Fund Raisers Seek to Keep Personal Touch in Online Drives

An increasing number of corporations are turning to online-pledge systems as an inexpensive and efficient way to

run their employee charity drives. But fund raisers at United Ways and other charities worry that employers may forgo the events and personal solicitations that they used in the past to encourage workers to give — and that the amount of money raised might go down as a result.

It is a mistake for companies to assume that electronic pledging is a substitute for both the old paper pledge cards and traditional campaign events, says Jillian Elliott, executive vice president of PipeVine, a San Francisco charity that helps corporations run electronic drives.

If an employer continues to hold rallies and other special events, the results of online campaigns can be very good, says Ms. Elliott. “But if you just put out an e-mail, link it to the Web site, and say, ‘Go here to pledge,’ then it’s much easier to ignore.”

To keep companies from reducing their promotion efforts, W. “Mack” McDonald, senior vice president of information technology at the United Way of Central Carolinas, in Charlotte, N.C., says he educates executives about the continued importance of campaign activities and recommends online-pledging technology only to companies that already are running solid fund-raising drives.

Says Mr. McDonald, “If a company has a bad campaign, e-pledging cannot change that.”

Renelle Everett, a fund raiser who has worked in both the for-profit and nonprofit worlds, thinks that working closely with businesses as they make the move online is the key to keeping campaign results strong. Ms. Everett recently joined Mile High United Way, in Denver, to lead the organization’s technology efforts. But for the past three years, she chaired the annual charity drive of the Denver office of Deloitte & Touche.

With a little guidance, she says, employers can improve their campaigning when they no longer have to struggle with many of the administrative burdens of a paper-based drive.

She recalls that at Deloitte & Touche, “The year that we went online, we had so much more time to get out there and spread the word, get people involved in volunteering, and help them know where their money goes — and so much less time adding up paper pledge cards.”

No Simple Answers

Not everyone, however, believes that the answer is that simple — or that fund raisers even are asking the right question.

Officials at a national company’s headquarters may very well discuss the importance of running a strong “person-to-person” campaign — complete with events like rallies and barbecues — to accompany electronic pledging, says David C. Odenbach, senior vice president for resource development at the United Way of Greater St. Louis. But in reality, he says, that message doesn’t always work its way through the company to the people who run the local campaigns.

“The local branch manager wouldn’t have the same sense of the agreement that was made in headquarters, that ‘Gee, we’ve got to have high-touch and high-tech,’” says Mr. Odenbach. “It gets lost in the translation.”

Fund raisers may also overestimate how much of a connection to the cause employees gain from traditional campaign events, says Bob J. Krasman, executive vice president at the United Way of Allegheny County, in Pittsburgh.

“The idea that there was personal touch in the old United Way campaign is a fallacy,” says Mr. Krasman. For instance, he says, with a traditional approach, “if I walk into a room with 200 people to make a presentation and bring with me a speaker who’s going to talk about day care, then I’m assuming that all 200 people in that room have that need.”

He argues that online technology, with its ability to tailor information to each donor’s interests, offers a more personalized experience than traditional campaign activities ever did.

“If I bring you to a Web site, ask you to tell me what areas are important to you, and then each time you visit me via the Web site, produce information for you that you tell me is important, then I think I’m actually giving you better service,” says Mr. Krasman. “I’m touching you far more.”