1. Online Giving: How, What, Where,
And What’s Next
April 26, 2011
Karsten Robbins, CEO, FirstGiving
Presented for NASCO

2. Today’s webinar
• Defining “online fundraising platform” vs. other
types of fundraising
• The state of online giving
• Overall trends
• Peer to peer fundraising
• Social media fundraising
• Disaster relief fundraising
• How payment processing works
• Interfacing with nonprofits
• Interfacing with donors and donor privacy
• The future of online fundraising: some thoughts

3. About the presenter
Karsten Robbins
CEO
FirstGiving
karsten@firstgiving.com

4. Who is FirstGiving

5. Defining Online Fundraising Platform
Ø Defining “online fundraising platform” vs. other
types of fundraising
• The state of online giving
• How payment processing works
• Interfacing with nonprofits
• Interfacing with donors
• Donor privacy
• The future of online fundraising: some thoughts

6. Online fundraising platforms
“A platform is a conduit for managing people with
charitable intent to be able to fundraise for causes/
charities they care about.”

7. These are all online fundraising platforms

8. Fundraising platforms
Must enable donations and
process payments
Two models
Internal payment Integrate 3rd party payment
processing capacity
processing

9. Some differences
Professional Payment Online
fundraiser processor
platform
or solicitor
Allow individuals to no
no
yes
raise money
themselves?
Allow nonprofits to no
yes
yes
raise money
themselves?
Process donations may collect, yes
sometimes
to nonprofits
never
processes
Enable fundraising no
no
yes
campaigns online

10. The State of Online Giving
• Defining “online fundraising platform” vs. other
types of fundraising
Ø The state of online giving
• Overall trends
• Peer to peer events
• Social media fundraising
• Disaster relief fundraising
• How payment processing works
• Interfacing with nonprofits
• Interfacing with donors and donor privacy
• The future of online fundraising: some thoughts

11. Online giving up across channels
*social giving includes p2p
Source: Network for Good Online Giving Index 2011: http://www.onlinegivingstudy.org/quarterlyindex

12. Where donors donate
Source: Network for Good Online Giving Index 2011: http://www.onlinegivingstudy.org/quarterlyindex

13. Trends in online giving by size of nonprofit and
sector
Source: Blackbaud 2011 Online Giving Report: https://www.blackbaud.com/onlinefundraising

14. Largest percent growth
Source: Blackbaud 2011 Online Giving Report: https://www.blackbaud.com/onlinefundraising

15. Social media fundraising is still a very small amount
Source: 2012 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report:
www.netwitsthinktank.com/blackbaud/2012-nonprofit-social-networking-benchmark-report-infographic

16. How funds are generally raised through Facebook
The most common fundraising tactic on Facebook is an ask for an
individual gift.
Note: 54% of respondents said they were not fundraising on Facebook
Source: 2012 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report: http://nonprofitsocialnetworksurvey.com/

17. Peer-to-peer fundraising events
Source: Convio’s Peer-to-Peer Event Fundraising Benchmark Study: http://resources.convio.com/P2PBenchmarkReport.html

18. Peer-to-peer fundraising trends
Source: Convio’s Peer-to-Peer Event Fundraising Benchmark Study: http://resources.convio.com/P2PBenchmarkReport.html

19. Online giving after a disaster is on the rise
Average donation
Haiti Japan FirstGiving
$82.52
$76.62
$52.44
Haiti Japan FirstGiving
Source: FirstGiving

20. Online giving after a disaster is on the rise
Total $ raised # Average # of # %
nonpro donation donors fundraising grassroots
fits pages fundraisers
Haiti $464.321.99 87 $76.62 6,060 1,044 60%
Japan $973,328.16 32 $82.52 11,793 802 94%
Source: FirstGiving

21. How Payment Processing Works
• Defining “online fundraising platform” vs. other
types of fundraising
• The state of online giving
Ø How payment processing works
• Interfacing with nonprofits
• Interfacing with donors and donor privacy
• The future of online fundraising: some thoughts

22. Three models of donation payment processing
Third Party Payment
Providers
• Paypal
NPO gets own
• Google Checkout
merchant account and
• Amazon Payments
Gateway
Donor-centric: 501(c)3
donation provider
• Razoo
• Network for Good
• FirstGiving
• Just Give
• GlobalGiving

23. Donor-centric disbursement
Donation to 501(c)3 Donation Goes
charity from a Verified to Nonprofit
web app • Guidestar via Provider
• Crowdrise • IRS Master file • Receipt is sent to
• Causes Donor
• Firstgiving • Nonprofit gets
• Network for good report
• Razoo

24. Types of fees nonprofits could be charged
(some combination of those listed)
• Onboarding fees
• Annual fees
• Fixed % transaction processing
• Variable % transaction processing
• Flat amount per donation
• Payment for additional management services
• Hourly customer service fees

25. FG fees

26. Fee comparisons

27. Today’s webinar
• Defining “online fundraising platform” vs. other
types of fundraising
• The state of online giving
• How payment processing works
Ø Interfacing with nonprofits
• Interfacing with donors
• Donor privacy
• The future of online fundraising: some thoughts

