Nonprofits Work the Web

The dot-com explosion and e-commerce boom may grab most of the Internet sparkle, but behind the for-profit sector's glitz, nonprofit and charity organizations are working their way over the hurdle of the digital divide and using the Web to push their own messages.

For Cindee Archer, online media manager at the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C., the Internet may be a new way to collect donations, but it also serves as a vital source of information.

Disaster time is crunch time for the Red Cross Web site, as it must not only handle monetary donations but also help visitors locate their local Red Cross for shelter, find relatives in the disaster area, get information on blood donations and volunteering, and keep up with breaking news all at the same time.

"The Internet has definitely changed how the whole organization thinks," Archer says. "You feel this sense of urgency whenever there's a disaster--you want that information up as quickly as you can get it."

Most nonprofits are interested in the Internet because of its donation potential, but having a Web site and other communication technologies in place creates other benefits, such as lowering fundraising costs and spreading their message to a much larger audience.

Only on the Web

Although many nonprofit groups--including the Red Cross--have added an online presence as a division alongside already existing services, a host of Internet-only nonprofit groups has also cropped up.

For example, online nonprofit GreaterGood.com, which oversees the click-to-donate sites The Hunger Site and The Rainforest Site, allows Internet shoppers to buy from stores listed in GreaterGood.com's "mall" and donate up to 15 percent of their purchases to the group of their choice.

The growing popularity of click-to-donate sites, where a group of sponsors pledges money to an organization for each original "click" the donation site receives daily, taps in to a newer and often younger audience for nonprofits. These young donors may not have the finances to give large sums of money, but they are willing to help out some while online.

And the sponsors' contributions are adding up: As of May 30, 2000, at GreaterGood's The Hunger Site, which routes donations to the U.N. World Food Program, site visitors and sponsors teamed up to donate funds equivalent to over 156,229,637 cups of food.

"People are busy; that's become a reality," says Lynn Ridenour, vice president of marketing for GreaterGood. "These are ways they can give back, and there isn't a financial commitment involved; it's free, so they walk away feeling good about what they've done."