Fundraising Online for Non-Profits

There was a time when non-profit fundraising efforts were limited to a choice between a bake sale and a car wash.  The options that exist today thanks to the Internet give non-profit organizations ways to reach far beyond their geographic and organizational limitations to reach donors around the world.  Non-profit fundraising isn’t as simple as just adding a “donate now” button to your website and hoping that willing donors will find you. 

However, there are websites that specialize in helping non-profit organizations of every type bring in the online donations they need to continue their work by taking advantage of the strengths of the Internet.  The best sites include Piryx, which uses a winning combination of traditional Internet marketing strategies and social media marketing to raise money online for you while handling the details so you can continue the real work of running a non-profit organization.  If you are ready to begin online fundraising efforts, here are a few more things you should know.

There is no doubt that social media is the most significant change to our online habits since the unveiling of email.  An ever increasing number of adults report that they not only have a social media presence, such as a Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace page, but that they check it several times a day.  For your non-profit fundraising effort to be successful, you must have a presence on major social media outlets.  Again, this isn’t as simple as just creating a page for your organization- today’s wired users expect donating to be easy, and won’t spend hours – or even minutes – trying to locate your site so that they can give money.  The most successful fundraising sites are those that have already developed so-called widgets that can easily be added to existing pages and shared among users to make it fast and easy for interested altruists to donate to your cause. 

As with any other Internet enterprise, it is very important to choose the right online non-profit fundraising site.  There are a number of start-up companies that do not have the experience to handle significant levels of donating, and who don’t have the relationships with online resources that are necessary to make your fundraising campaign all that it should be.  There are also a few companies that charge large fees, drastically reducing the amount of money that your organization benefits from.  Finally, there are some sites that are designed to steal your personal or organizational information. 

When you do choose an online non-profit fundraising platform, your organization will quickly reap the benefits of having a professional fundraising site’s support.  You can raise money through traditional email campaigns, Facebook and Twitter, and directly from your website without the hassle of trying to manage these tools yourself.  Sites like piryx.com work for only a small transaction fee, far less than the cost of hiring someone to run an online fundraising campaign.  In much the same way that ecommerce has cornered a large portion of the retail world, online fundraising is the future for non-profit fundraising for any and all non-profit organizations in the United States and worldwide. 

The Importance of Event Fundraising Online

Unfortunate events occur each day like disaster, tragedies, death or even unexpected sickness. On these times many people need our help most specially the poor. Wealthy or not most of time, kind hearted people donate a portion of their saving to charities in hopes of helping those who are in need.

Charitable organizations always play a very important role in helping the less fortunate section of our society by organizing traditional event fundraising programs. However, with our technology nowadays and with the boom of the internet, event fundraising online grew and now has become a more popular way of raising good money to support its cause.

Since the purpose of an event fundraiser is to accumulate as much funds as they can to support its cause. Online fundraising has been proven to be more productive and cost efficient.  In a short amount of time especially on emergencies doing it online would allow you to generate significant revenue and therefore as a result you would be able to help the needy much more quickly. It allows organizations to reach out to donors that they would not be able to normally reach using traditional fundraising. With the use of the internet not only did it make it easier for organizations to reach out other people but it also made it easier for those who would want to contribute.

Here are more advantages of creating an online event fundraisers as oppose to doing it the conventional way. With the use of the internet you would be able to extend the range of reaching out to potential donors even without someone personally soliciting for help. Going online also has an advantage in cost-effective collection. Since you have a wider range of possible donors, contributions even in small amounts when accumulated would come up to a substantial amount. You also get to have faster access to the funds that have been donated and will make reporting to your peers more flexible and instantaneously.

As for the donors, event fundraising online also made it easier for them to contribute to its purpose. It has given them the convenience since they no longer have to go out or dress up to attend a traditional event fundraiser, but with just the tip of the fingers they would be able to help out. It gave donors peace of mind since they get an acknowledgement and will receive a receipt as a proof of their transaction. Such small details make each donor confident that their donations would reach those in need.

As for the conventional fundraising, they have the same cause but many disadvantages could be sighted like the hassle of setting up for the event, asking your peers to go door to door or even bothering your family, friends or neighbours or having problems with time, direct sales, inventory, keeping track of sales and handling the money which is a nightmare, limited sales opportunities, or customers ending up buying things that they really do not need are some of the facts that made traditional fundraisers decrease their amount of giving and made online event fundraising such a success.

