With Online Giving, It's Personal
With Online Giving, It's Personal
Online giving has increased more than two-hundred-fold in the past five years, from $10 million in 1999 to about $2.62 billion last year, and a major reason has been the ability of charity Web sites to appeal to potential donors on a personal level, USA Today reports.
According to the ePhilanthropy Foundation, the Internet and the advent of charity Web sites have changed charitable giving in much the same way that online registries and eBay transformed wedding showers and the auction business. Thanks to the Internet, individuals have 24/7 access to news and information about myriad nonprofit organizations and initiatives and can donate to causes that stir their passions — whether helping evacuees in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, contributing funds for a water purification system in an Indonesian village, or funding a field trip for high school students in their hometown — with a few clicks of their mouse.
Recognizing the personalized nature of online giving, Charles Best, a teacher dismayed by the shortage of books and supplies in his classroom, created Donors Choose; after just five years, the site has funded 8,000 projects costing a total of $4 million. Another teacher, Keith Taylor, developed a Web site called Modest Needs to help people on the edge of poverty faced with unexpected financial crises; the site makes twelve to fifteen awards a week, and a special appeal for Hurricane Katrina relief has raised $44,000 to date. Writer Amy Krebs used the site to help people who've taken others into their homes buy groceries, air mattresses, and clothing. "[The site is] covering people and causes that the Red Cross is probably not going to get to," said Krebs. "And for me, this is more personal."
"[These Web sites are] reaching a target audience in a way that hasn't been reached before," said Chris Deiglmeier of the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. "[They open] up the possibility to myriads of people who hadn't been in the realm of giving to something besides their church."
Page, Susan.
“Web Lets Donors Find Specific Needs and Fill Them.”
USA Today
9/11/05.
Primary Subject: Philanthropy and Voluntarism
Location(s): National, United States
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