Oil spill attracts muted philanthropic response

The response of donors, both individual and institutional, to the Gulf Coast oil spill has been muted in comparison with other major disasters.

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Online fundraising website Bmycharity to close

UK-based fundraising website Bmycharity is to close next week after a sponsorship deal collapsed, leaving it without the resources it needs to continue. The site, which was set up in 2000, stopped taking commission charges in October last year, stating that it would instead be funded by business sponsorship. Earlier this month, the firm announced it had recruited its first corporate sponsor, financial services company Interactive Investor – and managing director Ben Brabyn said the company had not pulled out of the sponsorship deal. Click here to read ...

Making small grants: where to start

Grassroots Grantmakers

Questions over Virgin’s giving

Tommy Hutchinson’s piece ‘Doing good and wearing nice shoes is OK, Mr Branson’ captures rather well some widespread cynicism from the public regarding Virgin’s attempts to enter into social entrepreneurship. There is no difficulty in understanding some of Virgin’s possible motivations in a service involved in charitable giving, but I suspect few in the public think they are wholeheartedly public-spirited, which seems also to be Hutchinson’s view.

India’s first online fundraising event a success

India’s first online fundraising event, the India Giving Challenge 2009, took place from 1 September to 11 October, raising Rs91lac (approx US$195,000). GiveIndia, which organized the event, provided a matching pool of Rs56lac ($119,000) to the NGOs and companies that raised the most through their fundraising pages, set up on the GiveIndia website.

Do matching grants really work?

Many foundations and non-profits run campaigns to increase public awareness of a particular issue and to motivate donations. Recently, some foundations have also begun thinking of their donations as a catalyst enabling a non-profit to raise even more funds from other donors. Similarly, non-profits often approach foundations seeking a gift that they can use to motivate other givers.

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Doing good and wearing nice shoes is OK, Mr Branson

For years Richard Branson’s Virgin empire has positioned itself at the youthful cutting edge of innovation and the great shaker-upper of all things establishment. Yet this trendsetting ability eludes it when it comes to social innovation. Just like its challenge to Camelot in its bid to run the National Lottery, its new online donation service, Virgin Money Giving, launched on 25 August, emphasizes its not-for-profit status in an effort to give itself a competitive edge.[1] Click here to read ...

Uncharitable: How restraints on nonprofits undermine their potential by Dan Pallotta

If you run major charitable events and are forced out of business because the charities you work with don’t like your methods, there are various ways of dealing with the trauma. You could seek counselling help. You could try to understand what it was about your methods that made your erstwhile partners dislike them. Or you could write a book to explain why you were right all along.

Dan Pallotta has chosen the last of these options. As I read his book, I found myself wishing he hadn’t.

Waking the sleeping giant

It is inspiring to read in the March Alliance the account of solidarity giving to Gaza, and the impressive results from countries that are relatively new to organized public fundraising. It was especially gratifying to hear that Jordan was able to generate more than $250,000 from the Welfare Association. This very much reinforces our view that fundraising is the ‘sleeping giant’ of civil society.

Studies give ambivalent message on internet fundraising

People who go online to donate to charity for the first time often do not make later gifts on the internet, says a new study. Looking at the experience of 24 non-profits, the study suggest that while the internet can be a valuable fundraising tool for charities, particularly in the wake of disasters like Hurricane Katrina, it is not a replacement for direct mail or other forms of fundraising.