January 6, 2011 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Charities raise far more money from their own Web sites—or those that prominently bear their name—than they do from social networks like Facebook or from other sites that channel donations to many causes, according to a new study of donor behavior over seven years.
The study was conducted by Network for Good, a Bethesda, Md., group that allows donors to send donations to any charity in the United States. Its site—and other online portals—received 66.7 percent less in donations than sites charities created to seek donations on their own.
By examining its database of about 1.9 million donors who have given a total of $381-million to about 70,000 nonprofit organizations from 2003 to 2009, Network for Good spotted trends that both confirmed conventional wisdom and offered some new insights.
For example, when Network for Good looked at the sites it runs on behalf of specific charities, it found that donors in 2009 gave $279 to Web sites prominently bearing a charity’s name, compared with $187 in 2007, a 49.2 percent jump. By contrast, the average gift on Network for Good’s generic pages seeking gifts to all kinds of causes grew just 23.9 percent, to $202, in 2009 from $163 in 2007.
Donors who give to charity sites made repeat gifts more often than those who give through the generic portals, the report found. About one in 10 donors on Network for Good’s system made gifts regularly, with monthly giving the most common. Only 8.3 percent of portal donors were still giving through the portal in the third year.
“Raising funds online is not just about technology,” says Bill Strathmann, Network for Good’s chief executive. “The headline is very much about relationships.”
An ‘Entryway’ to Giving
But the study’s authors urge charities not to give up on the multiple-charity portals: “They are a valuable service to donors, and they’re proliferating. They likely funnel gifts to organizations that wouldn’t have received them otherwise. They also probably serve as an ‘entryway’ or ‘on-ramp’ for people who are new to charitable giving or your cause.”
The full report, “The Online Giving Study: A Call to Reinvent Donor Relationships,” can be found at http://www.online givingstudy.org.
