"A Guide to Giving"-Cyber Charities
Wednesday, February 27, 2008SUSIE GHARIB: If there's any one development that's changing the world of philanthropy, it's the Internet. For many charities and non- profits, new sources of funding are now only a click away. Tonight, Jeff Yastine wraps up our series "A Guide to Giving" with a look at how going online is revolutionizing the world of charitable giving.
JEFF YASTINE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: South Florida's real estate market may be in crisis, but developer Frank McKinney is still thinking big. McKinney's palatial spec houses, like this $29 million project going up on a stretch of beach in south Florida, are aimed at the super-rich. But mansions are not all McKinney builds. He also builds homes for the poor in Haiti. His Caring House Project Foundation builds small sturdy houses and whole villages in Haiti's interior, using local labor and materials.
FRANK MCKINNEY, PHILANTHROPIST, CARING HOUSE PROJECT FOUNDATION: Like Robin Hood, I sell to the rich and I like to give to the poor. We've evolved now into no longer a charity, but we're in the self-sufficiency business, where we provide food, water and opportunity to the most desperately poor and homeless from the world primarily now focusing in Haiti.
YASTINE: McKinney says he started the effort in the late 1990s and raising funds for it was difficult until he put the foundation on the Internet. Now, with a few clicks, web visitors can check out the foundation, view a video or contribute as little as $20 or $20,000.
MCKINNEY: And now I'd bet we get 90 percent of our donations outside and 10 percent come internal from me. And if it wasn't for that Internet presence where you if you wanted to search, let's say you searched homelessness, you just click homelessness. We pay per placement on, say, Google ad words or search engine optimization or pay per click, if you will. We have a small $10 a day budget that we set aside for a daily Internet budget and I tell you what, it probably pays for itself three fold.
YASTINE: Because of the Internet, the world of philanthropy has undergone dramatic change. Smaller charities have proliferated because online, a small fundraising organization can have the same scale and impact as a larger, ore established one. The Internet also makes it easier to advertise your cause and also seek out potential donors. Stacy Palmer, editor of the "Chronicle of Philanthropy," says the benefits of the Internet, mainly appeal to small upstart charities, while big charities with a national presence are still a few steps behind.
STACY PALMER, EDITOR, CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY: We're seeing it, but we're not seeing it happen in a big way at these large organizations. They're really experimenting with things. And for large organizations, it's giving up a whole lot of control and they're not used to the whole way that the Internet works in spreading things out. And that's a challenge for organizations that can be pretty bureaucratic and top down.
YASTINE: Non-profits are not only using the Internet to raise money but also to deliver services. At Hands-On-Miami, the Internet is used for training and administration. It's also a marketing and recruiting tool. Hands-On-Miami CEO Pat Morris says the Internet makes it easy to link up the group's thousands of volunteers with appropriate projects.
PAT MORRIS, PRESIDENT & CEO, HANDS ON MIAMI: Its online shopping. Someone only has so much time available, they want to look at an organization that is tech-savvy, that has what they want. When they come to the website of handsonmiami.org, you can find out very quickly that there's a lot of ways which you can become engaged in our community, as well as making a contribution.
YASTINE: Text messaging is the latest twist in online fundraising. This United Way Commercial ran during last month's Super Bowl, just another way that philanthropy is adopting new technology to increase donations. Jeff Yastine, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Miami.