College Fundraising Online: An Easier Way to Fundraise

We all know that all schools, like universities and colleges always try to find more ways on how to have additional funds for their schools and the different departments that they support. Contributions from their own graduates or alumni truly provides help and assistance when it comes to financial funds for the colleges or the universities, but even the highest contribution is not enough for the daily expenses that a college or a university needs for their budget. So when they experience such lack of funds even with all the contributions given to them, they turn to college fundraising for help.

Even with the assurance that contributions and budget brings to department heads, these additional finances still do not insure the functionality of programs that department heads need for their different departments, and thus a college fundraiser goes a long way to provide the additional assistance that these colleges or universities always need.

College fundraising has been around for so many years now, and has been part of the customs and traditions of every university and college. The traditional way of holding a college fundraiser is surely a big help to colleges, but there is actually a better and much easier way to hold these fundraising events. With the traditional way, manual work as well as physical and labor capabilities are a must to be able to hold a successful fundraising event. But look all around you. With the advancement of technology, holding an event online is much easier rather than doing it the traditional way.

The effectiveness of college fundraising online events truly rivals the results and the effectiveness of the traditional fundraiser process. If you will ask the department heads of the colleges or the universities who are known to have success during these events, they will always inform you that a successful fundraising event should be able to address issues regarding the college or the university alumni and of course, most importantly, the students’ issues. One of the most popular causes that college fundraisers hold for an event that truly catches the attention of other colleges across the country is the Remote Computer Repair Fundraising Package.

With the name itself of the event, we all know that most people tend to their businesses online, and thus, online college fundraisers should be a way to reach more potential supporters of the cause and finance donors. With the help of the web, an event can easily be held online, with the assistance of very good advertisements. Think about how the traditional way of holding a college fundraising event needs a lot of people to do the manual labor such as preparing flyers, making pamphlets, and of course giving these around to people who pass by.

Now, if we look closer at how online college fundraisers work, and how other online businesses work, we will know how much more easier it is since it takes less time, less manual and physical labor, and with the number of people who uses the World Wide Web for their own businesses and jobs, college fundraising online programs are one of the best ways to garner more donors the easier way.

Charity fundraising online evolves for charity fundraisers

Charity fundraising online is the new evolution for charity fundraisers. You can use the Internet to increase the exposure for your cause’s noble endeavors to make your world a better place. And while these are noble endeavors intended to make your life better and to put a smile on your own as well as other’s faces, there is a lot of work involved. A charity fundraising endeavor is no easy task, there is planning and execution involved. The Internet can now make the execution part a little easier.

With the decreased importance of cash on hand for the average American, traditional charity fundraisers such as bake sales, candy sales, raffle tickets and car washes are being slowly rendered insufficient means to raise a significant amount of money. Car washes might be an exception if you target male donators and you have a number of attractive female car washers, but that will likely be the only exception. In person physical means of raising money are not so much practical as they are becoming vestigial.

With the human evolution of money heading to electronic and cashless means, charity fundraising has to evolve as well. Charity fundraisers are much more effective online when all you need is a bank account and a quality online fundraising platform, such as using Piryx. “Cause” Walks began using the Internet for their charity fundraising tool over the past five years and they are raising much more money than they did when they had to rely solely on cash or check donations. While many walks still take cash and check donations, the Internet charity fundraising is quickly surpassing the other forms of physical money.

When you find a charity fundraising website you like, you should really take advantage of the opportunity to raise funds for your causes. You can raise funds for multiple charity fundraisers at the same time using the Internet. This can add alacrity to projects and charities you are trying to accumulate money for.

You can use Internet charity fundraising websites and promote your charity over the web using social marketing sites like Facebook, Twitter and Myspace. These sites are largely popular and most web users have accounts on at least one of these sites. Your friends are the people most likely to donate to your charity fundraising venture, therefore using one of these social networking sites is the best idea. It is easy and fast to do, all it requires is linking your profile to the charity in question and you just need to promote it.

Piryx Provides Free Fundraising Tools and Support for Causes

Piryx is an online fundraising platform that helps causes raise money online and connect people with charitable organisations whom they wish to donate money to.

We all know that every year there are literally billions of dollars raised for many different causes both across the country and around the world. Piryx provides a whole range of highly valuable, yet free fundraising tools to assist both sides of this fundraising equation.

For those that wish to actually donate to causes, they can do this via the Piryx social giving platform that has a registry of featured causes and charities.


For those that wish to raise money online for charity, there are numerous tools that can be used to assist. Whether these fundraisers are for and with schools, with sports clubs or other popular collectives, there are separate, very useful areas of Piryx that can be used for free by these groups.

