Fundraising Big Online: How Little Charities Are Punching Above Their Weight

One of the unique features of Internet campaigning is that it provides an opportunity for real-time feedback, but many larger organizations don’t use this feedback to change course quickly. Athletes for Africa does, and its online fundraising results are evidence of this winning formula.

Another reason the Internet is a great leveler of big and small fundraisers has to do with the changing cost structure of online fundraising tools. Being a part of this online fundraising and donor management software industry, I can speak with some authority when I say that prices for even the most powerful tool sets have now reached the point where they are affordable to teams with very limited budgets. Perfect example of such tools are Google Analytics and Website Optimizer. Years ago, digital teams would spend tens of thousands of dollars to purchase and manage sophisticated Web analytics software. Today, it’s free! Of course, it takes the investment of time to make tools like these work, but what doesn’t, after all? Now the smallest one-person shop can have the same access to the most robust tools, in this case Web analytics, as a large brand-name charity.