Online donations are a relatively small, but rapidly growing, piece of the charitable contribution pie. It’s also changing the way people think about and make donations.

With online giving, you raise smaller amounts from many —as opposed to raising large amounts from a few big donors.

Mari Kuraishi works for GlobalGiving, an online marketplace that enables donors to fund social entrepreneurs doing amazing things in communities around the world. Donors choose, specifying the outcomes and projects they want to support, and how their contributions are used.

Today, over 260 projects, in 60 countries, appear on www.globalgiving.com, across a wide range of themes. More than $2.6 million has gone to the field. By aggregating thousands of donations—large and small—GlobalGiving is helping to create a growing source of funding for social entrepreneurs.

GlobalGiving is also getting granular data about what people choose—globally. The GlobalGiving Index, introduced this week on Social Edge, is designed to keep you abreast of what’s going on in the marketplace. It will report on projects, themes, and parts of the world receiving the most funding weekly.

The index can’t tell you what’s happening in the big picture—e.g., how much money is going to international causes at any given time. But because we cover so many countries and themes, and we are trying to make it easy for donors to give even small amounts globally, there’s a lot of data about: what’s the cause of the day; how has donor response differed between tsunami and the Kashmir earthquake, etc.

• Give us feedback—are we measuring things that matter to you?

• Have online donations delivered on the promise of the Internet, in terms of efficiency and cost savings?

• Have they changed the way you steward donor relationships, and generate loyalty?

• How do you deal with security and trust?

Share your thoughts, strategies, and best practices.

abc4all - Jan 17, 2006 2:57 pm (#1 Total: 11)
A Better Community For All (ABC4All)

ABC4All, in development for 8 years, is implementing ways to maximize online donations via cooperating groups.  Present technology exists to create opportunities that have never existed before, first to maximize such donations, then to match or double the donations via an endowed nonprofit foundation.  These concepts have been posted at the site for the future global portal of ABC4All, under professional design.  The capabilities for realizing the Mission are in place:  "Maximizing charitable contributions on and off the internet."  T.E.A.M.s will execute the mission:  To Educate All:  Millenium Endowment Fund.

Respectfully,

Burton Danet, Ph.D., Co-Founder

A Better Community for All (ABC4All)

http://abc4all.net

mkuraishi - Jan 17, 2006 3:36 pm (#2 Total: 11)
GlobalGiving


Burton, you put your finger on it when you say this will create opportunities that have never existed before. We're a little unsure of where things will go, what will appeal to potential donors when choice is at their fingertips, so we've been interested to see the dynamics emerge through the transactions to date at GlobalGiving. As a practitioner yourself, do you have any suggestions, reactions, etc. as to whether we are measuring some of the right things within the GGI? Would be v. interested in your feedback.

abc4all - Jan 17, 2006 4:38 pm (#3 Total: 11)
A Better Community For All (ABC4All)

Mari, thank you for your comments.  In fact, much capability has remained dormant, especially as more and more people have become more confident and trusting of the internet.  While we have a long way to go to ensure security and safety, careful approaches will have to prevail.  To respond directly to your question, it will take me some time to develop a more detailed response which I will develop later, but for now please allow me simply to state that I have had the awareness of the potential the internet holds for philanthropic expansion for many years.  Only more recently have I encountered parties, first via the National Heritage Foundation http://nhf.org and then later via companies emerging with value propositions clearly about to dominate global markets because of the internet, especially those countries where credit cards are yet to be introduced.  Thus it is no longer "on the internet" but both "on and off the internet" where the outstanding capabilities can be harnessed.  Should you have greater interest in a continuing dialogue perhaps we should arrange a time for a personal consultation so I can share with you more details than might be appropriate for this conversation.  When possible, I will further comment more specifically in response to the question you raise re GGF.

 

Paul O'Hara - Jan 18, 2006 10:37 am (#4 Total: 11)

Link to the GG Index http://www.socialedge.org/globalgivingindex.html

Hi Mari,

Thanks for this discussion and an index of 181 looks like a very good week for this time of the year. Congrats!

I don't really know what people are looking for from the Index, but here are a couple of observations / suggestions / questions.

It would be interesting to see the GG Index History in Graphic Format. Weekly revenue for the past couple of years would give a good sense of seasonality and growth trends  (possibly with additional commentary on spikes as a result of marketing campaigns etc.)  Equally, it would be interesting to see the trend in the number of donors weekly over time.

