E-charity Sees an Increase in Online Giving
Hopkins, Jim
USA Today 6/14/05

Online donations to the biggest U.S. charities rose 63 percent in 2004, a new study by the Chronicle of Philanthropy reveals. The Chronicle surveyed 164 groups, including Doctors Without Borders USA and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which, combined, raised $166.2 million online. Although this was less than 1 percent of the total raised by charities in 2004, Chronicle editor Stacy Palmer noted that the significant growth in online fundraising will spur more of the same as donors become ever-more comfortable with e-charity. According to Palmer, nonprofits have been slow to adopt technology that could enhance their online fundraising efforts because they fear spending precious dollars on tools that ultimately fail to deliver promised benefits.

That's changing, however, as Web-based technologies increasingly justify their cost and a new generation of startup vendors introduce tools that make both online and real-world fundraising easier. And while few big technology vendors market directly to nonprofits, many – including Microsoft, Cisco Systems, and Intuit – donate or sell software and hardware at a big discount to TechSoup Stock, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, which then re-sells the products to qualifying charities at a discount.

"We really seem at a stage where growth is happening in a fairly spectacular way," added Palmer.

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