December 13, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
Digital Giving: How Technology Is Changing Charity
by Richard C. McPherson
Rapid advances in information technology, and attendant changes in society, have serious implications for charities, writes Richard C. McPherson, founder of McPherson Associates, a fund-raising consulting firm.
In particular he notes that the increasingly popular social-networking Web sites and “do-it-yourself donor tools” are changing the way nonprofit groups reach potential supporters and volunteers. Moreover, he says, donors are demanding more details about and control over charities’ programs, and people are insisting that all their transactions be as convenient as possible.
To learn how charities use the Internet, cellphones, e-mail, and other gadgets and services — and also how such technology is shaping the way charities operate — Mr. McPherson interviewed leaders of companies, nonprofit groups, and consulting firms. He includes pieces of their advice on how best to capitalize on changes in technology, and offers examples of how nonprofit groups have begun to experiment with social-networking Web sites, blogs, and other new methods for attracting volunteers and benefactors.
He discusses how the success of such Web-based groups as Kiva and Donorschoose.org demonstrate the trends of democratization and convenience. Each has created easy ways for people to support charitable programs, choose what projects they want to support, and get straightforward information on budgets, project managers, overhead costs, and other topics of interest.
Mr. McPherson writes that organizations must try to meet “donors’ growing need for participation, self-expression, and convenience” — those that don’t, he warns, risk ending up “on the list of casualties as new technology changes charity.”
Publisher: iUniverse, 2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100, Lincoln, Neb. 68512; (800) 288-4677; http://www.iuniverse.com; 102 pages; $13.95; ISBN 978-0-595-44255-3.
