Fission Strategy has built a LOT of Facebook applications in the last few years. We’ve built games with points, made it easy for supporters to contact their public officials, allowed them to create art to cheer up a loved one, and much more. In fact, Fission Strategy was named one of the best Facebook Developers and Page Managers according to All Facebook’s “The Only Facebook Page Vendor Guide You’ll Ever Need” and is the only Facebook® Preferred Developer that works primarily with nonprofits and foundations.
 
The power and influence of Facebook apps is increasing thanks to the power of Facebook’s Open Graph and Timeline, so we wanted to share with you some of the Facebook apps we’ve developed recently:

Rock the Vote

During the 2012 election cycle, making sure as many citizens as possible were registered to vote was a top priority. To make registering to vote as easy as possible, Fission and Citizen Engagement Lab created an electrifying Voter Registration Facebook application for Rock the Vote. The goal was to reach young, diverse voters in new, friendly online venues.
 
Fission integrated the registration application into Facebook, and led in creating a Flash widget that allowed users to start the voter registration process from a Timeline post while still in Facebook. You can also see a version of the application here.

Net Impact

Fission also worked on a Facebook application for Net Impact, an organization that helps students and professionals use business skills to support various social and environmental causes. The Facebook app allowed students to learn about various actions they could take on their campus, record those actions, and win points for doing so. The points were tallied in to their university’s overall total, allowing students to compete with other schools all around the nation.
 
The “Net Impact Campus Challenge” app was also fully integrated with the website.
 

The “Small Steps Big Win” application added just another level of interactivity for Net Impact’s supporters – not only were they able to post stories and have a conversation on the organization’s Facebook page, but they could also support Net Impact’s cause on their campus, compete with other universities, and win points.
 
Over 4,200 actions were taken using the application, including air drying laundry to save over 604,000 watts of energy and walking or riding a bike to school, reducing 1,656 pounds of CO2.

American Wind Energy Association Twitter Application

In a campaign to promote renewable energy legislation over Facebook, Fission designed an app for the American Wind Energy Association, which gives wind energy supporters a simple way to advocate for Congress to invest in the American wind industry with the extension of the Production Tax Credit (PTC). By entering their zip code, supporters can easily post to their Representative’s or Senators’ Facebook walls, or send them an email asking them to protect 500,000 new American jobs in the wind industry. The PTC was extended for another year in early January 2013, as part of the fiscal cliff deal. 

How the Affordable Care Act Impacts You: NARAL Pro-Choice America

With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had the opportunity to require health care plans to offer birth control at no cost. With the help of a Facebook app developed by Fission Strategy, NARAL Pro-Choice America worked to make that a reality. Through the app, nearly 27,700 calculated their savings from no-cost birth control. Of those, nearly 6,000 submitted comments to HHS, and as a result of this effort, health care plans beginning on or after August 1, 2012 will now have access to no-cost birth control.

Crowdtangle

In partnership with CrowdTangle, Fission has helped to create a Facebook app that gives Facebook Groups and Pages with the same interest or cause one central hub online. One example of this was the Occupy Network, which has connected over 3,424,000 people and 724 separate Occupy groups and pages from across the country. Crowdtangle is currently in private beta, but you may sign up for their newsletter on their website. Feel free to contact us if you’d like to learn more about implementing a similar network for your organization!

Build Your Own Origami App

Combining sending messages of hope with some creativity and fun, Fission developed an app for Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, that allows people to create messages of hope on digital origami. The origami comes in a wide variety of different colors and designs, and can be decorated with stickers. It can then be posted on Facebook walls, tweeted, or emailed to friends or loved ones. Users can take one step further by creating “premium” designs that cost a few Facebook Credits, and all proceeds from the app go to supporting Sunnybrook’s cutting edge research and patient support services.

The One Campus Challenge

Fission has also working in the space of gamification to combat poverty. The ONE Campaign’s “ONE Campus” campaign sought to create a challenge for college students to find out which school could make the biggest dent in global poverty. With this Facebook app, students could connect with other students at their campus, share actions they were taking and submit points for these actions, sign petitions, and sign up for more challenges. 

We Can Solve It Campaign

A similar app was also created for the The Alliance for Climate Protection (ACP). Their “We Can Solve it” campaign (relaunched as RePower America) also enlisted Fission’s help on a Facebook App. The App gave users “points” for engaging in various online activities, such as signing petitions, telling friends about the campaign, and reading news articles. Users could see how they ranked compared to friends or the overall Facebook community. Best of all, the ACP was also able to get a donor match the points with a donation, so online activities generated measurable offline impact.

NRDC’s Twitter Action Center

We have also worked to build Facebook apps for environmental groups like the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The app allowed the NRDC’s 175,000+ Facebook Fans to easily send an email to their Representative and Senators just by providing their name, email, and location with NRDC. The app also allowed supported to post on legislator’s Facebook pages and share the action information with friends and family. 

America’s Kids, America’s Future App

Voices for America’s Children teamed up with Fission to help create an app that allowed supporters to post to the Budget Super Committee members’ Facebook walls, asking them not to cut programs children depend on. The America’s Kids, America’s Future app also could be adapted to target other Congressional committees, the White House, or any other entity with a Facebook page. The app was integrated with Voices’ CRM, Convio, which kept supporters in the loop about new actions. 

1Goal World Cup App

The Global Campaign for Education wanted to use Facebook more effectively to promote 1Goal, its global childhood education program. With the 2010 World Cup as a backdrop, Fission Strategy developed a Facebook application that supporters could use to create a 1Goal team jersey with their own name and unique jersey number. They then could join soccer stars Pele, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Tim Howard on the 1Goal team. More than 55,000 people have joined 1Goal’s email list through the 1Goal Squad Facebook app. 

UNAIDS World AIDS Day App

The United Nations AIDS Commission (UNAIDS) decided to promote World AIDS Day 2009 using social media as a means to accelerate word of mouth around the world. Fission Strategy built both Facebook and Twitter applications that allowed people to change their Facebook and Twitter photos to add red ribbons. App users could also auto-change their Facebook & Twitter status. Within 48 hours, over 10,000 people updated their Facebook and Twitter status and avatars globally.
 
Would you like to work with us to develop an app for your organization? Read more about our Facebook Social Actions for Non-Profits, or contact us about your own custom app!