This holiday season, Facebook users are giving charities a reason to celebrate.
Banking giant JPMorgan Chase introduced a Facebook application last month that allows users to vote on the charity of their choice to be awarded $1 million.
The application, called “Chase Community Giving,” will end its first round of voting on Dec. 11. Chase will award the top 100 companies with $25,000.
The second round will begin Jan. 15 and end Jan. 22. The winner, announced on Feb. 1, will receive a $1 million grant, with the five runner-up charities receiving $100,000 each.
Users can search charities by name or zip code. Each user has 20 votes to place, but only one vote can be given to each single charity.
With surplus votes, users are able to search for charities in their area they might not have known about.
After voting, users have the option to automatically share their vote on their Facebook walls, invite their friends to vote or promote the charity on their Twitter accounts.
Community Outreach and Advocacy for Refugees (COAR), a group with a strong presence on the ASU campuses, is one local organization trying to promote itself through the Chase application.
“It’s a great way to bring attention to nonprofits,” said Kelli Donley, COAR’s executive director.
“It doesn’t cost COAR anything, it brings attention to our Facebook page and it allows us to communicate with our page’s fans,” she said.
COAR currently has 394 fans on its page and 89 votes tallied on the Chase application.
“It is difficult in that there are so many competing organizations,” Donley said, referring to the slanted numbers.
Still, Donley said she is happy to see people supporting nonprofits on such a large scale.
“The average person and the average ASU student have a lot of causes close to their hearts,” she said.
Chase Community Giving isn’t the only way to support charitable causes on Facebook.
Dalia Larios, a biological sciences sophomore, said she promotes organizations by using “Causes,” another Facebook application that helps connect and recruit charity supporters.
Like with the Chase application, Causes allows users to associate themselves with a number of different organizations.
“The way Facebook is set up, it’s convenient for charities to reach out to a lot of people,” she said.
Larios said by using Facebook, she has been able to spread information to her friends about causes she is passionate about, like the DREAM Act and Invisible Children.
Also using the Chase application, Larios voted for Camp Kesem National, a charity with an ASU branch that helps college students run summer camps for children with cancer-stricken parents.
Camp Kesem National, based in Lafayette, Calif., has a total of 1,139 votes so far.
Facebook and other social networking Web sites allow charities to provide a jumping off point for volunteers, Larios said.
“People know about these causes, but they don’t necessarily know who to talk to or how to get involved,” she said.
“With Facebook, organizations can easily provide a glimpse of what they are all about for anyone who wants to get more involved.”
Reach the reporter at jessica.testa@asu.edu.
