For Younger Donors, Philanthropy begins Online

Established charities, entrenched in their traditional fundraising ways, are going to have to step outside of their fundraising comfort zones as younger donors are increasingly satisfying their philanthropic urges online. Young people, who spend a majority of their time online, are turning to social networking web sites and blogs to spread the word about and raise funds for their favorite nonprofits and charities.

As The Wall Street Journal (requires subscription) recently reported, social-networking sites are doing their part to attract nonprofits and contributors too. Facebook's “Causes” program allows members to create online communities to advocate for issues and charities. “The program has attracted more than 2.5 million Facebook users and raised some $300,000 for nonprofits and politicians,” says Joe Green, the project’s co-founder.

Network for Good launched SixDegress.org allowing users to create charity badges for their favorite cause and send it out to their contacts. The badge keeps a running tally of how much has been raised and how many donors have contributed. The Wall Street Journal reports, “Since the program launched in January, users have created some 6,000 charity badges, raising some $740,000.” Even bloggers are doing their part. Through programs like DonorsChoose.org’s “Challenge,” bloggers compete to raise money among their readers.

In addition to those mentioned above, other web sites appealing to younger donors include Change.org, Firstgiving.com, GiveMeaning.com and Impact.MySpace.com, to name a few.

Would donors rather help 1 or 100? You might be surprised.

It's always great to see Wired Magazine contain some content that hits home for online fundraising. "Count on Geeks to Rescue the Earth" in the September 2007 issue looks at the psychology of numbers and how it affects our ability to make giving decisions.

The bottom line, our brains might just be wired to help an individual and not group. Research is showing that an individual is morel likely to be responsive and help that one child on tv walking barefoot through a shantytown and living in squalor than they are to helping a group of children living in the same conditions.

Apparently a brain can grasp how one child lives, but show a group of children and the  empathy drops off quickly.

The article is based on research done by Paul Slovic, a psychologist at Decision Research. The article mentions a recent experiment that showed a picture of one starving child in Mali and asking people if they'd be willing to help the child. A different group was shown a picture of two starving children. The group seeing 2 children would give 15% less than those shown just 1 starving child. Another experiment asked whether you would donate to help 1 dying child vs. a picture of 8 children dying from the same cause. The group shown the picture of 8 would give 50% less.

This is a great case for testing disaster relief appeals -- would pushing help for a single example of tragedy do better than asking for donations to support the masses? Or as Slovic uses in another presentation, there is this quote from Mother Teresa that says it all:

"If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at one, I will."

Where's Your Video?

A recent Pew Internet survey about online video reported that 57% of Internet users watch video online and 75% open a video link that a friend shares with them. it's all over the Internet, yet nonprofits are still scrambling to create YouTube channels and promote their videos. DoGooder.tv, Ourmedia, and oneworld.tv also help nonprofits post their video pieces. So, the question shouldn't be "Does your organization have an online video(s)?", it should be "When will your organization post an online video?"

There are a lot of great videos out there to inspire you. Check out Nonprofit Technology Conference's recent online video contest on DoGooder.tv. A colleague of mine loves the video on the Millennium Promise website. I recently asked one of my technology lists if they had any inspiring videos out there and the lists came flooding in (very YouTube heavy). And of course, check out our sister blog, media>, to watch a wide array of videos and podcasts aimed at nonprofits and philanthropy. Hopefully these will inspire you to take your organization to the next step.

What are those steps? If your group or organization already has in-house video, get it digitized and throw it up on your website. In fact, put it on your homepage. Then, open a YouTube account and post it online. Check out some of the above links to post your video. 

If you don't have a video, er... well, make one. yes, OK, maybe first consider hiring outside resources to help you film and edit your video. Perhaps you have enough existing footage (or b-roll) from events that you can hire an editor to splice it together with your logo and some music. But, when all else fails, do it yourself.  Film your own piece, write your own script, and pick up some editing software. Then, pick up Digital Video for Dummies and DV Filmmaking, two great starter books that will really expand your DV vocabulary. You and your cohorts will be hooked on video and your organization will have a nice marketing/fundraising piece that you can spread across the Web, show major donors, and stick on your homepage.

Funny News Rules

Clearly, online video is quickly becoming a commonplace way to communicate to a wired audience. Over half of internet users watch video online, one in five do it in a typical day. Three-quarters of the growing number of those that have high-speed online connections use it to access video.

Despite the stereotype of the wildly popular amateur video, Pew Internet & American Life Project’s recent online video report tells us viewers prefer professionally produced content over homemade videos by over 3 to 1. Not surprisingly, the two leading types of content viewed are news (37%) and comedy (31%). 

Perhaps this explains the popularity of watching professionally-produced clips of John Stewart’s comedy-news program, The Daily Show.

But amateurs should not fear. "Anyone with a digital camera and an internet connection can create and distribute video that has the potential to reach millions of viewers all over the world," said Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist at the Project and lead author of the report. "Online video tools are providing ordinary people with extraordinary ways to communicate with one another."

Just ask Nathan and Greg Hamel. Their 18-second video featuring “Billiam the Snowman” asking presidential candidates’ to explain their environmental policies found a major audience during the CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate. At last count, their video had been seen by over 130,000 viewers and the brothers are working on a line of "Billiam the Snowman" t-shirts.

This is the first major report about online video from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. You can view the full report at: http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/219/report_display.asp.