As a journalist, I'm always interested in knowing where the "tipping point" is on a particular trend. In other words, when did people in a particular industry, such as those I interviewed for my segment in NBR’s “A Guide to Giving” series, start noticing that "the ballgame had changed" because of the use of the Internet? It appears that the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon played a key role in getting people used to the idea of charitable giving through the web. The Internet was already in wide use, of course, but the idea of using it to make donations was still a largely unfamiliar to the vast majority of Americans in 2001. In the rush for funds and relief supplies following the attacks, Americans - and the larger charities - came to accept the internet as a standard fundraising technique.

Perhaps it was fitting then that the next great disaster -- the flooding of New Orleans and the destruction of the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina -- played a key role in the next evolution of charitable giving: the text-messaging of donations. In the wake of the storm, the Red Cross and wireless providers set up a text-messaging system called "Text-2-Give" which was one of the first large-scale attempts at this type of mobile fundraising. The latest effort at text-message fundraising was launched by the United Way during this year's Super Bowl. While the Patriots battled the Giants, viewers could text the word "FIT" to a particular number and automatically donate $5. Such techniques are already well-established in Europe, but American charities are beginning to catch on to the possibilities raising money via the latest technologies.