--- title: Sean Parker’s Brigade Media Eats Causes.org description: The Silicon Valley tech tycoon’s plan to revamp civic activism in America is off to the races canonical: https://time.com/2857491/facebook-napster-sean-parkers-brigade-media-eats-causes/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-11T15:06:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:02:29.585Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sean Parker’s Brigade Media Eats Causes.org og:description: The Silicon Valley tech tycoon’s plan to revamp civic activism in America is off to the races og:url: https://time.com/2857491/facebook-napster-sean-parkers-brigade-media-eats-causes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf363bddab17d92d6/69869715f983e73c0904e594/163479672.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2958 og:image:height: 1664 og:image:alt: Sean Parker og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sean Parker’s Brigade Media Eats Causes.org twitter:description: The Silicon Valley tech tycoon’s plan to revamp civic activism in America is off to the races twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf363bddab17d92d6/69869715f983e73c0904e594/163479672.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sean Parker's Startup Buys Causes.com To Help Fix U.S. Politics > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Jun 11, 2014 3:06 PM UTC  Sean Parker attends the World Premiere of "Downloaded" during the 2013 SXSW Music, Film + Interactive Festival at Paramount Theatre in Austin on March 10, 2013. Sean Parker attends the World Premiere of "Downloaded" during the 2013 SXSW Music, Film + Interactive Festival at Paramount Theatre in Austin on March 10, 2013.Michael Buckner—Getty Images  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Jun 11, 2014 3:06 PM UTC Tech mogul Sean Parker has bolstered his plan to revitalize American politics through tech with some significant acquisitions announced Wednesday. Parker’s Brigade Media, revealed in an April SEC filing reported on by [TIME](http://time.com/61898/silicon-valley-sean-parker-brigade/), has purchased a controlling stake in Philotic Inc., which owns Causes.com, “the world’s largest online campaigning platform,” the group said in a [statement](http://brigade.com/blog/). With the takeover, Brigade also acquires Votizen, a startup launched in 2013 to help educate and organize voters. “This is one of the first steps we’re taking to re-energize interest in democracy by bringing together people who are passionate about different issues in their communities, cities, states and countries, and allowing them to take action,” the group said. Launched as a social good app for Facebook in 2007, Causes acts as a social network and fundraising platform for 186 million users in 156 countries. The site will continue to function for now but eventually Causes.com will disappear and be subsumed into [Brigade](http://brigade.com/#). Causes CEO Matt Mahan will take over from Parker as Brigade Media’s new CEO while former VP of Revenue James Windon becomes Brigade Media’s president. The Facebook billionaire will serve as Executive Chairman and “continue to drive product vision and will work with Matt and James on strategic functions of the company,” a spokesperson told TIME. Other organizations aren’t the only things Brigade says it’s acquiring. As it seeks to overcome “50 years of declining participation in democracy and feelings of powerlessness,” the company says it’s on a hiring spree looking to pick up engineers, product designers and political strategists. “We believe there is great power in the technology that Causes and Votizen helped build,” the group said, “and today’s acquisition supports Brigade’s goal of tackling one of the last areas of our society nearly untouched by technology: civic engagement.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2857491/facebook-napster-sean-parkers-brigade-media-eats-causes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2857491/facebook-napster-sean-parkers-brigade-media-eats-causes/"},"headline":"Sean Parker's Startup Buys Causes.com To Help Fix U.S. Politics","datePublished":"2014-06-11T15:06:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:29.585Z","description":"The Silicon Valley tech tycoon’s plan to revamp civic activism in America is off to the races with a savvy acquisition","url":"https://time.com/2857491/facebook-napster-sean-parkers-brigade-media-eats-causes/","keywords":["Technology","Tech","facebook","2014 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf363bddab17d92d6/69869715f983e73c0904e594/163479672.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf363bddab17d92d6/69869715f983e73c0904e594/163479672.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sean Parker","caption":"Sean Parker","creditText":"Michael Buckner—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/technology/","name":"Technology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2857491/facebook-napster-sean-parkers-brigade-media-eats-causes/","name":"Sean Parker's Startup Buys Causes.com To Help Fix U.S. Politics"}}]}] ```