How The Chronicle’s Survey of Online Fund Raising Was Compiled

By Noelle Barton

The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s eighth annual survey of online fund raising is based on

data provided by 224 of the biggest nonprofit organizations in the United States.

The Chronicle requested online-giving data from the 400 charities included in the 2006 edition of the newspaper’s Philanthropy 400, which ranks the American nonprofit groups that raise the most money from private sources.

Of the organizations that responded to the online-fund-raising survey, 198 said that they raised money online in 2006. Seven of those organizations declined to say exactly how much they had raised.

The 187 organizations that reported the amount of money raised online in both 2005 and 2006 collected $1.2-billion online in 2006, an increase from the $880.7-million they raised online the previous year.

The 2006 figure is so high, in part, because it was the fiscal year during which Hurricane Katrina fell for many of the largest charities in the country, including the American Red Cross.

Among the survey’s respondents, 24 organizations said they did not raise money online in 2006. Two of those groups said they have started, or will start, raising money online in the current fiscal year; two others plan to start doing so in 2008; five said they are discussing whether to start an online fund-raising effort; and nine said they have no plans to do so.

One charity, Mission to the World, in Lawrenceville, Ga., stopped collecting online donations in 2006, but did not say why.

Two nonprofit institutions started raising money online in 2006, and their totals may not represent a full 12 months of operation. Those groups — Catholic Healthcare West, in San Francisco, and Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta — raised $12,000 and $5,000, respectively, online in 2006. The latter group indicated its online fund raising was for a one-time-only event.

Affiliates’ Data

Readers should take care when examining information on organizations’ online fund raising. Some organizations provided online-giving data for their national offices only, not including affiliates, while others provided consolidated data that included all affiliated units.

The YMCA, for example, reported online fund-raising totals for its headquarters, but for the total of all donations, online and otherwise, it provided the sum given to its Chicago headquarters and also its 931 affiliates.

United Way of America, in Alexandria, Va., provided figures for its headquarters and all of its 1,326 affiliates.

United Jewish Communities, in New York, provided consolidated data for its national office and 86 of its 155 affiliates. A separate table showing information provided by a handful of the largest Jewish federations that responded to this survey (those in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Miami, New York, and San Francisco) can be found on The Chronicle’s Web site at http://philanthropy.com/extras.

Many of the organizations that participated in the survey maintain affiliates outside the United States, but the survey asked groups to provide information solely for the affiliates located in the United States.

The Chronicle sought online-fund-raising information from seven corporate-sponsored charitable funds that offer donor-advised funds. None of their data appear in the survey this year, as three declined to participate, three did not respond, and one said that it did not collect money online.

Disaster Relief

Other anomalies — such as a large donation or a capital campaign coming to a close — can explain large increases or declines in organizations’ figures.

Two major disasters in recent years have influenced online fund raising for many organizations: the tsunamis in South Asia in December 2004, and Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

One organization in particular, the American National Red Cross, in Washington, raised more than $464-million online in its 2006 fiscal year in response to Hurricane Katrina, which accounts for all but about $32-million it raised online that year. The Red Cross figure is a key reason that donations topped $1-billion for the first time in the history of The Chronicle’s survey. Other than the Red Cross, the 54 charities that reported figures for Katrina relief raised about $22-million online for hurricane victims in 2006.

When all fund raising for Katrina is tallied, charities raised about $572-million online for hurricane relief, which represents about 16 percent of the total $3.7-billion those groups raised in response to Katrina.

When the Red Cross’s and the Salvation Army’s online donations earmarked for Katrina projects are combined, the sum accounts for 42 percent of all money raised online by the 190 organizations that reported their online donations for 2006. In other words, more than $4 of every $10 raised online in 2006 went to either the Red Cross or the Salvation Army in response to Hurricane Katrina.

A table available on The Chronicle’s Web site shows the totals raised online, and via all methods, in response to Hurricane Katrina.

The bulk of donations in response to the tsunamis fell in the 2005 fiscal year, for which final, audited figures were available for the first time on this survey. Thirty-eight charities have raised more than $269-million online to date in response to the tsunamis, which represents about 18 percent of the nearly $1.5-billion the groups raised via all methods.

Of the charities that provided data for the survey, 109 groups said they raised no money to respond to the tsunamis or to Hurricane Katrina. The median increase in online donations for those groups was 51 percent from 2005 to 2006, several points higher than the median 45-percent increase in online giving achieved by all groups. Amedian figure means that half the groups saw increases higher than that number, and half saw smaller increases or declines.

The survey of online fund raising was compiled by Noelle Barton and Sam Kean, with assistance from Maria Di Mento and Heather Joslyn.