Nonprofit Adoption of Online Media for Fundraising

Philanthropic contests and online media have become a source of fundraising for many small nonprofits. Our analysis revealed that 40 percent of the cause champions were staff people and only a quarter identified as volunteers. This is a shift from the first Challenge where two-thirds of the champions were volunteers. In addition,almost 80 percent of participants had a donation button on their website, and nearly half raised money through Network for Good. Eighty percent were already using Causes on Facebook to raise money prior to the second America’s Giving Challenge. This is evidence of a shift by nonprofit organizations that now see fundraising through their websites or using Facebook and other online channels as a viable and necessary part of their efforts.

Further, nearly 40 percent of the beneficiary organizations were over 10 years old, again a reflection of the increased comfort level that all nonprofit organizations, even those born before the digital revolution, now have with social media. Social media-specific fundraising, while in its infancy, has become a real part of day-to-day nonprofit online fundraising.