Donation Sites With a Twist: Some New Approaches

By HOLLY HALL

As Internet companies struggle to find a niche in the online fund-raising arena, some are coming up with variations on the usual online donation sites,

which enable donors to reach large numbers of non-profit organizations. The founders of the alternative sites believe their approaches have a better chance of attracting visitors and winning substantial donations. Among their offerings:

Charitygift. Rather than giving money themselves, individuals and companies using this site (http://www.charitygift.com) “buy” a donation they can send as a gift to someone else.

Here’s how it works: In addition to paying for a donation, a company or individual customer goes to the Charitygift site and chooses an online or regular greeting card for one or more recipients –a company’s corporate clients, for example, or someone’s friend. Each card contains a message from the sender, as well as the amount of the donation made in honor of the recipient, the Charitygift Web site address, and a code for each recipient. After receiving a Charitygift card, recipients go to the company’s Web site and type in their codes. They are then able to direct a gift to any group that is recognized as a charity by the Internal Revenue Service.

The company, which went online in November, has raised $200,000 for about 2,000 charities. Charitygift makes money by charging from $3.95 to $6.95 for each card plus a 3-percent fee on each order, which includes both the cost of cards and corresponding gifts.

DonateTo.com. Instead of trying to attract visitors to its own giving site (http://www.donateto.com), which will debut this month, this organization seeks to form partnerships with companies and Internet sites that already have big online audiences. DonateTo.com will place a link or donation button on companies’ Web sites. The button enables a company’s online audience to make a gift to one or dozens of charities that have been selected by the company. DonateTo.com will charge a fee of 6.5 percent of the amount of each gift made through its site or a flat fee of $7, whichever is lower.

GivingCapital. The company’s Web site (http://www.givingcapital.com), which started operating in March, currently lists about 60 capital campaigns and other capital projects to which donors can give. Each campaign listed is accompanied by a link to the non-profit group conducting the drive, a brief description of why the money is needed, and a box listing the monetary goal, the amount left to raise, and the closing date of the campaign –plus a donation button enabling visitors to make a gift on the spot. Campaign tallies are continually updated.

The founders of the Philadelphia-based company say that, while they do expect to get some gifts through the GivingCapital site, most donations will come from another service they provide directly to their non-profit clients: individually tailored campaign pages that charities use on their own Web sites. Those pages will help charities post up-to-the-minute online reports about their drives and send campaign-related e-mail to donors and volunteers. The pages will also enable people to make online campaign donations; the company charges charities 5 percent for each gift made on one of its pages.

Says GivingCapital’s John Claypool: “You can give on our site, but our intention is that the non-profit will invite donors to their own site. After all, they’re the ones making the ask.”