An online petition in 2003 pushed the Human Rights Campaign into the world of online fund- and friendraising. And the organization never looked back.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

“Then we found ourselves in this place where we had all these new supporters of the organization who hadn’t made a financial contribution but obviously were engaged in our issues,” Crowley says.

Grams says HRC’s conversion program, which began in 2003, raised nearly $1 million online in its first 12 months — the majority of that from new donors — and its online strategy is on track to raise $1.6 million in fiscal year 2008.