68% of North Americans are using the Internet (I focused on North America because the sites I reviewed were all English language sites). Of these users, 89% of people with an annual household income of more than $75,000 are online and 88% of people with a collegI recently reviewed a random sample of 75 websites of nonprofit organizations. I looked specifically at their strategy for online donations. Here is what we found:

Results of the Survey

Of the 75 organizations surveyed, 59% had some mechanism set up on their sites for receiving online donations. Within that 59%, 65% were using their own systems and 35% were using a third party for online processing of credit card payments.

35% of the organizations recognized at least some of their donors online.

30% had some form of collecting names and email addresses independent of online donations, like newsletter subscription signup or requests for information.

28% had some form of specific strategy or incentive to encourage online donations, such as participation in a specific campaign, membership in a giving club or the offer of a plastic bracelet or pin.

Interpretation of These Results

Let’s look at these results in light of what we know about who is using the Internet. According to www.worldinternetstats.com 68% of North Americans are using the Internet (I focused on North America because the sites I reviewed were all English language sites). Of these users, 89% of people with an annual household income of more than $75,000 are online and 88% of people with a college

their sites for receiving online donations. Within that 59%, 65% were using their own systems and 35% were using a third party for online processing of credit card payments.

35% of the organizations recognized at least some of their donors online.

30% had some form of collecting names and email addresses independent of online donations, like newsletter subscription signup or requests for information.

28% had some form of specific strategy or incentive to encourage online donations, such as participation in a specific campaign, membership in a giving club or the offer of a plastic bracelet or pin.

Interpretation of These Results

Let’s look at these results in light of what we know about who is using the Internet. According to www.worldinternetstats.com 68% of North Americans are using the Internet (I focused on North America because the sites I reviewed were all English language sites). Of these users, 89% of people with an annual household income of more than $75,000 are online and 88% of people with a colleg

had some form of collecting names and email addresses independent of online donations, like newsletter subscription signup or requests for information.

28% had some form of specific strategy or incentive to encourage online donations, such as participation in a specific campaign, membership in a giving club or the offer of a plastic bracelet or pin.

Interpretation of These Results

Let’s look at these results in light of what we know about who is using the Internet. According to www.worldinternetstats.com 68% of North Americans are using the Internet (I focused on North America because the sites I reviewed were all English language sites). Of these users, 89% of people with an annual household income of more than $75,000 are online and 88% of people with a colleg

n a specific campaign, membership in a giving club or the offer of a plastic bracelet or pin.

Interpretation of These Results

Let’s look at these results in light of what we know about who is using the Internet. According to www.worldinternetstats.com 68% of North Americans are using the Internet (I focused on North America because the sites I reviewed were all English language sites). Of these users, 89% of people with an annual household income of more than $75,000 are online and 88% of people with a colleg

68% of North Americans are using the Internet (I focused on North America because the sites I reviewed were all English language sites). Of these users, 89% of people with an annual household income of more than $75,000 are online and 88% of people with a college education are online. 78% of people aged 18 to 29 are online and 74% of people aged 30 to 49 are online. Users are more or less evenly split between rural and urban and male and female.

The point of these statistics is that Internet users represent a demographic charitable organizations should be interested in. According to research done by the Pew Foundation that was released in November 2005, 18% of Internet users report having made a donation online, up from 11% when the last survey was done. This report can be found at ww.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Katrina.DateMemo.pdf. This increase was attributed in part to the response to the relief efforts for Katrina victims. The urgency of this situation may have caused more people to donate online but it is logical to speculate that once the behavior is established, it may become easier for other charities to solicit online donations.

Going back to the results of my survey, I made the following observations. If Internet users represent a good target demographic, organizations that d