The Social Side of Fund-Raising Online

Now nonprofit organizations are testing ways to raise money through these networks, betting that the Internet's viral nature will open fresh avenues for fund-raising and marketing .

It's a big change for nonprofits as they shift from direct mail campaigns and relying on the checkbooks of older givers to the unpredictable whims of Web popularity. However, though the transition is nascent, charities see potential in recruiting young activists who already use online networks to broadcast their identities and make connections.

Donations From Afar

Actress Cynthia Osuji of New York is a case in point. She first became interested in a women's health nonprofit when she received a mass e-mail about auditions for a Circle of Health International-sponsored benefit production of Eve Ensler's "A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer." The group also was seeking board members to plan the show.

After Osuji, 26, won a spot in the cast and joined the board, she featured a copy of the show poster on her MySpace profile. Out-of-town friends who couldn't attend the show ended up making donations and two "Facebook friends" -- casual acquaintances who learned of the benefit through the site -- came to the March performance .

Osuji said the show brought her back to community service, an activity she hadn't pursued since high school. "Violence against women and women in conflict (areas) is something that's very personal to me," she said.

Starting a Movement

Circle of Health itself has its own Facebook page, and 26-year-old Matt Bieber clicked on an application called "Causes" that allowed him to invite more than 100 of his 200-plus contacts to publicize the nonprofit on their own profiles. His recruitment effort was akin to distributing virtual bumper stickers with the option of donating through the site as well. Eleven of his friends added the nonprofit to their own profiles.

Sean Parker, who helped create Causes, said, "If you can activate a group of people and get some of those people to replicate the process ... you've got the basis for a movement."

Outside of general communities like Facebook and MySpace, there are also social networking sites dedicated to philanthropy such as YourCause.com, HopeEquity.org and actor Kevin Bacon's SixDegrees.org.

Now established institutions like the MacArthur Foundation and Case Foundation want to know more about the tie in between digital life and philanthropy. They are funding studies of online social networks, civic engagement in the Millennial generation and philanthropy in virtual worlds like Second Life.

"We're not claiming [online networks are] the panacea for philanthropies," said Ben Binswanger, the Case Foundation's chief operating officer. "[But] we think it's way too early to dismiss it as an Internet fad. ... We're going to keep pushing down this path because we see enough spark here to make it interesting."

A Virtual Village

For nonprofits, the power of social networks is engagement, not necessarily sheer dollar numbers.

"If you send out a direct mail piece, you never know if people open it up or not, unless they mail a check back to you," said Steve Byers, director of development and communications at Kansas City, Mo.,-based WaterPartners International, which promotes safe drinking water. "With the online community, we know which pages they're clicking on ... they want to provide feedback and interact with the organization in ways that are very exciting and challenging."

WaterPartners created three fictional characters from Ethiopia, India and Honduras and placed them in a virtual village on Second Life to illustrate the challenges of accessing potable water. The avatars even have profiles on MySpace and Facebook, and shots of their Second Life village are posted on photo-sharing site Flickr. While the amount of money raised so far is tiny, Byers of WaterPartners said he could see online marketing and fund-raising slowly displacing direct mail.

"I've been in fund-raising for over 20 years, so this is really kind of a brave new world for me," he said. "I've really had to rethink my whole approach to fund-raising through the Internet."

Clearly, online fund-raising is in its infancy. A survey by The Chronicle of Philanthropy showed that online giving for 187 large charities totaled US$1.2 billion in 2006, up from $881 million in 2005. However, of 147 organizations, 103 of them said online donations accounted for less than 1 percent of total contributions in 2006.

"There is no really large, significant fund-raising happening on social networks, but there's a sense in the nonprofit community that that's where the prospects come from," said Michael Hoffman, chief executive of Chicago nonprofit consulting firm See3 Communications.

The Efforts Have Merit

Some nonprofits who have a presence on social networking sites have discovered a different relationship with users.

Carie Lewis, the Humane Society's Internet marketing manager, said she finds herself responding to lots of mundane questions on pet care as a result of maintaining a presence on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr. More important, Lewis said she's discovered supporters outside the organization's traditional demographic of women in their fifties.

"It was a lot of work, but it really paid off for us," Lewis said. The Humane Society has raised more than $33,000 on Facebook from users who have set up pages to protest everything from puppy mills to seal clubbing in Namibia. The amount of money raised is small, but convinced Lewis' bosses that the online efforts have merit.

"Traditionally, I think nonprofits focus on high-value donors, and what MySpace provides is an enormous network of people who are able to get involved through volunteering, offline events and donating in smaller amounts," said Lee Brenner, who oversees activism-related content on MySpace.