Online Giving Grew in 2009 — but Unevenly — Survey Finds

April 29, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute

While online giving grew overall in 2009, not all charities shared in the gains, according to a new study that analyzes online fund raising and advocacy at 31 nonprofit groups.

Together the organizations in the report — large national charities, such as Oxfam America and the Wilderness Society — raised 4.5 percent more money through the Internet in 2009 than in the previous year.

But for half of the groups in the study, online donations either held steady or decreased. The decline was driven by a drop in average gift size, which was $81.33 for the charities in the study.

The report breaks down the different type of gifts that make up the charities’ online fund raising. One-time gifts make up 78 percent of all online donations, while monthly contributions account for 9 percent, gifts made in honor or in memory of a loved one 4 percent, and other donations such as those made for fund-raising events like walkathons 8 percent.

But there were some significant variations among different types of organizations. For example, monthly gifts accounted for 26 percent of international groups’ online fund raising, and event contributions accounted for 40 percent of online giving to health charities.

More information is also available in The Chronicle’s annual online fund-raising survey.

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About the Author

NICOLE WALLACE

Features Editor

Nicole Wallace is features editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has written about innovation in the nonprofit world, charities’ use of data to improve their work and to boost fundraising, advanced technologies for social good, and hybrid efforts at the intersection of the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, such as social enterprise and impact investing.Nicole spearheaded the Chronicle’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and reported from India on the role of philanthropy in rebuilding after the South Asian tsunami. She started at the Chronicle in 1996 as an editorial assistant compiling The Nonprofit Handbook.Before joining the Chronicle, Nicole worked at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and served in the inaugural class of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.A native of Columbia, Pa., she holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.