Online Fundraising Surge & Shared Technology
A couple of articles in recent editions of The Chronicle of Philanthropy caught my attention so I thought I’d provide a short summary here in case you missed them. One article provided the latest data on online fundraising revenue increases and the other talked about how large organizations can serve their donors better and save costs by sharing technology.
Among the 164 organizations that provided information for both their 2003 and 2004 fiscal years in The Chronicle’s sixth annual survey of online fundraising, online revenue grew by 63.2%. Doctors Without Borders USA raised the most money online in the survey. In fact, online revenue accounted for about 20% of the group’s total contributions last year. Clearly donors are becoming more comfortable with online giving!
The article talks about several successful tactics that organizations are starting to use to harness the power of the Internet. The one I found most interesting was how several organizations are now using personal fundraising pages like the ones charities have used for walkathons without an accompanying offline event. Habitat for Humanity’s experiment began when a couple called to say they wanted to set up a site to raise money for the Americus, GA, group as part of their 25th anniversary celebration. I think this concept could be very useful for organizations that have a strong corps of volunteers. The volunteer could easily create a personal page that explains why they volunteer their time for the org and why the org needs support and they could send an e-mail to all their contacts.
I think the real key to raising money online is to have a detailed plan and a budget that enables you to have the technology tools you need and a staff person and/or consultant to enable you to use that technology and carry out your plans.
The other article that I found very interesting was about using shared technology. There are many national organizations with local chapters that could save money and better serve their donors by investing in shared administrative software, fundraising software, and web-based software to enable them to build a strong Internet presence. The part of the article I liked the most was the practical tips for getting pased “us” and “them” in shared technology projects. Seeking affiliate input and getting buy in early on, sharing costs among affiliates even if national could afford to foot the whole bill, and rolling out the project in a systematic way and providing training were all keys mentioned in the article.
Have you read an interesting article related to online fundraising or marketing or do you have a success story to share, I’d love to hear about it.
