Charities Turn To Fundraising 2.0 For Dollars | For local organizations, new online ventures offer added revenue streams
Local nonprofits, which are particularly vulnerable in tough economic times, are increasingly finding solace in Web 2.0 and other new technologies to help bring in much-needed revenue.
For example, during last year’s holiday shopping season, Girls Inc. partnered with Amazon.com and offered a portal to the online shopping outlet on the homepage of its web site.
The partnership, which provided Girls Inc. with 4 percent of all purchases made through the Amazon.com link, served as an additional fundraising mechanism and provided additional exposure in the community. Since implementing it in December, the organization has raised almost $500.
Homepage Design
“It was a make-sense partnership to produce additional income,” said Cathi Coridan, executive director of the Worcester organization.
“If we can benefit from people shopping at Amazon and make use of technology both to pull people to our web site and to add a little fundraising for us, it’s a win-win.”
Implementing the Amazon link was easy, Coridan said, but the real challenge rests in drawing attention to it and reminding people that such a partnership exists.
To do that, Coridan has relied on e-mails and newsletters.
When it comes to the motivation behind the partnership, Coridan is quick to explain that it was not formed to counteract a struggling economy.
However, she doesn’t deny that the recession has drastically impacted her organization.
“We have taken a significant hit to our endowment and our funders have taken significant hits to their grant foundation revenues that we depend on,” she said. “The competition is much more intense for fewer and fewer dollars.”
Succeeding in the quest for those funding dollars may rest in other forms of online technology, as well.
Virtual Giving
Social networking sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, as well as online media outlets such as YouTube will soon offer Girls Inc. new avenues by which to convey its importance in the community.
“We can communicate with many people very quickly with those tools, which will hopefully bring in income,” she said.
About 17 miles east in Marlborough, the story is a similar one at the Boys & Girls Clubs of MetroWest.
“The spirit of giving has really found a place online,” said Julie Horrigan, the nonprofit’s vice president of development.
“There are a lot of options out there, but for a local nonprofit, it’s important to measure a return on the investment.”
The online programs used by the Boys & Girls Clubs of MetroWest include GoodSearch.com, a Yahoo-powered search engine that donates a minimum of 50 percent of its revenue toward the charities of its users.
For example, a supporter of the Boys & Girls Clubs of MetroWest could register with GoodSearch and start using it for Internet research.
With each click of the search button, that supporter is donating about one cent to the club.
Thus far, the club has reported more than 2,000 searches, which amounts to a meager $21 since it first launched the program at the beginning of the year.
But for large organizations with thousands of supporters, an average of two searches per day by each of those supporters can amount to more than $70,000 annually.
“How many times a day do we search on Google?” Horrigan asked. “Donors set [GoodSearch] as their homepage. We, here at the club, have set it as our homepage, and we’re passively creating income for the club doing something that we do all the time.”
Horrigan said that the traditional fundraising methods are still working, but that hasn’t stopped the club from using another online program called First Giving, which allows donors to create a personalized donation page that they can forward to their friends and family.
“It’s very affordable for us and the return is significant,” said Horrigan. “It’s a fundraising vehicle but it also helps build awareness for us.”
First Giving charges a 5 percent fee for each donation, plus a 2.5 percent credit card processing fee, meaning 92.5 percent of a donation goes to the intended charity.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
0 Comments