Smart Giving: Technology Meets Philanthropy

Once upon a time computers were luxury items that only the wealthiest individuals could afford to use; now computers are a staple in practically every office, home, and school. In fact technology has become such an integral and ingrained part of Western societies that at any given moment you can find a student with a laptop in his backpack or an adult with a Blackberry or a similar device in her pocket. The boom in online users has not only restructured the planes of socialization, but it also has created a new demographic of easily reachable participants. Social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace, which boast upward of 175 million active users, allow members to connect to each other by uploading photos, joining groups, and creating shared online events. Technology has become the way of the future with its increasing ability to spur mass mobilization. Utilizing this knowledge, non-profit charities are sprouting all across cyberspace marking an age of "social giving." While technology was once an elite novelty granted to a stratified segment of the population, the burst of popularity of the internet has revolutionized fundraising and inspired individuals to donate money through social networking for thousands of different philanthropic causes.

Just last month Twitter, the social networking site, prepared for its first annual "Twestival", an occassion in which 200 cities around the world held events to promote networking and to raise money within local communities as well as raise funds for charity: water, a nonprofit that installs wells and rainwater harvesting systems in developing countries (see logo to the right). In one day over 10,000 attendees around the world had donated approximately a quarter of a million dollars to help improve the water quality in Africa and India. The overnight success of online giving sites like Twestival has superceded all of the conventional standards of fundraising. One change in convention is the time distribution for a charity campaign; typically charaties hold philanthropic galas that have a team working for an entire year planning and preparing for the event. However, Twestival, for example operates under extremely short time frames with no infrastructure or staff in order to quickly and effectively reach the online masses. Secondly, Twestival makes simple and direct requests for donations unlike other organizations that convolute their purpose amidst elaborate dinner parties other such round about efforts to get money for the cause. Therefore the changes in fundraising brought about by online social-giving reflect the current needs of the time by offering a more salient message to the donors. With the current economic crisis online fundraisers eliminate the excess red tape that surround charities and remove the additional time and overhead needed to prepare and promote events, resulting in low cost quick and easy money-making events.

Additionally online fundraising does more then just raise money, they foster a sense of community and connectedness among their users. Both Facebook and MySpace have incorporated a “Causes” application on the site that allow users to create causes, take donations, and recruit members (example screen shot pictured left). This application is one of the most popular on the site with over 12 million users supporting more than 80,000 nonprofit causes worldwide. The application generated about $2.5 million dollars of donations the year of its launch and has an array of different organizations ranging from political, religious, and social cause charities. Facebook has approximately 60,000 daily users of the application and MySpace reports about 25,000 users per day which reinforces how influential of a resource social networks have been for attracting users to online fundraising. The application incorporates some psychological principles of reinforcement and incentive to motivate members to join as well as encourage their friends to join a particular cause. The system works as follows: first an individual chooses any charitable cause that he or she is interested in, then the information of the individual’s selection is posted in his or her news feed for others to see, if the individual recruits a friend to the same cause the total amount of “money raised” increases. Therefore people who are passionate about a cause will attempt to recruit other peers to join a particular cause and continue to engage in ongoing participation on the site.

Following the success of the previously mentioned models of online fundraising, there are currently many new cyber charities blossoming to cater to the needs of today’s social citizens. Two of the most prominent sites include Kiva.org, which permits users to donate directly to those in need, and Change.org another successful social action network. These sites have remained popular due to the interactive nature of the content such as incorporating blogging and video posting. Another promising site is SocialActions.com where regular challenges are posted to encourage participant’s to come up with “innovations for distributing opportunities to make a difference across the Internet and mobile devices.” Finally, the most recent online fundraising installment is ActiveCause.com a site in which donors can not only interact with one another, they can also track the giving patterns of major corporations. While philanthropy has typically operated by attracting individuals to a cause, these new forms of online fundraising are a more aggressive modes of delivering the cause to the masses. Nonprofits in many ways must operate like a business; to survive they must understand their audience, market to their constiuents, employ the most effect and current tools. For now the fusion of the technology and philanthropy have had prolific results and its lasting success will be determined by users maintaining ongoing interest and participation as well as web developers consistenly specializing philanthropic sites to the specific needs of the time.