28. Nonprofits must satisfy these requirements for
FirstGiving to work with them
• Viable: In good standing with the IRS database
• FG runs the revocation list quarterly against the IRS database
• FG checks if they’re on GuideStar
• Contact information from the IRS:
• EIN number
• Registered address
• DBA
• Contact info

29. Nonprofit descriptions on the website
Either self-entered or pulled from the IRS
database

30. FirstGiving nonprofit sign-up

31. How fundraising dollars are dispensed to
nonprofits
• First payment is via a check to their IRS-registered address.
• No one can sign up and input a bogus address.
• NPO may choose to receive checks via electronic funds
transfer to bank of record after the first payment has been
received (procedural process as a check on this).
• Can choose to receive checks by mail.

32. Interfacing with Donors and Donor Privacy
• Defining “online fundraising platform” vs. other
types of fundraising
• The state of online giving
• How payment processing works
• Interfacing with nonprofits
Ø Interfacing with donors and donor privacy
• The future of online fundraising: some thoughts

33. Donor information required
• Name (with option to be anonymous to the fundraiser)
• Billing address and information
• E-commerce information required to process a payment
• Spelled out in Terms and Conditions
Donor information often requested by the nonprofit
• Allows additional nonprofit-related questions
• T-shirt size
• Name “in memory of” if relevant
• Address
• Telephone

34. How fees are presented to the donor
• At donor checkout (option to “pay the fee”)
• On website

35. What we share about donors
• The information required by law to
identify the donor is given to the
bank (since FG processes donations)
• Donors can make anonymous
donations, too.
• If not an anonymous donation, we
provide information to the NPO
about who made the purchase: name,
address, billing address, gender
• We do not share the donor list with
anyone, ever. Explicit in Terms &
Conditions.
• Other platforms may do things
differently.

36. The Future of Online Fundraising
• Defining “online fundraising platform” vs. other
types of fundraising
• The state of online giving
• How payment processing works
• Interfacing with nonprofits
• Interfacing with donors and donor privacy
Ø The future of online fundraising: some thoughts

37. The Future of Online Fundraising
http://www.flickr.com/photos/redsun81/6651955017/sizes/m/in/photostream/

38. The (very near) future of online giving
Accelerated growth in on-site giving
Accelerated growth in peer to peer giving
Explosion of APIs powering other sites
Growth of mobile giving options
(including donation portals)
Personalized, geo-local online giving experiences
Project-based donations, not only to nonprofits

39. Facebook Credits
Facebook credits:
• 30% of any transaction goes to Facebook
• Most commonly used to buy games
• Has the potential to be used for donations
• Now a subsidiary of Facebook payments subsidiary
• Potential for online giving (not used much)
• Partnered with Stand Up for Cancer in 2010
For more on Facebook Payments: http://venturebeat.com/2011/03/21/facebook-payments/?source=facebook

40. Facebook Zynga virtual goods for charity
For more on Facebook Payments: http://venturebeat.com/2011/03/21/facebook-payments/?source=facebook

41. Online gaming for good
UK only

42. Other virtual goods for charity
Buy virtual texting icons for
charity, coming soon

43. Mobile giving
2011 survey on mobile giving of 2,003 teens
and adults:
• 50% were aware of mobile giving
• 6% of those surveyed had performed a donation via their
mobile phone at some point.
• 60% of respondents aged 18-34 were aware of mobile
giving
• 12 %had made a text-to-give donation

44. Mobile giving
2012 Pew Internet Real Time Giving report
key findings:
• The ability to send small donations using mobile phones
facilitates “impulse giving” in response to moving images or
events.
• A majority of the Haiti text donors in our sample have
contributed to more recent disaster recovery efforts using
their phones
• Different ways they are willing to donate include: text
messaging (favored by 25% of these Haiti text donors) and
online web forms (favored by 24%) are most preferred,
followed closely by mail (favored by 22%) and in-person
donations (favored by 19%)
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/MobileGiving/Key-Findings.aspx

45. Adjusted for inflation, Americans are still giving
3% of their income year over year
…but the internet and real-time crisis response is
apparent
http://www.101fundraising.org/2012/04/fundraising-into-the-future-and-beyond/

46. More fundraising on niche donation portals

47. The bleeding edge: using social media for
fundraising

48. Connect with FirstGiving!
Website: http://www.firstgiving.com
Facebook: facebook.com/firstgiving
Twitter: twitter.com/firstgiving
Blog: http://blog.firstgiving.com
Karsten Robbins: karsten@firstgiving.com

49. Extra Extra! How fundraisers interface with a
fundraising platform

50. Extra Extra! What fundraisers need to do
What a fundraiser will typically need to do:
• Register on the site and create a log-in
• Search for a 501(c)3 beneficiary on the site
(pre-vetted by either the IRS master file and/or
GuideStar)
• Select the 501(c)3 beneficiary
• Create a fundraising page on the site
• Ask for donations from friends and family (and
even strangers) online
• View donations through the back-end account
management tool