There’s no greater reward than the reward that comes from helping someone else. Whether you give some money to a homeless person or spend your time volunteering at a local food bank, social work of any kind helps keep our world spinning. Everyone from an average person to a small business owner can help make the world a better place by volunteering, and a new app called Cause.it wants to reward you for your time spent helping out your community.

Cause.it (Android and iOS) works by rewarding those people who spend time doing charitable work. The premise behind the app is simple enough: if you volunteer at any kind of social shelter, animal shelter, food bank or any other kind of social needs program, you will be given a certain number of points each time you volunteer. In turn, these points can be used as coupons or discounts at local businesses. But, Cause.it is not just for those who volunteer. This app also helps local business owners gain more clients and recognition. Here’s a more in depth look at why Cause.it is one app that you’ll want to download for the good of your neighborhood.

How Cause.it Benefits Small Business Owners

Any small business owner knows that drumming up new business is difficult. There are social networks and email mailing lists, but really diving deep into a community is always tough. Even if you own a small business and do volunteer your time at a local shelter or elsewhere, deciding where to spend your money and which charities to support is never easy. This is exactly where Cause.it comes into play. Business owners can choose to partner up with existing neighborhood charities, and, in turn, offer coupons and discounts to those people who use Cause.it on the volunteer side of things.

Not only will these coupons and discounts provide incentive for people who want to spend time volunteering, but (presumably and according to local laws) business owners can also deduct these amounts tax-wise, while also attracting a larger local client base. Are you starting to see how clever this app is? While Cause.it is free to try out for a while, there is a small fee attached to the app once it has been proven useful and helpful if you run a charity or other organization. That monthly fee hasn’t been reported yet, but I’m guessing the Cause.it team might just stop by this blog to let me know how much the service costs monthly (thanks!).

Limited For Now

Cause.it has just launched, which means that the app is only available in Indianapolis at the time of this writing. The Cause.it team has told press that they hope to expand to Los Angeles within the month, and this writer is certainly hoping that Cause.it will bring the app to Canada and other countries within the next year or so. There’s certainly a huge market out there for an app of this type, and I’m betting that a lot of businesses, charities, and volunteers will want a slice of the Cause.it pie. If you happen to live in Indiana or in L.A. make sure to download this app and let people in your community know about it too – volunteering and helping your neighborhood out is one of the best things that you can do.