Internet Fundraising: Online Auctions Now for AIDS Project Los Angeles, San Francisco AIDS Foundation; Online Donation Av
Online fundraising is here and will become increasingly important for charitable organizations. Two current examples:
From November 4 through December 2, "the general public can bid on original artwork created by celebrities for AIDS Project Los Angeles' 1999 Holiday Card campaign on Yahoo(R) Auctions (http://auctions.yahoo.com). Fifteen celebrities from the world of film, television and fashion created highly unique designs for the campaign which will help fund direct services that APLA provides to more than 8,000 men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS." Designers include Tom Hanks, Bronson Pinchot, Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Bacon, Christine Baranski, Carrie Fisher, and Jasmine Guy.
From November 15 through November 22, Yahoo Auctions is also hosting a benefit for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (also at http://auctions.yahoo.com). Among the items being auctioned are "first class tickets on American Airlines, autographed CDs, deluxe hotel packages, works of art and much more."
Long-Term Importance
Online auctions are new but already huge, with thousands of people making their living by selling items through them. Yahoo! Auctions has over a million items for sale at any one time, in more than 3,000 categories. eBay, the oldest and largest online auction, has over 2.5 million items for sale. Both do charity auctions. There is no cost to participate in these auctions unless an item is sold, in which case the seller pays a fee to the service (which may be waived for charity benefits). The online auction companies are urgently seeking to build market share, so they are motivated to work with charities, who can get new people involved in the process. Clearly this is a time for nonprofit organizations to investigate this new source of potential funds.
Online Donations
A different fundraising approach is online donations. Currently an organization with a Web site and a merchant account (able to accept credit cards) can put an icon on their Web site that users can click to reach a page where they donate by credit card, with funds immediately transferred to the recipient. One company providing this service is Entango (http://www.entango.com), which charges no setup fee, and 5% of the donations.
A disadvantage of online donation today is the cost; 5%, for example, sounds low compared to other fundraising methods, but that is only for the transfer of the money. If the donor sent a check, the cost would probably be less. But the donor may want the convenience--and may never get around to writing the check later, but can donate online without leaving their current activity, if they are inclined to do so while visiting the Web site.
The real potential for online donation will not be for replacing checks, but for making new kinds of philanthropic marketing possible (especially as various forms of online cash and credit become more available, so that donors do not need to keep re-entering their credit-card information). Examples include smaller donations, one-click donations, various sharing and co-fundraising arrangements, and donation-plus-purchase offers which include automatic tax accounting so that donors get an itemized total of their tax-deductible amounts for the year.
We expect an online rush in the charity world (as in the business world) as the advantages become more apparent. There is still time to beat the rush.
