Donors warm up to online giving

“What seems to be compelling is that we aren’t asking for a change in [donors’] lifestyle – they already give gifts for birthdays or anniversaries. We’re just asking them to give something more meaningful,” Ms. Hawley says.

More donors give globally
The Giving USA report found that “international affairs” charities experienced the most dramatic growth – 16 percent – among all giving sectors in 2007. A recent study by Campbell & Company of generational giving reveals that young people born after 1981 care about causes that make the world a better place, while those born earlier tend to focus on giving help closer to home.

In fact, social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace may be the new seedbed for young philanthropists. A “Causes” application on Facebook enables members to recruit their friends to their favorites causes and charities. Facebook participated in a “Causes Giving Challenge” last winter along with the “America’s Giving Challenge” sponsored by Parade magazine, the Case Foundation, and Network for Good. The challenges aimed to introduce millions to the idea of using new Web 2.0 (interactive) technologies “for good.” More than 80,000 people donated, raising $1.7 million for some 3,000 organizations.

“The major giving population is aging and a whole new generation of givers is coming that is fluent in the online environment,” says Charles Mauro, of Mauro New Media, in New York. “Any nonprofit not aggressively moving into the online giving space now is going to be losing an entire generation of potential givers.”

About 75 percent of people who give do their research online before they give, Moore says. Some adventurous folk even search out projects on their own. Amy Logan, a freelance writer in the San Francisco Bay area, found the organization, HEAL Africa, through her own efforts, and she and her husband donated $3,000 to build a safe house in the Congo for women fleeing sexual assault. “I did research on the organization on the Web to make sure it was legit, and spoke via telephone with the director before sending the money,” Ms. Logan says via e-mail.

At the same time, seeking to instill the value of giving in their 6-year-old son, she went to the website of World Vision to purchase a monthly sponsorship of a Honduran boy, who was born on exactly the same date as her son (a site option).

“Then, I found him a Honduran leatherback sea turtle at the website of World Wildlife Fund that needed adopting, for $25,” she says. “We hope to visit Honduras in the next year or two to visit our new friends.”

New tools have even appeared to spur giving without money during these rough economic times, when people tend to cut back on contributions. GoodSearch.com allows donors to give to their favorite charities every time they conduct an online search on Yahoo (which donates a penny per search), and GoodShop.com donates a percentage of every purchase made from more than 700 retailers. Some 60,000 charities are already benefiting.

While people differ on how quickly ePhilanthropy will extend its impact, Mr. Mauro is bullish. “Online giving is fundamentally going to alter the entire landscape of giving over the next five years,” he predicts.

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