"Outlook for Online Donations Is Cloudy, Experts Say." This was a headline in a Google Alert in my inbox today. Of course, my first reaction was something like charities must be worried that overall giving will be down in 2010 following such a massive response to the Haiti earthquake. But as I clicked through to the article, I was surprised to find that it was dated March 21, 2002 and was discussing what would happen to online giving after the tremendous response following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
For a moment, I was taken back to 2001 when I was working at the AOL Time Warner Foundation on Helping.org, the precursor to Network for Good. In the months before 9-11, Helping.org enabled individuals to donate to any 501(c)3 charity in the US. The idea of donating online was new to the Internet and was launched just as a majority of online users were beginning to get comfortable buying Omaha steaks using their computers and venturing into online banking. Online giving, at that time, was possible, but the nonprofit community had only just begun to consider how to integrate a Donate Now button on their website or strategically use email to cultivate constituents. And the general public had yet to be asked to make a gift online in any significant way. A Chronicle of Philanthropy report dated June 15, 2000 found that 252 large nonprofits in 1999 had raised just under $7 million in total online. Clearly, there was room to grow.
And then, September 11, 2001. Online giving literally grew up overnight. At Helping.org, I watched reports of dollars donated jump from a few thousand dollars to more than a million dollars per day. In that same cloudy outlook article was this quote from my management at the time:
"The biggest question, said David Eisner, senior vice president of the AOL Time Warner Foundation, is how the nonprofit world can move online giving from crisis giving to more normal day-to-day giving."
As we approach the 1-month mark following the Haiti earthquake and I look back on disaster giving in the nine years since 2001, I'm confident that the nonprofit world has answered whether they can integrate online giving into a normal, every day experience. Network for Good has raised over $300 million for charities since its launch, online giving continues to grow year over year, and the response to disasters has been greater and greater each time:
- September 11th: $215 million donated online of the $2 billion collected in total
- Indonesia tsunami: $311.4 million donated online of the $1.27 billion collected in total
- Hurricane Katrina: $500 million donated online of the $3.27 billion collected in total
And now, as social media and mobile giving are poised to take their place in the day-to-day normal giving operations of the nonprofit world, I am hopeful and encouraged by what the next nine years will bring.
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