May 7, 2009 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 10th annual survey of online fund raising examined data provided by 239 of the biggest nonprofit organizations in the United States.
The newspaper requested data on online giving from charities listed in the 2008 edition of its Philanthropy 400, which ranks the American nonprofit groups that raise the most money from private sources.
The total raised online in 2008 by the 203 charities that provided data for both 2007 and 2008 was $1.4-billion, an increase of 22 percent from the $1.2-billion these organizations raised the previous year.
Twenty-two groups said they did not raise money via the Internet in 2008. Of those, four started, or will start, raising money online this year; one plans to do so in 2010; seven others are discussing whether to begin raising money online; five have no plans to do so; and one, the Brookings Institution, in Washington, stopped raising money online last year because it had not realized much income that way.
Interpreting the Data
The Chronicle sought consistency in this survey with fund-raising data collected in its Philanthropy 400 project, and so requested consolidated information from organizations that maintain a national office and many affiliates. However, some such organizations conduct their online giving at the national level, while others conduct it at the affiliate level.
Organizations that were unable to provide consolidated information about their efforts to attract online gifts were the American Red Cross, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Catholic Charities USA, Easter Seals, Goodwill Industries International, Junior Achievement Worldwide, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Special Olympics, and YMCA. One other organization, the Boy Scouts of America, provided data on all of its affiliates’ online fund raising, combined, but did not include the national office because that office does not engage in online fund raising.
Harvard University provided online-giving figures for its undergraduate Harvard College entity, and a spokeswoman says the various entities that comprise the university track online-giving information independently. The information from those entities, to date, has not been compiled, the spokeswoman said.
While some groups have overseas affiliates, The Chronicle‘s survey collected information only for American affiliates.
A searchable database of information from the survey, plus data from previous years’ surveys, and additional tables, are available online at http://philanthropy.com.
The survey of online fund raising was compiled by Noelle Barton and Candie Jones.
