Late last month, some 25,000 people in 75 cities across the globe gathered in groups to walk a dozen kilometres - some of them meeting at dusk and sleeping outside in parks or on public lawns, then rising at 5 a.m. to make the trek back. They were replicating the journeys made by northern Uganda's "night commuters" - children who each evening travel to safe towns to avoid abduction by guerrillas during the night.
The event, called GuluWalk (after one of the Ugandan towns that serve as the children's destination) generated media coverage, blogs and Twitter streams from participants, and raised $125,000. Since it started in the summer of 2005, the annual event has raised almost $4-million for Ugandan charities through online pledges. And until last year, it was all managed by two men working on laptops at their kitchen tables.
Adrian Bradbury, co-founder of parent charity Athletes for Africa, says nothing like this could have been organized on such a scale and with so few resources before the dawn of social media. His organization provides volunteers around the world with online toolkits that help them set up Web pages to promote and fundraise for the event.
"For me, the biggest advantage is how inexpensive it is and how easy it is to get it going," he says.
Tiny non-profits like GuluWalk have been some of the biggest winners in the Web 2.0 revolution, but online fundraising is growing in importance for charities of all sizes. While only about 10 per cent of Canadians have donated online to date, according to a study by Ipsos Reid, that's up dramatically from the 4 per cent who reported doing so last year. In fact, as the downturn bites into charities' donation totals, direct-mail expenses grow while ROI declines, and telemarketing is curbed by do-not-call lists, the one area where fundraising results are improving is online.
That the boom in social media such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter would be a boon to charities shouldn't surprise, says Philip King, president of Artez Interactive, a Toronto-based developer of online tools for charities.
"Social networking was going on in fundraising from the very beginning, in volunteers raising money by walking to neighbours' doors. All we've done is taken that model and accelerated it through digital technology. The difference is how fast and how broad the impact."
The potential of online fundraising was vividly illustrated by Barack Obama's presidential campaign. He raised about $500-million (U.S.) through online contributions.
As Sharon Avery, a vice-president with Unicef Canada, pointed out in a podcast earlier this year, the campaign has become a model for charities by showing them the gains possible "through small donations and small interactions." It also provided lessons in how to do it right: with a simple message, great storytelling and an open forum where anybody could say anything and engage with the cause.
The biggest strength of the online model, however, lies in the ability to turn supporters into fundraisers. Mr. King's message to his clients is: "Charities, don't go searching for donors, search for fundraisers. Don't try to blast the donors with direct mail. Try to share the message, so they'll modify it and spin it out for you."
Artez, for example, offers charities Web templates they can provide to supporters, who in turn customize them into websites through which they can seek sponsors for runs or attendees to events.
"Most charities don't have capacity to build their own systems," notes Mr. King, so his company and others like Convio offer their products as software-as-a-service. Aside from pre-designed Web pages, the systems function as secure e-commerce sites through which charities can gather and process donations.
