Online Fund Raising:
How 143 Charities Are Faring
How Online Donations Are Doing in 2011
Amount raised
online
in 2010
Percent
change
from 2009
Higher compared with
this time last year
Lower compared with
this time last year
22%
Oregon Health & Science University (Portland) 5
Partners in Health (Boston)
Planned Parenthood Federation of America (New York)
Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, Calif.)
Seattle Children’s Hospital Foundation and Guild Association
Texas Children’s Hospital (Houston)
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (Houston)
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
$317,114
28,000,000
4,187,718
90,927
488,537
724,887
1,032,041
92,742
76.5%
858.9
–0.1
161.6
28. 3
69.7
19. 2
32. 7
About the same
as this time last year
18%
Note: Based on data from 139 organizations.
Charities Seek Ways to Attract Big Gifts
AmeriCares Foundation (Stamford, Conn.)
Catholic Relief Services (Baltimore)
Children’s Hunger Fund (Mission Hills, Calif.)
Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (Kansas City, Mo.)
Cross International Alliance (Pompano Beach, Fla.)
Doctors Without Borders USA (Médecins Sans Frontières USA)
(New York)
Feed the Children (Oklahoma City) 9,745,247
Food for the Hungry (Phoenix) 1,800,000
Gleaning for the World (Concord, Va.) 19,128
Heart to Heart International (Olathe, Kan.) 511,470
International Rescue Committee (New York) 5,460,114
Islamic Relief USA (Alexandria, Va.) 14,375,730
Kingsway Charities (Bristol, Va.) 2,221
Mercy Corps (Portland, Ore.) 11,104,423
Operation Compassion (Cleveland, Tenn.) 125,654
Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (Seattle) 267,464
Project Hope/People-to-People Health Foundation (Millwood, Va.) 902,242
Samaritan’s Purse (Boone, N.C.) 33,219,962
Save the Children (Westport, Conn.) 14,030,926
United Nations Foundation (Washington) 2,442,764
United States Fund for Unicef (New York) 32,536,673
World Vision (Federal Way, Wash.) 36,900,000
$6,719,571
21,217,026
1,193,890
2,050,311
1,001,000
51,471,242
489.7%
509.7
44.3
15. 7
– 5. 8
351.2
With Online Appeals and Seminars
–0.1
80.0
47.5
694.2
119.7
146.7
4. 8
184.0
402.6
37. 5
401.5
140.7
319.9
66.1
315.6
50.6
Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston
Jewish Federation/Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago
United Jewish Foundation and Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.)
$1,070,671
2,670,477
1,387,367
28.3%
11. 6
25. 3
their cellphones and text another $10
donation, providing more than $20,000
in additional proceeds for Renaissance
to distribute.
Last year Renaissance struck a partnership with Visa and Blackbaud, a
company that sells online fund-raising tools to charities, on a pilot project
to see how to better motivate people to
give online via credit cards. As a result,
the group received an average online
gift of $2,117—the highest among all
charities in The Chronicle’s survey.
Visa set up a Web site called Visa
Giving Gateway and promoted it on its
Visa bills. Customers could make donations to their favorite charities through
Renaissance, which distributed the
money. Donors appreciated the fact that
they didn’t get direct pleas for support,
Mr. Baker says. “Some people don’t
want to be inundated with ongoing gift
appeals.” A total of $260,352 came in,
including one donation for $35,000 and
a couple for $10,000.
Society’s Minnesota chapter, in Minneapolis.
The group’s New York headquarters
says it took in $73.5-million online in
2010, the fifth largest total of the survey.
Ms. Kintzi sees the Web as a way to
attract people into the fold, where their
generosity can then be cultivated. The
charity, she says, is giving top donors
chances to participate in Webinars and
to talk to medical researchers.
“In February we had top experts
from all over the world gathered in
New York, and my donors in Minnesota were able to get some of their time,”
Ms. Kintzi says. One of her donors was
so excited by the information, the fund
raiser says, that she knew the next gift
would come easier.
Higher compared with
this time last year
Lower compared with
this time last year
About the same
as this time last year
How Online Donations Are Faring in 2011
Note: Based on data from 139 organizations.
22%
18%
Charities that say online donations are:
Continued from Page 10
6
Peter Bolton and Marisa López-Rivera
contributed to this article.
MORE DATA ONLINE
302,725
–13.1
Educational Media Foundation (Rocklin, Calif.)
Mission to the World (Lawrenceville, Ga.)
The Navigators (Colorado Springs)
Wycliffe Bible Translators (Orlando, Fla.)
Young Life (Colorado Springs)
$5,693,913
2,812,654
4,140,286
9,073,278
13,475,656
34.0%
—
34. 8
34. 8
29.0
In Person Is Best
But even successful online fund raisers say the Internet will never replace
in-person solicitations for big gifts.
“The most personalized online experience isn’t like sitting down face-to-face,”
says Audrey Kintzi, executive vice president of the National Multiple Sclerosis
How the Chronicle Compiled Its Survey
Publication: PHL
Filename: 2312OFRbars
Colors used: 4
Size: (xxpts)
Date: 3/24/2011
Time: 3 pm
Version: 4
SP
EM
CB
Other
See more about online fund rais-
ing by large charities in our inter-
active database.
philanthropy.com
American Red Cross (Washington)
Catholic Charities USA (Alexandria, Va.) 4
Goodwill Industries International (Rockville, Md.)
Greater Chicago Food Depository
Habitat for Humanity International (Americus, Ga.)
Paralyzed Veterans of America (Washington)
Salvation Army (Alexandria, Va.)
United Service Organizations (Arlington, Va.)
United Way Worldwide (Alexandria, Va.)
The Y (Chicago)
$188,622,721
1,145,000
12,726
1,226,553
9,899,360
609,688
27,042,979
6,139,000
359,835,899
41,750
1,279.9%
– 3.0
–51.5
3. 9
34. 1
3. 5
93.9
22. 9
7. 3
192.9
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (Philadelphia)
Boy Scouts of America (Irving, Tex.)
Boys & Girls Clubs of America (Atlanta)
Marine Toys for Tots Foundation ( Triangle, Va.)
$282,038
32,646
205,553
2,928,794
– 5.1%
71.4
– 6. 9
20. 7
Heritage Foundation (Washington)
Renaissance Charitable Foundation (Indianapolis)
$6,289,380
260,352
18.5%
23,334.0
Note: Unless otherwise noted, figures are for the organization’s fiscal year ending in 2010.
Figures may be estimated or unaudited. — Indicates a percentage could not be calculated.
4 Figures are for the national office only.
5 Figures include Oregon Health & Science University Foundation and Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation.
of Online Giving to Big Charities
By Noelle Barton
The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 12th
annual survey of online fund raising
collected data from 143 of the largest
nonprofit organizations in the United
States.
Groups that were surveyed appear on
The Chronicle’s Philanthropy 400 ranking of organizations that raise the most
from private sources.
In 2010, 140 charities that provided data for the past two years raised
$1.35-billion online, an increase of 52
percent from the $887-million those
groups raised online in 2009.
Much of the increase—at least $148-
million—was the result of giving in response to the earthquake that struck
Haiti in January.
When Haiti gifts are excluded from
the giving figures, the total raised online in 2010 was 34 percent higher than
the 2009 total.
So far in 2011, online gifts to chari-
ties in the survey are doing better than
in 2010. Nearly two-thirds of charities
reported that their online donations are
faring better, while 22 percent said they
are lower, and 18 percent said they are
about the same.
The survey of online fund raising was
compiled by Noelle Barton, Peter Bolton,
and Marisa López-Rivera.
