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

HRC began thinking about an online strategy in 2000 when Grams and Crowley figured if the presidential candidates were doing it, how hard could it be? They admit to making many mistakes — like crashing their server with the very first e-mail attempt — but persevering. Once the commitment was made, they made sure that e-mail address collection was a priority, and they started doing it as part of every contact with the public — online petitions, e-mails, events, etc.