By PUTNAM BARBER
From auctions to so-called fun runs to on-line "charity malls," virtual
tools are being invented almost daily to offer cyberspace versions of
traditional fund-raising devices. Although the process is relatively new,
serious money has already been donated through the Internet to a wide
variety of charities.
What we are seeing today, however, is only
the beginning. The Internet is an ideal medium for fund raising, and we
haven't finished figuring out how to do it, do it well, or do it right.
But several innovations that have been unveiled over the past few
months make clear how truly revolutionary the new frontier is. Among them:
the AOL Foundation's new donor site and an on-line shopping feature that
allows donors to claim tax deductions for the fraction of their purchases
that goes to charity.
With a strong list of collaborators, the
charitable arm of the giant Internet service provider America Online has
just begun a dramatic and ground-breaking Web site called Helping.org.
Along with many other features, the site brings immediately within reach
of every recognized American charity the power of the World-Wide Web as a
fund-raising tool. The charity itself doesn't need any sort of connection
to the Internet and doesn't have to do anything to become a beneficiary of
donors' generosity.
Less dramatic, but equally significant, is the
maturation of the charity-mall concept exemplified by iGive.com and GreaterGood.com. Those sites and their
competitors–and there are a lot of them–allow supporters to direct
small sums to favored organizations while shopping on line; the money is
paid by participating merchants. Though the individual sums may be small,
an organization with a broad corps of Net-savvy supporters can arrange
things so that they add up to significant revenue.
The best way to
get a sense of the revolutionary impact of Helping.org, of course, is to
try it for yourself. You type http://helping.org/ into the "address"
window in your Web browser, and in a few seconds a well-organized welcome
page will open. If your goal is to make a donation to a specific
organization that you already know about, you type its name into another
clearly marked box on the screen and click on the "search" option. A short
list of organizations–culled from the complete list of organizations
that file informational tax forms with the Internal Revenue Service–appears after a moment or two. Click on the name of the organization in
which you are interested, and a full page of basic information about that
organization opens on your screen.
At the upper right of the
information screen is an invitation to make a donation, now, on line. You
can choose a one-time gift, or sign up for contributions to be made
automatically at stated intervals. You can even request that the gift be
made anonymously. Within three or four minutes, your donation is on its
way to your chosen charity. You get a confirmation by electronic mail from
Helping.org and, if the recipient organization is on its toes, a nice
thank-you note from the charity once the processing is completed.
The data used in the search process and on the information screen
come from the GuideStar Web site (http://www.guidestar.org/), which
was created and is maintained by the charity Philanthropic Research. What
you see at their site is derived from I.R.S. reports and other sources.
Organizations can use GuideStar's on-line facilities for extending,
updating, or correcting the information that visitors find, though not
many organizations have taken advantage of this opportunity.
The
processing of donations is done by a subsidiary of United Way of America
that is set up to do it efficiently. The only difference between the
amount a person specifies as a donation and the check the charity will
receive is the routine credit-card processing fee charged by his or her
bank. In what appears to be a tremendous public service, the AOL
Foundation is paying all the other out-of-pocket costs of building and
operating this service. (See note.)
There are, of course, other
donation-processing services, such as CharitableWay.com and GiveToCharity.com, some of which take
a percentage of any donation made. The striking features of the new
offering from AOL, however, are its seamless connection to the full list
of recognized charities, and the low cost of its services to both the
donor and the recipient organization.
To be sure, fund raisers
don't need to drop back to part-time status just because this new service
is being offered. Charity mailboxes won't be bulging tomorrow–or ever
–with unsolicited checks from complete strangers.
But it makes
sense for organizations that are uncertain about the return on investment
from on-line giving to encourage current donors and likely prospects to
explore the new service. An invitation can be included as an option in
direct-mail and other solicitations. Every response through Helping.org–especially if it is a pledge for a recurring gift–will be a small step
toward lowered fund-raising costs and other efficiencies inherent in using
the Internet.
More persistent efforts will be needed if an
organization hopes to realize significant revenue from the charity malls.
But at least one charity mall has worked out a way to confer the familiar
encouragement of a tax deduction for at least some of the money its
participants transfer to eligible charities.
IGive, which claims a
U.S. patent on the process, is confident that merchants' rebates on
purchases made through its site can be identified as charitable
contributions on purchasers' tax returns. It requires some jumping through
hoops to satisfy I.R.S. requirements, but just being able to talk about
the option may give leaders of appropriate organizations the tool they
need to attract attention to this new way that their backers can support
their work.
The new Internet devices demonstrate without doubt
that fund raising has crossed the frontier into cyberspace. No
matter what else turns up in the restless unfolding of the Information
Age, on-line fund raising is now ready to play an important part in
securing the resources that non-profit groups need to support their work
for causes great and small. And that's good news for donors, for
charities, for every one of us.
Putnam Barber, a regular
contributor to these pages, is the president of the Evergreen State
Society, in Seattle, and the editor of the Internet Nonprofit Center
(http://www.nonprofits.org/).
Copyright ©
1999 The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Note: After publication, I learned that UniTEQ
is an independent 501(c)(3) organization, based in California, with no
connection to United Way of America. UniTEQ does process donations for
some United Way organizations and other clients, and is the processor for
donations made through Helping.org. – PB
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