Causecast pushes student involvement on campus
Causecast pairs with orgs and causes on campus to bring in participants.
Published Feb. 2, 2010
Members of a new group trying to get official organization status on campus, Causecast at Mizzou, want to bridge the gap between interest and action.
Causecast is a national non-profit organization that seeks to raise awareness of global causes and connect people to them. It began opening chapters on college campuses this academic year.
Senior Mallory Benedict, Causecast representative, had already become familiar with Causecast through her involvement with Invisible Children and decided to introduce it to MU last fall.
"I thought that it would be a great addition to our campus just given the nature of the amount of organizations we have that are working to do some good for the community," Benedict said.
Causecast at Mizzou, which is partnered with more than 60 organizations on campus, including Invisible Children and Sustain Mizzou, seeks to help students sort through the many causes represented on campus, link them with the causes most appealing to them and assist them in becoming more involved.
"Causecast is a fantastic resource for students who want to get involved," said senior Brittany Heenan, One for One at Mizzou president. "It is a bridge between similar organizations and has been helpful to me personally in finding other causes that I was completely unaware of."
Every week, Causecast compiles a list of events sponsored by its partner organizations, which get e-mailed to approximately 100 students on its mailing list. A recent e-mail contained information on an upcoming local event raising support for clean energy, as well as links to news stories regarding the disaster situation in Haiti.
"I think sometimes students on campus don't really know how to get involved or know of all the opportunities that are out there, so I think it's helped in that way to get students that are interested in helping matched up with the things they are really interested in," said graduate student Michael Ringkamp, Causecast co-representative.
After one full semester on campus, Causecast is still a new presence, and Heenan said it would have more of an impact on her organization in coming semesters.
"Because Causecast is so new, it's hard to tell if it has impacted One for One," Heenan said. "I think that it definitely will in the future though."
On the other hand, sophomore Annie Bastida, co-president and founder of Invisible Children at Mizzou, said Causecast's e-mails and involvement at events has brought about 10 new members to her own organization.
"Invisible Children then uses Causecast to get word out about what we have going on, what our organization is, what events we have coming up, etc.," Bastida said.
Benedict said she would like to see Causecast organize events that involve multiple organizations and reach more people.
"I really want to connect to more people and I want Causecast at Mizzou to partner directly more with organizations on campus," Benedict said. "Pairing Causecast with other organizations on campus would expand outreach."