On-Line Promotions Tailored to Charities

During the holidays, charities raised hundreds of thousands of dollars on line

through Internet promotions that companies designed especially for them.

Last month, Venture Frogs, an Internet investment company, created a new World-Wide Web site (http://www.charityfrogs.com) and announced that it will donate $1 to the American Red Cross every time a new visitor clicks a “ribbit” button on the site. The goal is to raise $1-million for the Red Cross by the end of March. More than $50,000 has been donated so far to the charity, which last year raised $2.5-million through various on-line efforts.

“It was slow going at first, but each week we have been seeing a huge jump in donors,” says Robert Guldi, the Red Cross’s director of creative services. “This is like training wheels for on-line donors,” he adds. “Here’s a way for them to make a gift, and it’s not their own money or credit card on the line.”

Motley Fool, the on-line financial-information site, raised $582,661 for five charities in its third annual “Foolanthropy” campaign (http://www.fool.com/foolcharityfund/1999/driveintro.htm).

The site’s users were asked to nominate charities that they wanted to support through the campaign. Motley Fool set up the on-line campaign and, starting in November, users were able to make credit-card gifts to charities that the company chose from among the nominations: Foodchain, Grameen Foundation USA, Heifer Project International, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Polycystic Kidney Research Foundation.

Donors could also participate in an on-line chat devoted to the campaign, and Motley Fool donated 2 cents for each posting made to it or to any one of its other on-line “message boards.”

Preliminary results released by Motley Fool showed that the most money from the promotion — $157,555 — went to Foodchain, a Kansas City, Mo., group that runs a network of organizations nationwide that deliver perishable foods to social-service charities. The smallest sum was received by the kidney foundation, which got $46,533.

Four other charities earned money from a similar promotion by E-Cards.com, an electronic greeting-card company that enables Internet users to send an unlimited number of free e-mail greetings. For each Christmas card sent last month, multiple corporate sponsors agreed to give either 50 cents or $1 to one of four charities selected by the sender: World Wildlife Fund, the Nature Conservancy, UNICEF, or Save the Children.

Some on-line corporate drives designed to raise money for multiple charities have drawbacks, however, says Kathleen Nixon, director of marketing alliances at the World Wildlife Fund, which netted $12,000 from the E-Cards promotion.

Ms. Nixon says she has learned to be wary of on-line promotions that seek to benefit six or more charities, because they seldom raise much money for any of the organizations. “Some companies want to benefit 50 or 100 charities,” she says. “We’ve learned that you have to be one of five charities or less, or you just get lost in the crowd.”