Charities Plug Into Internet for Donations

When Stacia Walsh was looking for a good cause to join, the 19-year-old college junior powered up her computer and got on the Internet. She soon ran across a Web site posted by AIDS Project Los Angeles.

A few months later, she was working as an intern in the group’s Buddy program, which provides one-on-one emotional support for people with AIDS.

“It was natural to use the Internet because it’s a great place to get resources,” said Walsh, an education major at Loyola Marymount University. “The Web site provided me with a lot of different perspectives that made me realize what I wanted to do in a way that I couldn’t have gotten just by calling around.”

This is the new world of e-philanthropy, where--just in time for the holidays and end-of-year charitable tax deductions--savvy cyberspace charities are trying to connect with an untapped source of potential volunteers and donors.

Charity Web sites are booming, and experts predict that the Internet will revolutionize how nonprofit organizations spread their messages and raise funds.

No one has begun to calculate online donations nationwide, but the potential is immense. Shoppers, for example, are expected to spend $4 billion online this holiday season. Internet analysts predict that online shopping could top $185 billion in five years, and charities hope to snag their share of riches.

In Southern California and around the nation, nonprofit groups are creating Web sites or redesigning ones that allow them to post reams of information about their causes virtually cost-free.

The Internet has not replaced conventional mass mailings and phone banks yet, but it has quickly emerged as a new frontier.

In a recent survey of 40,000 nonprofit subscribers to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, only a quarter boasted Internet addresses, but virtually all of the rest reported that Web pages were on the way.

“This is only going to grow as more people become comfortable doing business online,” said Chronicle editor Stacy Palmer. “And 1/8the nonprofits 3/8 tap into a whole new audience, younger people for the most part, who might not be reached through more traditional ways.”

Some experts are wary, however. A recent poll by the California Community Foundation found that many consumers are not using the Internet to give. A random survey of 501 Los Angeles County residents found that 49% were Internet users, but only 2% had made an online contribution in the preceding 12 months. Foundation spokesman Allan Parachini said his own group had been disappointed with the response to its online giving center, which has been operating for about six weeks.

In that time only two transactions were completed, each in the $25 to $50 range, said Parachini. He acknowledged that the Web site has been an “enormously valuable component in an overall development strategy that goes after wealthy contributors.”

Many charities have joined Internet charity malls--which allow consumers to direct small sums to favored organizations while shopping online. Others are making it easier for donors to make contributions directly with the click of a mouse.

Red Cross Sees Big Potential

The Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles has had such a system up for about 2 months. The Web site allows donors to select the type of payment, the amount and even the disaster to which they would like the funds applied. People can also volunteer online and will usually get a call back within 24 hours.

“This is something we see the industry gearing toward,” said local Red Cross spokeswoman Lourdes del Rio II.

The Los Angeles branch has received online donations of as little as $5 and as much as $1,000 so far, but it is too soon to get an accurate picture, said Del Rio. But the potential is evident in its parent organization: the American Red Cross estimates that it received $2.5 million in online donations from July 1998 through June 1999. In a comparable period the previous year, only $172,000 was collected online.

The national Red Cross Web site receives an average of nearly 500,000 hits--or visits--daily. But during Hurricane Floyd, 844,000 people came to the site in one day, said Robert Guldi, director of creative services. In recent days, the mudslides in Venezuela have attracted droves of browsers to the site.

“We’re finding that people can find ways to participate much more quickly and make an informed decision . . . they feel like this is something they can control,” said Guldi.

It is not just the behemoths of philanthropy that are making inroads. In fact, many of the smaller nonprofits are forging the greatest innovations.

Casa Latino, a small advocacy group that helps to organize day workers in the Seattle area, is joining with other local nonprofits to set up a shared e-mail system with links to a super Web site that everyone can visit for information about legislation, news articles and even sample letters to direct to lawmakers.

“We’ve gotten a great response, but one problem is finding time to devote to the Web site,” said executive director Hilary Stern. “We don’t even have a receptionist.”

Indeed, the one obstacle hindering some small nonprofits is finding technology-minded staff. The Los Angeles-based Shelter Partnership put up a Web site about a year ago and now wants to improve it to secure donations and goods, said director Ruth Schwartz.

“I think we can add features to make it more attractive, but we really haven’t had a lot of staff resources to put into it yet,” said Schwartz.

Frank Tamborello, of the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness, is helping to develop his group’s Web site and admitted to looking for eye-catching features.

“The trick is getting people to notice yours above somebody else’s and also getting the right name,” he said.

The Web site will update visitors on public policy issues and legislation affecting the homeless and will complement a social services user guide that the group posted on the Internet last year, said Tamborello.

At the Union Rescue Mission Web site, you can take a video tour of the facility. The mission also offered a live feed on its Web site of the traditional Thanksgiving Day feeding of the homeless in downtown Los Angeles. And the site recently began a series called the Twelve Days of Homelessness, featuring personal vignettes each day leading up to Christmas.

But, Union Rescue Mission marketing director Chris Bottoson said the shelter’s goal is not primarily to attract more donations.

“If people are getting on the Internet simply to make money, they should be doing something else; that’s not what this tool is about,” said Bottoson.

Many experts agree that the Internet will never fully supplant more traditional charitable methods, such as mass mailings, billboards and public service announcements. And issues of security and accountability will likely concern some potential donors.

The so-called charity malls have received some negative publicity for technical glitches, not spelling out payment policies, and delays in getting money to charities. But so far, there have been no major fraud scandals involving charity Web pages. Some say there is no reason to assume the Internet would foster any more corruption than phone solicitation, mailings or any other charitable tool.

Online Reassurance, Help for Consumers

Recent Internet advances may actually help Internet browsers. One new service called GuideStar now posts online tax forms and other information that nonprofit organizations must provide to the Internal Revenue Service. Online consumers can easily check to make sure a charity is legitimate.

“These Web sites have to be truthful and have to be accountable to the public,” said Dan Langan, a spokesman for the National Charities Information Bureau. The bureau recently worked with two charity mall sites to post a customer bill of rights, and was asked by the White House to host several panels on e-philanthropy.

“It may not wipe out direct mail solicitation, but the Internet is going to be a large part of charity giving in the future,” Langan said.

If some charitable groups are stepping cautiously into cyberspace, others are marching boldly into the new arena with few reservations.

The Langley, Wash.-based Giraffe Project, a group dedicated to publicizing heroic deeds and encouraging more people to stick their necks out for the common good, was practically a pioneer when it created its Web site back in 1995.

“We weren’t sure what was going to happen but knew it was going to be big and that we’d better get into it,” said the group’s founder, Ann Medlock. “It’s bigger than expected and we’ve attracted some amazing people to the site.”

Including someone who read one of the online profiles and volunteered as a Web master.

The group is now moving to shift virtually all of its services to its Web site. That includes sample lesson plans for classrooms, books written for teens, discussion groups, and a site just for kids.

“We’re able to greatly expand our services without expanding staff,” said Medlock. “If they are awake, nonprofits are being very much changed by all of this technology.”