Facebook pioneer's non-profit network opens 3

IT | Gareth Jones | 3 Dec 2010

Jumo, the social network for charities and non-profits created by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, has launched, but does not yet allow UK charities to accept donations.

Having been announced in March this year, the site is now operational and promises users will be able to “find, follow and support those working towards solutions in your own community and in regions around the world”.

Despite the site appearing to mainly feature US-based causes and organisations, a spokeswoman for Jumo said UK organisations “are definitely welcome to sign up”.

However, at present only non-profits registered in the US can accept donations on the site, though Jumo emphasises that this is the only disadvantage for non-US based organisations, with Jumo users being “directed to international organisations in the same manner as national organisations”.

She added: “I can't give you a projected time for when this functionality will be available but we do understand that this issue is of critical importance for our users.”

In terms of its fundraising philosophy, Jumo's website says it is not interested in “a one-time donation or a $10 text message to a cause or organisation you never return to”, instead trying to build “an informed community of people invested in the long-term successes of effective organisations”.

Place a comment

Anna Day
Strategic Manager-
OCVYS
19 Jan 2011

This website is not very good- you can't get past the main registration page without showing some kind of support for organisations that are based over the other side of the world with no relevance to the work we are doing here. The cause selection is very limited too. We work with youth and would be good to see this as a separate category.

A total red herring, could have been a great concept for linking together the international voluntary sector but instead its just a buggy rip off of Facebook. They need to send it back to the developers before doing anymore publicity about this. I won't be recommending this to any of the charities I work with.

[Reply]

Dawn Varley
Consultant
Purple Vision
8 Dec 2010

Not sure what this service adds over and above the existing comms channels. If you need a facebook account to sign up to Jumo, why can't you just do everything you need via a facebook page, linked to an existing online giving channel, etc? At least that way you can get your donations processed sometime soon, against the lack of a timeframe from Jumo.

Having yet another place to create content, maintain a profile and be all signing and dancing could be argued to simply stretch the existing resources of organisations who the folks behind Jumo say they are trying to help. Not a great help for maintaining the all elusive 'single supporter view' either! An interesting one to watch perhaps.

[Reply]

Nick
President
TechChange
3 Dec 2010

Thanks for your post. We love the concept but had a number of problems registering with Jumo and trying to create an organization profile for our org, TechChange.

We’ve blogged about the registration process on our site and also included some other insights after using the platform for several hours over the past few days: http://techchange.org/2010/12/01/jumo-day-1-our-first-impressions/

I hope they get things worked out technically and start adding some additional and relevant features. The concept of creating more meaningful relationships between people and organizations and social issues is a strong one but its missing some pretty basic things. For starters: better integration with twitter, some kind of help or support infrastructure, and more intuitive navigation.

[Reply]

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