MSN is looking to engage cause-minded individuals on a new site that seeks to connect users with brands, reports ClickZ (via MarketingVox). MSN is partnering with WhatOnEarthIsGoingOn.com to create a new co-branded site where people can get together and learn about how to make a difference for the cause that’s important to them.

The site will also feature brands that are positioning themselves as more socially conscious and who seek to facilitate consumer enthusiasm for taking action on their cause of choice.

The stakes for marketers are huge – 72 percent of consumers say that they have purchased a brand because it supports a cause they believe in. Some 85 percent of consumers around the world are willing to change the brands they buy or their consumption habits to make tomorrow’s world a better place, and over half (55%) would help a brand “promote” a product if a good cause were behind it.

The site will launch “soon” and, according to some of the people involved, will seek to walk the line between marketing of the brands themselves and spreading the word about their corporate responsibility.

Gayle Troberman, head of MSN’s branded entertainment division, said the co-branded site fills a hole that exists in centralizing the socially conscious conversation.

It also extends MSN brand in this space where the portal has previously hosted things like streaming Live Earth concert videos.

In October, 2007, Microsoft launched MSN Green, an environmental news site aimed at consumers.