Nonprofit Online Activities Surveyed in 2 Reports

By NICOLE WALLACE

Two new reports published by foundations survey the nonprofit information-technology landscape.

• Published by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, in Battle Creek, Mich., “e-Philanthropy v.2.001: From Entrepreneurial Adventure to an Online Community” provides a snapshot of online philanthropy ventures both for and by nonprofit organizations.

  Following up on the foundation’s February 2000 report identifying and classifying 140 Web sites, this report summarizes trends in charitable activity on the Internet over the past year. Among those discussed: the demise of several dot-com philanthropy ventures and the growing number of online services that help charities in other areas of their work, such as advocacy and volunteerism.

  The report also discusses the results of a survey in which the foundation asked 418 nonprofit organizations in six states about their online activities.

  Seventy-five percent of the organizations surveyed reported that they had functioning Web sites, and 32 percent described their Web sites as “dynamic,” or offering visitors ways to get involved in the work of the organization. Of those groups that described their site as dynamic, 44 percent are able to accept charitable donations through their Web sites and 54 percent are able to recruit volunteers online.

  A database that accompanies the report describes and provides links to 315 Web sites on fund raising, advocacy, volunteerism, and other topics of interest to nonprofit groups.

  To get there: Go to http://www.actknowledgeworks.net/ephil.

• A report published this month by the Surdna Foundation, in New York, examines how the market pressures that determine the success or failure of for-profit Web sites affect nonprofit Internet projects. It also discusses how those market factors will change the operations of nonprofit organizations and the foundations that support them.

  “The real work” of understanding the technological revolution, says the report, “is to imagine the profound structural changes these technologies will bring about in the sector and to consider how they will remake what it means to be an effective nonprofit and an effective grant maker.”

  The report, “More Than Bit Players,” was written for the foundation by Andrew Blau, a communications consultant in New York, who formerly served as program director at the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation.

  To get there: Go to http://www.surdna.org/documents/morefinal.pdf.