In fact, the site is so versatile there are areas for people that wish to raise money online and would like to get some great online fundraising ideas. There are numerous dedicated pages for assisting you with the ideas you might need to better raise money for your cause. In this case you can even get ideas for fundraising for political campaigns, non-profits, and a whole lot more.

The best part is that they provide free fundraising tools for all causes. Piryx only charges a small fee to cover credit card donation processing and their operating costs, there are no fees of any other kind.

Check out their free fundraising tools today.

Why You Should Get Into Online Fundraising Now

Fundraising is the process by which an individual or a group makes the effort of collecting contributions to a specific cause.  Back in the day, fundraising was done through events, direct mailing and face-to-face solicitations.  However, with the advent of technology, the Internet and the many tools that we have today, fundraising was elevated to online fundraising.

Online fundraising is rapidly becoming popular these days because almost everyone around the world is hooked up to the Internet.  You can easily set up a website, post a status on a social networking site, upload photos or other graphics, and many more ways to show that you have an announcement that you need to raise money for a certain cause, and watch the donations pour in through your friends, colleagues, family and other people that you may not know from other places around the world who may support your endeavors.

Fundraising online is something that has taken the world by storm.  Charity events and non-profit organizations have taken this route to be able to connect to their patrons and other more people who are aware of their causes to make a contribution.  We have seen many tragedies in various parts of the world and we have all seen various calls to raise money online for them.

There are a few good things about fundraising with the use of the Internet.

Your supporters, donors and patrons can easily become aware of your cause.  They can donate immediately through their online bank accounts or other secure means of transferring money while the information about the cause is still lingering in their minds.

In the same way, the organization who has organized the fundraising effort will almost immediately receive the funds and will also be able to establish immediate communication with the donors to thank them for their efforts.  With this, the funds can also be immediately used for emergency situations, when necessary.

Being able to do online fundraising will also help you to instantly have analysis on the fundraising behavior of your donors and patrons.  You can extract information such as effective marketing strategies, optimal website navigation design to facilitate quick donations, and the best call to action method that will help keep the issue lingering in their awareness.  Having a website to be able to receive your donations and make an announcement will also enable you to centralize all information and data gathering efforts such as names and contact details of the people who have contributed to your cause.  You will need this to be able to show them gratitude for their contributions.

It is highly important that your cause is always genuine and all the funds will go to where you intend them to be.  Be transparent with your actions as an organization or individual who solicits funds from others because this is a good cause for the society and it should never be tainted with any harmful motive.  There are various free online fundraising tools provided by a company, such as Piryx, who can help you with how to raise money online for your heartfelt cause.

Fundraising Online Grows Fast in 2010

Online fundraising is the fastest-growing fundraising channel for nonprofits, a new study says.

In 2010, clients of Convio raised over $1.3 billion online, up 40 percent from 2009, says the annual Convio Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study.

Based on an analysis of data from nearly 600 nonprofits with at least 24 months of data and that raised a total of over $1.15 billion in 2010, the study says 79 percent of those organizations raised more online in 2010 than in 2009, while 21 percent saw their online giving decline.

The median growth rate in online giving totaled 20 percent, up from 14 percent in 2009, with online giving growing fastest for small organizations.

Groups with fewer than 10,000 email addresses saw a 26 percent increase in online giving.

Among organizations that grew fundraising in 2010, 88 percent saw an increase in the number of gifts.

Among 430 organizations that were fundraising continuously in 2009 and 2010, the median donation size grew to $91.94 in 2010 from $83.44 in 2009.

Among organizations that saw online fundraising grow, 88 percent saw the number of gifts grow, with the size of the average gift growing more than $8 in 2010.

The increase in the number of gifts and average gift size indicates “more people are moving online to give even if inspired through other channels,” Convio says.

Constituent engagement “is profoundly multichannel,” Gene Austijn, CEO and president of Convio, says in a statement. “Leveraging only traditional channels or only online channels results in partial engagement. The modern nonprofit and the modern constituent realize the value of fully engaging through multiple channels – traditional and online – to get the most out of each relationship.”

The total number of advocates on file grew 20 percent, with 6.4 percent of advocates on file also making donations, up from 5.9 percent in 2009, the study says.

The median total email file grew 22 percent to 48,700 constituents, it says, indicating that if nonprofits want to maximize the value of each relationship, they should ensure their communications and their non-profit fundraising requests match their constituents’ channel preference.

While giving to relief efforts related to the Haiti earthquake accounted for roughly $250 million, or about 20 percent of the total raised online by Convio clients, the “efficiency and timeliness of online and other digital forms of engagement is creating more opportunity for other organizations to reach people and engage them in a deeper relationship,” Convio says.

