TheCause App Creation

    TheCause is a mobile app designed to allow users to run, walk, bike, or swim to raise money and awareness for the causes that move them. My cause is the cancer my mom continues to battle, and I trust her to win. But battles are only chapters in war. TheCause App is built to inspire those battling, give reason and a way to help to those supporting. But mostly, it’s about winning the war; to find cures and solutions so the next battle won’t have to be so hard. Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart disease, feeding the hungry, and saving the children. There are thousands of causes that merit our attention and efforts, and everyone has one. Users choose their nonprofit/charity and name their cause. They then endorse their cause through social media in hopes to gain sponsors from their following. Sponsors pledge money per mile from a companion website that users earn by moving in the fashion that suits them. My app tracks the mileage through the syncing of their smartphones or fitness devices and collects the sponsorships to be delivered to the charity once the user reaches their goal. What better way to inspire and honor their fights than to fight alongside them? Raise money. Raise awareness. Send funds to the causes that are actively searching for solutions to the problems we face. For users, it only costs your sweat, and sponsors, a dollar or two a mile. The world we want can be won but has to be fought for.It’s said that the two most important days of your life are the day you’re born and the day you find out why. The day I learned of my mom’s diagnosis will forever be the catalyst that inspired my new direction and have since enrolled back in school to learn the steps to take this idea from inception to reality. Yes, I’ve made sacrifices but I’m not looking for sympathy. I chose to wait tables, to go back to school, to scrape by while pursuing my new dream. I understand that giant leaps are made by taking a few steps back and a running start. TheCause is that giant leap.

    Since my retirement from baseball and return to school, I’ve partnered with LaunchPeer, a Charleston based tech company devoted to helping startups get off the ground. Together we’ve built a rough prototype, but the app needs funding to be built properly. This is where I need your help. Those that know me, know that those words feel foreign in my mouth. I’ve taken this as far as I can financially, and it has brought me here. I’m looking to raise at least 70k to cover the costs associated with creating a platform of this magnitude. Your donations now, will go directly to making TheCause a reality. In addition to my eternal gratitude, all donors will be invited to be my beta-testers. The app will be free, but once built, donors will test the app for a month before a public launch. Your support and feedback are critical in making TheCause into the force for change I know it can be.  This app is about giving the world a chance, not about making a billion dollars. It’s about raising a billion dollars and sending it to where it will do the most good.

     I understand the irony of asking for charity to build an app designed to raise money for charities. But I think that it is only fitting that platform should be born from the place in which it aims to help. You.
 
     My family has grown even closer since the diagnosis and has been strengthened by the amount of support from friends and family, but mostly from the courage that courses through my mom’s body. Courage that burns hotter than all the chemo treatments, and more powerful than the ocean of doubt that comes with news of disease.  I know she’s scared. We’re all scared. But her bravery isn’t the absence of fear, it’s her mastery over it. Cancer is a terrible, ugly disease, and yet her battle is elegant, as if she’s trying to comfort us with natural ease in which she fights. Her spirit is unbending, and her sheer strength inspires and frightens me because I know that it’s her blood that flows through my veins. It’s the blood of someone who never learned to quit.

Thank you for listening to my story and I look forward to being a part of yours.



-David Peterson