Firstgiving.com Reaches $100 Million Raised for Charity
SOMERVILLE, Mass., July 13, 2009 — Firstgiving.com, a leading web-based fundraising platform for nonprofit organizations, today announced a major milestone. Since 2003, Firstgiving has helped over 1.8 million people raise more than $100 Million for over 27,000 different nonprofit organizations. These funds have helped disease research, education, housing, healthcare, animal care and many other very worthy causes all across the United States.
The ability for individuals and nonprofits to set up a personalized fundraising page via Firstgiving.com technology helps simplify the process for fundraisers as they send links to their pages to family, friends and networks around the globe and ask for support to raise funds for any certified US nonprofit organization. The activities can be NPO initiated or chosen by the individual fundraiser.
Giving USA did a major industry analysis of some $306 Billion in philanthropic fundraising in 2007. The traditional giving process contributed significantly to health and human services (7.6 and 9.7% respectively), but religious fundraising far outweighed any other area (33.4%). Firstgiving’s fundraisers and clients raised money for the same areas, but nearly 61% was raised for healthcare, human and community services. Rather than giving to a large religious organization that then distributed funds, the online donor and fundraisers go directly to the source. Online giving has enabled individuals to become advocates for the causes that have personally touched their lives.
While a great majority of the fundraising came from traditional sporting events (almost $50 Million from walks and races alone), millions were also raised in very non-traditional ways. From mustache growing contests to fundraisers in honor of celebrity birthdays, millions were donated to deserving NPOs by the sheer will of the individual fundraiser to create and implement their personal fundraising goals.
Firstgiving fundraisers and donors are making an impact on many areas of charitable giving, providing thousands of NPOs with significant funds raised online. Following are some details of how the $100 million has been distributed:
* $40.1 Million has been raised for healthcare research and health services
* $20.5 Million has gone to human/community services across the US
* $11.9 Million was raised for international issues/foreign aid
* $10.9 Million toward environmental preservation and animal rescue/care
* $3.5 Million directly raised for educational programs
* $2.1 Million for arts and cultural programs
* The additional $11 Million went to a variety of other societal, religious and public works issues.
“When we have spoken with donors, about 30% of them indicate that their donations would simply not have been made without our service,” said David Karp, Director of Marketing at Firstgiving.com. “That’s at least $30 million dollars more that was available for important charitable causes. Year over year, more people are giving online and we are committed to making that process as easy and effective as possible for donors and fundraisers alike.”
Firstgiving.com’s dynamic, dedicated experts offer fundraisers ongoing insight into how to maximize online giving for their personal causes, driving individuals to do something extraordinary for others. For example, Firstgiving fundraising pages can be personalized with messages, photos and videos to tell the story of the fundraiser. Firstgiving has seen that storytelling is an act that greatly increases the amounts given for all types of causes.
“We serve a community of children with a wide array of disabilities,” said Jim Littlefield-Dalmares, Director of Marketing and Development for the Kentucky Kids Center for Pediatric Therapies. “With our annual Walk & Roll event, held in May of 2009, we’ve seen a 30% increase in online giving during our second year working with Firstgiving. Firstgiving enables us to focus more energy providing these children with skills and capabilities essential for future success than on the fundraising process while still bringing in the funds we need to offer those services.”
About Firstgiving
Firstgiving enables individuals to raise money online for their favorite nonprofit organizations. Firstgiving.com’s dynamic, dedicated fundraising experts offer individuals and nonprofit organizations ongoing insight into their online fundraising progress. Based in Somerville, MA, Firstgiving has helped over 1.8 million people raise more than $100 Million for over 27,000 different nonprofit organizations since 2003. Firstgiving is the US subsidiary of Giving, Ltd of London England. For more information on how to set up your own Firstgiving fundraising page, please visit www.firstgiving.com or call (617) 591-2121.
