{"id":13172,"date":"2011-08-01T10:55:20","date_gmt":"2011-08-01T16:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sustainablog.org\/?p=13172"},"modified":"2011-08-01T10:55:20","modified_gmt":"2011-08-01T16:55:20","slug":"online-fundraising-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/online-fundraising-charity\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Fundraising for Charity Gets Social: Like It for Good"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n Raising money for non-profit organizations and charitable causes has always required a bit of salesmanship and a lot of creative thinking: charities not only have to pitch potential donors, and demonstrate the good that will come from their donation, but also create opportunities for giving that lower any perceived barriers. So, a fundraiser needs to convince that possible donor that s\/he can afford to give, \u00a0and can do so easily. And, of course, it doesn’t hurt if s\/he can also offer some kind of recognition for contributing to a good cause.<\/p>\n The internet’s provided all sorts of opportunities to overcome these barriers<\/a> with large numbers of people quickly… but many of those opportunities require recognizing the potential in the online medium, rather than simply trying to move older methods (think of those long-form donation letters) onto the web. Jan van Voorst (disclaimer: a friend, and former business partner at Green Options Media<\/a>) has been finding ways to make smart use of the web as a fundraising vehicle longer than most: he founded Planetsave<\/a> (now a part of Important Media) in 1999. Planetsave’s original mission involved creating ways for people to donate to environmental organizations by doing the kinds of things they’d do anyway online: for instance, a user could protect 5 square feet of rainforest just by sending email with Planetsave’s service.<\/p>\n While the web’s changed radically in the past twelve years, the desire to give easily hasn’t… and so Jan has moved back into the for-profit charitable fundraising realm with a new site: LikeitforGood.com<\/a>. Recognizing the central role that social media now plays in web use, Like it for Good offers users the chance to donate to causes they support by sharing weekly campaigns on the site through services like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. Want to, for instance, protect coral reefs<\/a> this week? Just give the post at Like it for Good a Facebook like, a Tweet, or a +1.<\/p>\n It’s an intriguing business and fundraising model, so last week, I sent Jan some questions about Like it for Good’s approach.<\/p>\n Jeff McIntire-Strasburg:<\/strong> When I first visited the site, my immediate reaction was \u201cOh, this is like the old ‘click to donate’ sites that were popular 5-10 years ago.\u201d So, correct me… how is Like It for Good different?<\/p>\n Jan van Voorst:<\/strong> The concept is the same — a click equals a donation — however, the major difference is combining the old \u201cclick to donate\u201d with viral aspect of social media. In this case, if you click and \u201clike,\u201d a post it is displayed in your Facebook news stream, giving all of your network the opportunity to click and make a free donation as well.<\/p>\n