How big is online philanthropy? Pretty darn big.
- Colorado Gives Day, the largest online giving event in Colorado, raised $35.1 million for 2,481 Colorado nonprofits in 24 hours in 2018.
- Facebook added a button for birthday fundraisers in 2017 and in its first year more than $300 million was raised for 750,000 nonprofits.
- GoFundMe.com, launched in 2010, calls itself “the world’s largest social fundraising platform,” and to date has raised more than $5 billion for nonprofit organizations and causes ranging from education and medical expenses to travel funds for newlyweds.
These are just three examples of how the internet has become an integral portal for nonprofits to tap into the generosity of their supporters near and far.
Many local nonprofits are reaping the benefits of online giving opportunities, but stress that traditional fundraising efforts such as walks and 5Ks, golf tournaments, galas, phone-a-thons and one-on-one relationship-building remain paramount.
Jeannine Trusswell, president and CEO of United Way of Weld County, said that online giving by both longtime and new donors has increased year over year. In 2018, United Way of Weld County raised more than $4 million, $1 million derived from grants and the remainder from community fundraising and donations of all sizes.
While overall giving has increased, she noted that workforce giving, once 70 percent of United Way’s budget, has decreased to 52 percent.
Gone are the days, Truswell said, when she would stand on the UPS dock at 4:30 a.m. with bullhorn in hand to present the benefits of United Way and what it does in the community as trucks pulled in to start their day. After her pep talk, pledge cards would be passed around.
Today, fundraising is a year-round activity at United Way and the paper pledge cards have been replaced by a hand-held device passed among employees interested in donating to United Way.
So if not standing on a company’s dock, how do you build relationships with donors?
“We have to be creative in how we maintain a relationship,” she said. Balloon bouquets are just one of the many ways United Way shows its appreciation to local businesses that participate in workforce campaigns. And many donors, she added, still like getting print newsletters.
As a result of the change in the manner in which donors give, United Way along with many other nonprofits have had to adjust fundraising strategies and how they prevent themselves.
“The landscape has totally changed in philanthropy. Social media has done that. The internet has done that,” Truswell said.
United Way, for example, is shifting its focus away from being just a fundraising organization that passes funds on to other nonprofits – although it still does – to being a leader in addressing how to bring the community together on a variety of fronts, Truswell explained.
At Windsor High School, where students routinely hold fundraisers for clubs, organizations and sports, the emphasis is on doing so locally and not on the global stage that is GoFundMe.
“Fundraising is always a challenge,” said Mark Kanagy, assistant vice principal and athletic director. “It’s not what coaches or athletes or parents want to do. They want to be enjoying the sport.”
While GoFundMe is not yet allowed at Windsor High School, primarily because the school wants the fundraising emphasis to remain on support from family and friends and the community, some school fundraisers do have online components. For example, the ever-popular cards that offer discounts at local businesses have been replaced by a phone app with built-in GPS that allows purchasers to find discounts wherever they are and not just northern Colorado.
“It allows kids to sell to friends and family in other states,” Kanagy said.
Shawn Logan, who founded Kawasaki Kids Foundation in Windsor six years ago when his son, Cooper, was diagnosed with the disease, said online donations, while just 10 percent of the nonprofit’s actual income, has built up considerably over the years.
“We do a ton through Facebook, and that has jumped 200 percent over the last year. It’s a great platform for us and we get a lot of support that way,” Logan said.
Kawasaki disease is the leading cause of heart disease in children, 80 percent of whom are 5 years or younger. One recent Facebook post generated donations for backpacks filled with information about the disease along with toys, games and gift cards to be given to patients at Colorado Children’s Hospital in Denver and Boston Children’s Hospital.
“It’s like Christmas when I open the mail and have a $1,200 check (from Facebook),” he said. The downside is that the check doesn’t include information as to who made the donations.
“We’re a relatively small nonprofit and every dollar just counts so much with the mission we’re trying to do.” To date, information and education provided by the nonprofit has saved 23 kids “that we know of,” Logan said.
The majority of the organization’s dollars – $174,000 was raised in 2018 – come from relationship-building 5K races at 10 locations nationwide and two golf tournaments.
Rand E. Moore, president and CEO of the Community Foundation Serving Greeley and Weld County, said that although the foundation’s primary focus is to help donors establish charitable investments and make grants to nonprofit organizations throughout the community, he noted that the foundation, whose website includes a “Donate” button on the home page, is also seeing an uptick in the use of online giving opportunities.
“We get, just like anybody else, donations from individuals from online portals and mobile devices. More and more people are using cellphones for everything. It also allows for a quick response when you hear of an opportunity, you can look it up on your phone. It’s very user friendly and you don’t have to write a check and put it in an envelope.”
He also credits Colorado Gives Day, held online (ColoradoGives.org) the first Tuesday in December, for being a “great resource for local nonprofits to reach donors on one particular day.” Twenty-nine Weld County nonprofits participated in the 2018 fundraiser, he noted.
Jim Herlihy, communications director for the Alzheimer’s Association in Colorado, which has an office in Greeley to cover the northeast region, said the percentage and volume of donations that the Colorado chapter receives online “is definitely trending up.”
He added in an email, “We see this trend as reflecting the way that people are making purchases in their daily lives – relying much more on online approaches and less on writing physical checks.”
That being said, Herlihy said that the Walk to End Alzheimer’s continues to be the association’s primary fundraising event. However, Walk teams are encouraged to set up fundraising pages on the internet to make it convenient for supporters to donate.
“Anecdotally, I’ve been told that our cash donations at our walks – money donated by check or cash onsite on walk day – is down more than 75 percent, while the level of giving continues to rise.”
The American Cancer Society is seeing similar patterns.
“We know that consumers are looking for unique ways to get involved in their communities and raise funds to support various causes that they are passionate about,” said Debi Armstrong, senior manager of community development for the North Region of the American Cancer Society based in Greeley.
“For the American Cancer Society, online fundraising is a great opportunity to engage in our mission and raise funds while giving our event participants different options to raise funds.”
Relay for Life event participants, for example, raise funds one on one with friends, neighbors and family members, but they also have their own online online fundraising pages to reach out to people wherever they live, said Armstrong.
“We have to change and adapt to the culture, and the culture is changing,” she said, adding that while Relay for Life continues to be the society’s signature event, ACS offers diversified events, such as the Cattle Baron’s Ball and the Big Dig of Northern Colorado at Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers in Longmont, to reach all people in the community. “Relationship building is number one,” Armstrong said. “We’re here for people on their cancer journey, but we also want to make it as easy as possible to fund raise.”
