Will Jumo become the fundraising equivalent of Facebook?

Even if you try to, ignoring the impact that social media plays in 2010 is almost impossible if not bordering on the naive. It might be as simple as arranging a birthday party or as complex as getting a political candidate in office, from the smallest applications on up social media is changing the way many people interact both privately and in business. Social media has now gone far beyond forums on websites and sending an email via a distribution list to the advent and rapid growth of sites such as LinkedIn, My Space, Friendster, Twitter, Google Wave, Bibo and the biggest of all Facebook the use of online interaction is rapidly taking over from traditional forms of networking and advertising. Nothing caused larger ripples in recent years (for those who monitor such things) that for the first time in years google.com was not the number one visited site, you probably guessed before concluding this sentence that the top spot was occupied by Facebook.

I write about this  as one of the co-founders of Facebook Chris Hughes is hatching a new egg and its extremely pertinent if you have an interest in fundraising. Hughes initially conceived of Facebook for a university campus to allow students both current and former to network online with each other. When first started in 2004/5 it would have been hard to conceive of the social networking site to grow so vast first regionally, then nationally and ultimately globally. The addition of non profits and commercial businesses have seen Facebook become a tool that is used for both personal and business use for so many. Remarkably just over 7% of all visits to the web last week in the US were to facebook, an increase of over 185% over the data from a year earlier.

Chris Hughes has now begun a company named Jumo which mean ‘together in concert’ in the West African language Yoruba. Hughes intends for Jumo to achieve for the fundraising sector what Facebook has achieved for social networking. Although in just the preliminary stages (the company currently has just three employees) I’ve a strong feeling that this will be worth watching the progress of.  The site is tentatively planned to go live this Autumn and I’m certain that much fanfare will be attached to the project at that time. For the time being however the site which is at the development stage proclaims a fairly succinct message:

“Jumo brings together everyday individuals and organizations to speed the pace of global change. We connect people to the issues, organizations, and individuals relevant to them to foster lasting relationships and meaningful action”

Learning more about Hughes’ goals for Jumo does lend more insight to the path that the site may well take. By all accounts the nucleus will again be personal profiles that users will build. These will also interact with .org site and other not-for-profits (in pending status or otherwise). There will also be a forum type of outlet where causes can be assessed, discussed and supported with communication from both parties. Jumo’s aim is to put people in touch but provide them with the most relevant and current information pertaining to the cause they are interested in. Its probably that ‘current’ piece that will best serve the idea, the growth of Facebook has certainly been founded on the every changing scope of the content and the ability to relay a lot of information to thousands of users simultaneously. Many business on Facebook see hundreds of thousands of ‘fans’ and in exceptional cases in can be in the millions, on a smaller scale the potential could exist equally on Jumo.

Building relationships is the ultimate goal of the project, with users being able to become actively aware and involved with what they deem to be the most suitable organization. Hughes followed the success of Facebook with the development of the hugely organic mybarakobama.com, both sites changed the landscape both online and offline and he feels even more is possible. Like so many others the events in Haiti had a profound effect in on him as he stated:

“I think watching what happened after Haiti was hard for everyone. The fact that so much money was raised is just a testament to the fact that people really do care and help. I was frustrated to see that moment of engagement not functioning as part of a much larger process of supporting those organizations to help ensure that tragedies like Haiti not happen again”

The concept of Juma will be an interesting one to watch, much like Miratel one goal is to make a difference in actively supporting the fundraising sector. He is currently hiring the ideal team to bring the company forward, one of the prerequisites of a potential employee is that ‘they want to change the world’. A noble ideal indeed, it will be interesting to see what evolves.

Some  research for  this article courtesy of Mashable.com