December 8, 2005 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The number of Americans who donate to charities online has jumped sharply in the past year, bolstered by 13 million people who gave money over the Internet to help victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, according to a new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Eighteen percent of Internet users who responded to the survey, which took place in September and October, said they had at one time made an online donation — which translates into 26 million people, a report on the survey says. Half of those donors said they had contributed online to help people recover from the Gulf Coast hurricanes in the fall.
Pew surveys show that online giving has increased steadily since the September 2001 terrorist attacks.
A survey in October 2001 found that 10 percent of Internet users, or about 11 million people, had made online donations to a charity. In January 2005, shortly after the South Asian tsunamis hit, that number rose to 13 percent, or 17 million Americans. The number of online donors has increased 53 percent since then, the new survey shows.
After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck, many Americans also turned to the Internet to follow developments.
“In addition to serving as a conduit for donations, the Internet was an important source of news, information, and dialogue about the disasters,” the report says.
Fifty percent of Internet users looked online for news about the hurricanes, 24 percent sent or received e-mail messages or “instant messages” about the storms, and 9 percent used the Internet to check on someone’s safety.
Five percent used the Internet or e-mail to organize their own relief efforts for hurricane victims.
Nearly three-fourths (73 percent) of those who sought online news about the hurricanes turned to the Web sites of major news organizations, such as CNN or MSNBC, while 32 percent turned to the sites of nonprofit groups, such as the American Red Cross or United Way of America.
The Pew Internet project, in Washington, produces regular reports on the impact of the Internet on families, organizations, and civic life. Results of this survey are based on telephone interviews with 2,251 adults, with a margin of error of 2 percentage points for results covering all respondents and 3 points for those covering Internet users only.
A summary of the survey results is available at http://www.pewinternet.org.