Fundraising Shows a Little Growth in 2010

A bigger share of charities raised more money or the same amount in 2010 than in 2009, while a smaller share raised less, signaling a slow uptick in fundraising that still lags far behind pre-recession levels, a new survey says.

It also says strong fundraising results were more likely for charities that invested resources for fundraising staff and infrastructure, including volunteer management.

And it says charities expect giving in 2011 to grow and are likely to keep staffing and spending for fundraising at 2010 levels.

Forty-three percent of 1,845 charities surveyed in February by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative for the 2010 Nonprofit Fundraising Survey saw year-to-year growth, 24 percent raised the same amount, and 33 percent raised less.

A year ago, the Association of Fundraising Executives, or AFP, found 43 percent of charities responding to its survey saw an increase in fundraising in 2009 compared to 2008, while 11 percent said fundraising remained the same, and 46 percent saw an increase.

And in the inaugural survey in November by the collaborative, a group of six organizations serving the nonprofit sector, 36 percent of charities reported an increase in the first nine months of 2010, 26 percent reporting raising the same amount, and 37 percent reported raising less.

With the share of charities that reported raising the same amount more than doubling to 24 percent in the new survey by the collaborative from 11 percent in the AFP survey a year ago, the big shift overall represents more charities now reporting flat fundraising and fewer reported fundraising declines, the new survey says.

It also suggests the increase in fundraising that the November survey found charities were anticipating in the final weeks of 2010 might have occurred but that the growth in contributions still did not match expectations for the year.

“While many organizations stopped the bleeding, giving simply didn’t rebound like we thought it might, especially given the economic growth we saw in the last quarter of the year,” Paulette V. Maehara, president and CEO of AFP, a member of the collaborative, says in a statement.

Based on analysis of results from 1,616 participants whose organizations did not represent a random sample and were overwhelmingly from charities with annual budgets under $1 million, the survey says 48 percent of charities that increased financial support for fundraising by 15 percent of more saw contributions grow by 15 percent of more.

Another 27 percent saw giving grow but by less than 15 percent, while 24 percent saw giving remain flat or fall.

Fifty-six percent of charities that maintained flat financial investment in fundraising saw contributions decline or stay the same, while 24 percent saw giving rise.

And 43 percent of charities that let fundraising spending decline by 15 percent or more saw giving fall 15 percent or more, while 36 percent saw giving stay the same or grow.

For organizations of all sizes, declines of any amount in financial investment and declines in staffing both were associated with a lower probability of meeting fundraising goals, while a reduction in volunteer engagement in fundraising at organizations with expenditures of less $1 million also was associated with a lower probability of meeting fundraising goals.

“Despite the unexpectedly flat fundraising results that charities reported, the survey showed that success was more likely when organizations invested resources in fundraising staff and infrastructure, including volunteer management,” Maehara says.

Among all charities surveyed, only 45 percent received more than half their contributions from individual donors, the survey says.

And Internet and online giving grew at 58 percent of charities that reported using it, with more than 75 percent of all charities surveyed reporting using online fundraising.

And 51 percent of charities reported that 75 percent of more of the funds they raised in 2010 supported operations, rather than capital, investment or endowment.

Sixty-three percent of charities expect contributions will grow in 2011.

Thirty-nine percent expect to spend more for fundraising in 2011, while 49 percent say spending will remain the same, and 65 percent say development and fundraising staff levels will remain the same.

In addition to AFP, members of the collaborative include Blackbaud, Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, Foundation Center, GuideStar USA, and National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute.

Fundraising for the Invisible Children cause

In hopes of raising awareness for child soldiers in Africa, Invisible Children will be hosting a screening of the documentary film “Tony” in Kane 120 at 7 p.m. on March 28.

The chapter is taking a new approach this year by partnering with the Greek system.

Freshman Damon Yeuter, a Theta Xi fraternity member, said Theta Xi needed to choose a philanthropy event, so he suggested Invisible Children after being involved in the organization during high school.

This is the first year Invisible Children has partnered with a fraternity to help run a fundraiser. Last year, Invisible Children held a screening about a child soldier named Jacob, who was able to attend the event, which attracted 250 students and raised $1,000 for students abroad in Uganda to rebuild schools and help fund redevelopment programs, and Devin Erickson, president of the UW chapter of Invisible Children, said the new partnership with the Greek system will help promote the event even more for this year.

“We’re really lucky to have them because [the Greek system] is a big portion of campus,” Erickson said. “And they offered to house the PNW team.”

