By Eli Shua
The year 2010 is just around the corner. 2009 was the 50th anniversary of the Internet, but one must remember that for the most part over the first 30 years, the Internet was really an exclusive club of members either part of the academic world or the defense forces. It was 20 years ago that the Internet emerged and made it through to the use of the general public. Since then, the Internet has become an integral part of many people’s lives. We read news, shop, exchange information and network via the Internet.

During the 1990’s, the Internet was primarily focused on providing information and services in a top-bottom fashion. That means many of the sites were taking printed data and making it available for the general public by digitizing that information. It was revolutionary, but as we approached the new millennium, the focus shifted slowly from the institutions to the end user. The Internet went through a process of reinventing itself. It is then that the terms Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 came into use. Web 1.0 refers to the classic web while Web 2.0 is all about the era of social networking. Looking back at this decade, it is clear that its biggest impact was the ability of people to connect and network directly, thereby bypassing the big institutions.

In many ways online fundraising, also known as e-philanthropy, was born just around the same time as Web 2.0. Since its earliest days, philanthropy was about the human touch. People were asking other people for help and so the appeal had to be personal and emotional. At a first glance, fundraising via the Internet is in stark contrast to that axiom. The human touch, a crucial part of the process, is lost. Still, e-philanthropy is thriving. It has grown over the last decade by over 7000% and while overall philanthropy has decreased during the economic crisis in 2008, e-philanthropy has grown by 44%.

There are many reasons for this phenomenon, many having to do with the power of the long tail and micro-philanthropy. But what is true for buying books on Amazon is not necessarily true for donating money. The answer, in part, is the combined use of social networking such as Twitter and Facebook and the equally important use of central portals such as Justgiving and JGooders. All of these sites provide a partial solution for the loss of human touch. People are now able to open individual web pages and make a personal appeal to others and try to raise support for not-for-profit organizations.

But while this new way of philanthropy is rapidly growing, one must not forget that people are still social creatures who need a sense of belonging and expect the one-on-one interaction even if they decide to donate as little as $5 through an online request. This is why we at JGooders preach to our clients about the need for thank you letters and the importance of cultivating online donors. We must remember that portals and social networks are only tools, however necessary, that help us extend our reach to a larger group of potential donors and other partners for our not-for-profit activity. If we neglect their continuous need for the human interaction, they will seek it elsewhere and we will end up losing them forever.

No one can really predict what lies ahead in the upcoming decade and how online philanthropy will continue to grow or what impact the introduction of Web 3.0 also called the “Semantic Web”, will have on e-philanthropy. But it is a fair assessment to say that the more we spend our time surfing the web, the more likely it is that our giving will shift towards the online. This is good. It is even great. As long as we all remember that at the end of the day, it still all about people that are giving a helping hand to other people.

Happy new decade.

Tags: e-philanthropy, web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0

Something to say? Post a Comment

Do Good. Share this post across the internet! Try it :)