What's the relationship between "Natural Disaster" related donations and "Long-Term Development" related donations over time?  In which broad segment are people putting their dollars.

I would consider an average donation of $803 for last week as high.  I guess the average is going to be skewed by Business or other Org. donations.  Would it be possible to see the average donation for Individual and Organisation separately?

I look forward to seeing the Index expand.

Paul

Ruby Brower - Jan 19, 2006 6:43 am (#5 Total: 11)


What does my nonprofit organization need to do to get involved?

Eli - Jan 19, 2006 7:57 am (#6 Total: 11)
GlobalGiving


Hi Ruby -- Eli here from GlobalGiving. Currently, the primary way to get involved is by posting a project. Most projects come through a network of sponsors who vet each project for eligibility, help project leaders enter their projects, and assist in providing feedback to donors. The current list of project sponsors can be found at http://www.globalgiving.com/aboutus/partners.html#16.

If you can not find a sponsor, there is another avenue. Every year we offer organizations not affiliated with project sponsors the ability to post projects. We are currently revising these guidelines -- but send us a note at projecthelp@globalgiving.com and we will be directly in touch with the informatin once its ready and we can address any additional questions. Looking forward to hearing more from you.

Eli

Patrick O'Heffernan - Jan 19, 2006 9:34 am (#7 Total: 11)


I love the index. These kinds of data are a great way to understand the impact of what we do. A question: has Global Giving seen an increase in donations from inon-western countries thorugh the online route?

Patrick O'Heffernan - Jan 19, 2006 9:38 am (#8 Total: 11)


I also notice that the online donation of $803 is very high (unless this figurea also includes foundation grants)...in my own work, $78 is more the average. The small size of hte grants also shows that, I think, the funds can be used very efficiently...that the donors get a lot of impact for th eir dollar, which may be why the average donation is high.

jochi - Jan 20, 2006 3:28 pm (#9 Total: 11)
Marketing Communications Director, GlobalGiving

Hi Patrick, Joan from GlobalGiving here.  Our office is actually physically moving from Bethesda to DC today, so it's been a crazy day and we haven't been online--apologies for not getting back to you sooner.  I wanted to respond to a couple of the things you raise--first of all, regarding non-Western donations, I can say (and this is anecdotal, I don't have hard and fast numbers with me) that we have seen an uptick in non-US donations, all made online...this is very positive. We're trying to learn more about how these people have heard of us--many seem to find us through various Search engines.  Giving originating overseas also seems to have been directed largely toward disasters (e.g. Kashmir earthquake).

I also wanted to clarify that the average donation amount reported through the GlobalGiving Index represents our total donations, not just the online portion, so you're right that that $800+ is high.  We find that many "major donor" contributions are actually done the old-fashioned way, by writing a check, and the reported amount does represent these contributions.  Many people use our website to do the research and select a project, but still ultimately opt to mail in a check!  Do you find that to be the case as well?

Hope that helps...I'm sure Mari can add more when she unpacks her computer!  Let us know if you would like more details.

Joan

Eli - Jan 20, 2006 3:37 pm (#10 Total: 11)
GlobalGiving


Hi Patrick -- I'm going to give my two cents on one element of donations from non-western countries and ask my colleagues to chime in on the rest. Following the Tsunami, many corporations matched their employees contributions to relief efforts. Our online platform enabled several corporations to extend this match to their employees based in other countries. The platform specifically enabled the corporations to track donations and enabled their employees to give via a credit card. We also know of an India-based group that sought to use the platform to contribute to Katrina relief projects.

Pamela Hawley - Jan 23, 2006 3:27 pm (#11 Total: 11)
Founder and CEO, UniversalGiving

Patrick,

Thank you for your message about giving.  At UniversalGiving (http://www.universalgiving.org) we match both donors and volunteers with qualified international organizations and projects. 

To your point, we certainly see a lower amount on the donation front, but see different trends according to the target market.  For example, we see a difference between high networth donors; corporations; and young professionals.

As per donations increasing online outside of the U.S., we do see this on the corporate front: both from U.S. Headquarters abroad, as well as in-country.

Thank you for your great questions!

All my best, Pamela