January 24, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Two giving portals that allow donors to make contributions to the charities of their choice saw big jumps in online fund raising in 2007:
- Online gifts made through Network for Good, in Bethesda, Md., totaled $53.5-million in 2007, compared with $35.4-million in 2006, an increase of 51 percent. Contributions made during the last two months of 2007 totaled $24.9-million, up from $16.9-million the previous year.
- JustGive.org, in San Francisco, processed donations totaling $25-million in 2007, up from $17-million the previous year, an increase of 47 percent. Giving in the months of November and December totaled $19-million last year, up from $13-million during the same period in 2006.
In addition to gifts made through the JustGive Web site, the organization also processes gifts made through American Express’s online giving program and contributions made through the Causes application on Facebook.
The increasing use of Causes and of JustGive’s charity gift certificates and gift registries were among the reasons for the jump, says Sarah Myers, a program assistant at JustGive.
Bill Strathmann, chief executive officer of Network for Good, attributes the increase through his organization’s site to the continuing adoption of online giving, especially as people become more comfortable with other online activities and banking, and to the organization’s efforts to help charities become better online fund raisers.
Among the steps the group has taken: a new Web site, Fundraising123.org, and a weekly e-mail newsletter that provide advice and case studies about online fund raising.
Mr. Strathmann is optimistic about 2008, and believes that the rate of growth for online fund raising is strong enough to weather a potential slowdown in the economy.
“If you’re growing at 30 to 50 percent and you have a downturn of 2 or 3 percent,” he says, “it has a much less significant impact on the overall growth numbers.”
