Is My Money Making a Difference?

One of the biggest advantages of shopping online is instant access to information needed for an informed purchase. Price comparisons and user reviews give online shoppers added confidence that they are getting the best product at the lowest price.

Increasingly, donors desire access to information that allows them to give confidently. About 58% of high-net-worth households said they would make bigger donations to charity if they were able to determine the impact of their gifts, according to research conducted last year by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

In Mary Ellen Podmolik's recent Chicago Tribune article, "Online guide to giving well,” she introduces a new web site that is attempting to make it easier for donors to know if their money is making a difference. Three years ago while looking for a good charity to make a donation to by year's end, Holden Karnofsky wanted to write a check to someone for $5,000, but he didn't know to whom. "The first time I did it, I had no idea where to start," he said. "I went to Google and typed in 'charity.'" Karnofsky thought choosing the best charity should be like selecting any consumer product, using the Internet to comparison shop and find the best use of his $5,000. However, he frequently found himself stonewalled in trying to extract more information from charities.

As a result, Karnofsky and two former colleagues formed GiveWell, a non-profit group that hopes to make the inner workings of charities public by offering them grants and then putting an abundance of information about the charities online. Karnosfky's idea has charities apply for GiveWell's grants, examine the impact of the various groups and then put all that information, along with GiveWell's yeas or nays, online. For its first round of grant-making, 150 charities submitted applications.

Give without Spending a Dime

Okay, let’s be honest. It’s the Friday before Christmas and who really still wants to be at the office. If you aren’t already “out-the-door,” you’re probably at your desk making last minute holiday shopping lists (and checking them twice).

I’ve got something you can do with your time (your lunch time, of course): Give without spending a dime via a host of fun and easy Web sites.

FreeRice.com lets visitors play word games and at the same time donate food to the hungry. A word pops up on the home page of the site, with four short definitions listed below. When you click on the right answer, 20 grains of rice are donated to the United Nation’s World Food Program by the site's advertisers. So far, more than 10 billion grains have been donated.

Those who want to skip the word games have plenty of other click-to-give charities to choose from, including The Animal Rescue Site. Each time a visitor clicks on a large purple rectangle on the right-hand side of the Web site, a donation is made to provide food and shelter for unwanted animals. It also tells you how much was donated with your click—and the entire operation is sponsor-funded.

For more clicking-to-give ideas, check out Paul Thomasch’s recent article, “Click-to-give holiday gift of charity.” So what are you waiting for…let’s get clicking.

"Zagat-like" Web site for Non-profits

"When's the last time you bought a book from Amazon and didn't read the customer reviews?" Perla Ni, founder and chief executive of Great Nonprofits asks, in a recent Chronicle of Philanthropy article (subscription required).

Likened to a Zagat restaurant guide, Ms. Ni and her team's new web site, Great Nonprofits, allows people who receive help from a charity or who volunteer for one to log on and rate their experience on a scale of one to five stars. In addition, people can add comments of praise, suggestions, or criticism about what the charity does well or needs to improve. Just as Zagat's helps you determine the best restaurant to go to in town, Great Nonprofits helps you decide which charities are worth supporting.

The idea for Great Nonprofits sprang after Hurricane Katrina when Ms. Ni, then publisher of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, wanted to know which local charities were doing a good job. They had a difficult time figuring that out, however, despite being insiders in the nonprofit world. Ms. Ni knew there was a market for such information because at the Review she had seen countless efforts to effectively evaluate charities. "That's a question at the heart of every donor," she says, "How can I trust you with my money and my time?"

Great Nonprofit sites for Pittsburgh and San Francisco have recently launched, with plans for more city sites in the near future. 

New Pew Internet Study: Digital Footprints

If you have ever wondered what your online constituents think about providing information to your organization, then take a look at the new Pew Internet and American Life study: Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency. It seems few folks monitor their online information, most people don't mind what information they find about themselves online, and people use search to find others. More importantly, as constituents post their information on social networking sites, they  become "not only findable, but knowable." If your organization has ever worried about the types of information it gathers from constituents and the security of that information, it might be time to re-think your constituent management strategy.

Waiting is the Hardest Part

It's the holiday giving season, undeniably the busiest time of year for online fundraisers. You know how it is, by now you’ve launched your holiday AdWords campaigns, sent out your holiday email appeals, purchased your web banners, perfected your viral videos, and asked your staff to tell family and friends… Now you wait patiently by your reporting systems hoping to see the funds piling in your bank accounts.

The onLine contributors are feeling as hopeful for good returns as you are, but we thought it couldn’t hurt to do a shameless plug for our clients and promote their holiday online giving opportunities. Perhaps you’ll find a great holiday gift idea or be inspired to support a new organization this holiday season.

• Case Foundation Giving Guide
• CBM-US (Christian Blind Mission): Holiday Giving Catalog
• Larry King Cardiac Foundation: Save a Heart a Day
• North Shore-LIJ Health System: Give the Gift of Health
• North Shore-LIJ Health System: Shop for gifts and support the health system at www.igive.com and www.giftback.com
• PlayPumps International: Holiday Giving Guide
• Save Ellis Island: Donate $100 and receive a copy of Forgotten Ellis Island: The Extraordinary Story of America’s Immigrant Hospital
• UN World Food Programme: Help Give the Gift of Hope

Happy Holidays from onLine!

Looking for Stocking Stuffers? Give Charity Gift Cards

Retailers aren’t the only ones selling gift cards this holiday season. With more than half of all consumers saying they plan to buy gift cards this year, charities have joined the $26.3 billion dollar game, reported The New York Times.

“This is a movement that has exploded in the last year,” said Trent Stamp, president of Charity Navigator. “It seems to be something that has caught on nationally,” he added. “People are realizing that giving somebody another sweater is not as good as giving them the opportunity to give to a charity they support.”

Most gift cards sold by retailers are used to buy clothing, toys, electronic devices and the like. But groups offering charity gift cards say their offerings are not that different. “Philanthropy and commercial products are converging with each other,” said Daniel B. Goodman, president of Charitygiftcertificates.org. “We’re offering a charity gift card as basically a commercial product.”

Two new gift cards that allow gift recipients to choose where the money will go arrived on the market in November. Network for Good introduced the Good Card and TisBest Philanthropy began selling its TisBest Charity Gift Card.