Google Offers Google Checkout for Nonprofits

Just announced today, Google is offering Google Checkout to nonprofit organizations. Through the end of 2008, nonprofits can process online donations at the fine rate of $0.00 per transaction and 0.00% fees -- can you believe it, a true 100% of the donation goes to the organization?!

Here are a few words posted on the Google Checkout Blog about it this morning:

"Besides being free, Checkout for Non-Profits is designed to make the entire donation and collection process more efficient. For donors, it enables you to complete a donation with just your Google login, and it helps you track your giving in a convenient and central place (a feature that should be particularly useful for those of us who tend to start our tax returns on April 14). "

Just earlier this week I had used Google Checkout to make a donation to an organization and was wishing that:

1. I didn't have to register with Google to complete my transaction. I see this as a possible roadblock to completing a transaction, but maybe everyday online donors are more accepting of the need to register for things these days... maybe...
2. The receipts looked more like a donation thank you and less like a shopping receipt.

Perhaps wish #2 is addressed with the new Google Checkout for Nonprofits and I look forward to taking the system for a test drive.

Have you already used Google Checkout for your online giving system? If so, we want to hear what you think! Use the comments to give us your thoughts.

New site announced at Clinton Global Initiative -- www.mycommitment.org

The Clinton Foundation launched www.mycommitment.org today at the Clinton Global Initiative. The site encourages individuals to make a commitment to make a difference in the world. Keeping with Clinton's push to hold philanthropists accountable for their commitments, the site asks you to:

1. Select the area of need (education, energy/climate change, alleviating poverty, and others)
2. List the action you'll take (give time, money, things, skills, etc...)
3. Set a date when you'll complete your commitment
4. Describe your overall commitment motivation and activities

Visitors can search the commitments made by others and get a few recommendations on how to make a commitment, including 50 Ways to Change the World.

Overall, it's a nice model for organizations to use who are interested in cultivating their constituents and encouraging them to make a commitment and follow through, whether it be for donating, volunteering, advocacy, or other support methods.

Reminder: onPhilanthropy Publisher Tom Watson and Editor Susan Dempsey are blogging live this week from the Clinton Global Initiative. Keep up-to-date with the latest news from the conference here.

Online Gifts in 2006 top $1.2 Billion

According to a recent survey conducted by The Chronicle of Philanthropy (subscription required), "Electronic gifts to the 187 organizations that provided figures for 2005 and 2006 grew by 37%, from $880.7 million to $1.2 billion. Online gifts grew by more than 50% at 85 organizations. Of those, 34 saw Internet gifts more than double." The American Red Cross and the United Way of America raised online $496.2 and $240 million, respectively.

Significant gains aside, online donations still account for a very small percentage of overall giving. "Online giving represented less than 1% of total contributions for 103 of the 147 organizations that reported both the amount of money they raised online and their total contributions in 2006."

While nonprofits are still feeling their way online, a greater emphasis should be placed on incorporating the Internet into traditional fundraising vehicles. As Mark Graham, director of electronic media at the American Friends Service Committee reminds us—"all of your postal appeals, email newsletters, online solicitations and publications need to tell the same story." And today's tools make it easier to do just that with targeted email campaigns and customized content that reflects donor's interests.

Tom Emmons, Compassion International's Internet marketing programs manager, puts it best "online fundraising is most effective when it's reinforced by another medium."

Web Trends You Might Want to Ignore

From the crystal ball at Advertising Age, a look at "The 10 Most Asinine Trends Online and Why You Should Ignore Them" -- everything from Second Life to mobile and video advertising to Google's foray into print and radio ads. If you're not sure about where to put your online advertising dollars, this quick read may be the gut check you need.

Donors Know Best

If your nonprofit is considering a web site redesign, it might not be a bad idea to take a little guidance from the American Heart Association. The Chronicle of Philanthropy (requires subscription) recently reported that the Dallas charity’s redesign of their web site’s donation section has yielded some considerable results. “Nearly 70% of the people who start to make a gift online end up following the process through to completion, compared with only 12% before the changes,” says the charity.

When it came time to redesign the web site’s donation section, the American Heart Association turned to their donors for help. “Everybody came with their own ideas about why donors were going away,” says Mr. Christian A. Cadwell, who oversaw the redesign project, “Instead of getting into the argument about what the donors’ intentions were, I said,” Let’s just take it right to the donors, and try to get them to tell us.”

And so they did. In addition to analyzing how donors used the web site, the charity asked donors who interacted with the donation section of the web site to answer questions about their experience. Charity officials discovered that some of their own internal terminology for gifts was confusing donors (like understanding the difference between a memorial or tribute gift). With this and other keys findings, the charity created a more user-friendly donation section (with better defined gift terminology) and then thoroughly tested these changes with users. Both the average donation size and the total online donations for 2006 (up 22%) saw an increase as a result.