations to causeway to help us keep the goals on track.

after posting creative action in unlikely places and listing their needs, the group at glass house collective began rallying support on causeway.org by emailing friends and family and using social media and word of mouth. because they encouraged others to catch their vision and support their cause, creative action in unlikely places became the most supported cause on causeway!

with the help of many supporters and the 10 for 10 causeway challenge, the newly formed glass house collective was able to raise $11,343.20 to help fund their first six months of work! Expertise contributions of design, real-estate development, and marketing were also donated in addition to 112 hours of volunteer time. this is what causeway is all about: find a cause you care about, and get others on board by rallying support until it can be addressed. thank you to all of you who gave to the glass house collective through causeway. let's continue to better chattanooga one cause at a time!

thank you for your support!

on behalf of everyone here at causeway, we want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who has supported the chattanooga community through causeway and these amazing causes in 2011. we had 163 chattanoogans get involved and create profiles (if you haven't picked up your free t-shirt yet, come see us!).  22 chattanoogans posted a local cause they cared about, and we saw the first cause addressed this december.  thanks for supporting and contributing to these causes, coming alongside civic entrepreneurs, and building momentum to get stuff done in our city.  

one of the coolest things we've been able to witness through causeway is how chattanoogans pool their ideas and resources together and take action.  

in this case, an individual saw a need and posted a cause to the site (thanks alice!).  after learning more about the children’s home/chambliss shelter and their needs, a group of folks from abba’s house in the awaken college lifegroup decided they wanted to "adopt" this cause for christmas, and they suggested a way to address it.  their way - awaken college santa’s helpers -  detailed their commitment to purchasing needed and wanted items for several children and delivering them to the children's home.

spreading the word and rallying others to support a cause you care about is critical to a cause's success.  as the awaken group began planning, other chattanoogans began contributing to the cause, and another group at abba's house heard about the college lifegroup's efforts and wanted to join in - doubling the effort!  

in this season of giving, we want to give back and help jump start civic entrepreneurs in our city.  our 10 for 10 causeway challenge is a way to do just that.  for every cause on the site that has 10 or more monetary donations of $10 or more, we will give a 10 percent match -- up to $1,000 for each cause.  the 10 for 10 causeway challenge ends december 31st, so now is the time to rally supporters around the causes you love most.

how can you rally support?

use your networks - whether it's through a social network, email, or word of mouth - and include the link to the cause you're trying to raise support for.

a couple things to note:

all monetary donations to causeway are tax deductible.  when you contribute to a cause, our goal is to pass 100% of your contributions to the cause (rather than to overhead, slush funds, etc), and let you track results, transparently.  to do this, causeway covers the website costs, credit card transaction fees, etc., which is why we accept separate donations to causeway to help us keep the goals on track.

this past weekend, causeway co-sponsored the 48hour launch social innovation track with chattanooga stand.  social innovation teams worked furiously over the 48-hour period to launch ideas that will impact our local community.

like the dozens of entrepreneurial ventures launching technology, product and social innovations off the ground, causeway had the opportunity to test out our own beta platform leading up to the event.  many of the social innovation teams posted their causes to the site and began rallying the support they needed - whether it was specific expertise, volunteer hours, materials or monetary donations.  these causes will continue to be listed on causeway.org, and we'll be tracking support along the way.

the causes from 48hour launch are listed below.  we encourage you to check out these causes and the “ways” or plans associated with them.  if you see a cause you’re interested in, contribute however you see fit.

chattafont - developing a custom typeface for chattanooga

chattanooga soul - developing a community terminal for chattanooga

china garden in chattanooga - creating a chinese garden in chattanooga to reflect our sister city in Wuxi, China

educontribution - helping educators help nonprofits

neighborhood cup - starting a youth soccer tournament pitching neighborhood against neighborhood

neighborhood watcher - creating a neighborhood watch app

open chattanooga - working together to make public data open, available and useful

open in east lake - repurposing the abandoned east lake elementary school

sickle cell awareness - bringing education and awareness about sickle cell disease

the open tree map - displaying urban tree data online