The film featured at the screening documents the friendship that developed between Bazilo and Nate Henn, a volunteer for Invisible Children who died during an attack in Uganda.

“The movie will touch base on what Invisible Children has done for him and capture his relationship with one of the roadies from Invisible Children,” Erickson said. “Nate died while he was in Africa visiting Tony. There was a terrorist bomb attack, and he was unfortunately a victim.”

Though the UW chapter was unable to have Tony himself appear tonight, Acan Brenda, a student from Uganda in Invisible Children’s Legacy Scholarship Program, will speak instead.

Erickson said a main goal of the UW chapter is to close the gap between awareness and action on the issue of child soldiers and to help bring notice to what he referred to as “the longest-running war in Africa.”

“We want to do fundraising to collect donations for the programs that they already have, such as Schools for Schools, a program where Invisible Children builds partner schools for which teachers from over here can go and teach over there,” Erickson said.

“Our purpose is to keep doing screenings, fundraising, activities, little movie screenings in the dorms. We had one in Lander the two weeks before spring break. We had a few more members to join the chapter and got the word out for the screening tomorrow.”

Invisible Children was started in 2003 after three filmmakers traveling in Africa started the nonprofit. The organization’s website says its goal is to help promote awareness about the use of children as “both the weapons and the victims” in Uganda and give individuals an effective way to respond to the situation.

The UW chapter of Invisible Children and Theta Xi fraternity helped fundraise and advertise for the event, but the Pacific Northwest team from the Invisible Children headquarters in California is managing it.

To help promote the event, Theta Xi planned a volleyball tournament to raise money for the chapter, along with tabling in Red Square and creating posters and collecting donations for the screening. The tournament was supposed to be held yesterday, but it was cancelled due to weather conditions.

The Invisible Children chapter members began planning for the event at their first meeting in winter quarter and discussed various fundraising events, such as tabling and bake sales. Ultimately, they decided to put on another movie screening like they did at their fundraising event the previous year.

Erickson said events in past years had been pretty inactive, so the screening last year “really put us on the map.”

“Our purpose is to establish Invisible Children at UW, and once we are established and people know who we are, it’s to get more members and fundraise by doing different events,” Erickson said. “By no means are we done after this screening.”

Reach reporter Liz Cummings at news @ dailyuw.com.

Fundraising improving, but gain less than hoped

In addition to getting to know their donors, local organizations that said their fundraising is holding steady or increasing said they’ve been trying to help their donors get to know the charities better.

Easter Seals Arc increased its fundraising in part through a focused endowment campaign, Arc Foundation Executive Director William Andreas said. A small, committed group of donors gave more than $500,000.

And when government support was cut, Easter Seals Arc appealed to its patrons, who in turned stepped up to help to bridge the gap, Andreas said.

If you have some neat, new and exciting visions of the future, donors want to make an impact, he said.

Kay Ostrum, executive director of American Red Cross of Northeast Indiana, said she has optimism for her organization’s fundraising development. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been a difficult time.

Holding steady is good, but when the need increases, you really need to grow, Ostrum said. We are going to focus on individual donors and educating the public.

In the local American Red Cross case, that involves more outreach stressing what the organization accomplishes within potential donors own backyards. People donate to Red Cross when there is a major disaster, such as the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, she said.

But they don’t always realize the local chapter does its own work, more than just the omnipresent blood drives, and must conduct its own fundraising.

It provides food and shelter to families after floods and tornadoes, and in northeast Indiana, assists families after house fires an average of every three days, Ostrum said.

Focusing on public education has been enlightening; Ostrum has encountered the misconception that the 130-year-old American Red Cross is a government agency.

Despite its success, the chapter has faced shortfalls in some areas. Foundations have taken a major hit, and because the American Red Cross is supported by some foundations, that hurt is passed on in the form of fewer and smaller grants.  And it relies heavily on the fees it takes in for providing training to businesses, such as disaster-preparedness and first aid. As the recession took its toll, many businesses cut back.

The Nonprofit Research Collaborative survey showed smaller organizations – those with expenditures below $1 million – didn't make the same gains or even hold steady as well as larger ones.

ARCH, northeastern Indiana's non-profit historic preservation organization, would be classified as a small organization by those terms.

Executive Director Angie Quinn said her organization suffered from the decrease in grants available last year but managed to keep sponsorships steady for the events it holds to raise money.

That came in part by recognizing many local businesses are hurting, too. Quinn said ARCH asked for smaller amounts of money for sponsorships and also tried to provide the sponsors with greater visibility by including their logos on signs and event paraphernalia.

They feel like they get more from it, she said.

aturner @ jg.net