While online giving grew overall in 2009, not all charities shared in the gains, according to a new study that analyzes online fund raising and advocacy at 31 nonprofit groups.

Together the organizations in the report -- large national charities, such as Oxfam America and the Wilderness Society -- raised 4.5 percent more money through the Internet in 2009 than in the previous year.

But for half of the groups in the study, online donations either held steady or decreased. The decline was driven by a drop in average gift size, which was $81.33 for the charities in the study.

The report breaks down the different type of gifts that make up the charities' online fund raising. One-time gifts make up 78 percent of all online donations, while monthly contributions account for 9 percent, gifts made in honor or in memory of a loved one 4 percent, and other donations such as those made for fund-...

Large nonprofit organizations continued to invest in online fund raising in 2009.

Of the 176 charities that responded to The Chronicle's survey of online giving, 71 groups provided information about how much they spent on their Internet fund-raising efforts in 2008 and 2009.

The median amount the charities spent in 2009 was $53,000, meaning that half of the organizations spent more and half spent less. The median amount the groups spent in 2008 was $50,000.

Forty-two organizations in the survey increased their spending on online fund raising in 2009, while 21 groups reported that they spent the same amount in 2008 and in 2009. Only 10 charities decreased the amount of money they spent on Internet fund raising in 2009.

The growing popularity of Kiva, DonorsChoose, and other charity sites that allow online donors to earmark their gifts to specific projects makes a lot of people in the nonprofit world nervous. But two fund-raising consultants say that rather than fearing those groups, charities should embrace their approaches for seeking earmarked gifts as an additional tool to raise money online.

"The message of Kiva and DonorsChoose are not that nonprofits should go out and try to be Kiva or try to be DonorsChoose," Clinton O'Brien, a vice president at Care2, in Redwood City, Calif., told participants at the recent Nonprofit Technology Conference. "What they have done is shine a light on some new opportunities to layer on something additional to what you already do."

Nonprofit organizations' biggest concern with the approach Kiva and DonorsChoose take is that it brings in donations that must be used ...

More than three-quarters of consumers say that a marketing partnership between a charity and a company they trust makes a charitable cause stand out, according to a new survey commissioned by Cone, a Boston marketing firm.

More than half of the people in the survey -- 56 perscent -- said that such partnerships make them more likely to "feel positively" toward the nonprofit group. Half of the participants said that they would be more likely to make a donation to the charity, and 41 percent reported that they would be more likely to volunteer for the organization.

In the past, Cone has surveyed consumers about their attitudes toward companies that align themselves with charitable causes, but for this project, the marketing firm wanted to look at the issue from the perspective of the nonprofit groups, says Alison DaSilva, an executive vice president at Cone.

When a charity is thinking...

A New York charity is experimenting with new technologies to raise awareness about the problem of homelessness -- and hopefully reach out to new donors.

Three evenings last week, Pathways to Housing projected the image of a homeless man sleeping on the sidewalk and shivering in the cold in downtown Manhattan. Words also projected onto the side of a building asks passersby to send a text message to help get him off the streets.

When someone sends a text message, it triggers a new video loop in which the man gets up and walks in the door of his new apartment. The idea is to convey visually the organization's approach to combatting homelessness, which emphasizes getting people who are homeless into housing first and then tackling issues like mental health and addiction.

As the man gets up, the organization's name and Web site address are projected next to the image. The person who sent...

Donors age 45 and younger were far more likely to make text-message donations for Haiti relief efforts than their older counterparts, according to a new study.

In a survey of donors conducted January 20-28—a little more than a week to two weeks after the deadly earthquake—17 percent of donors who were ages 19 to 29 reported that they had sent a text message to make a gift and another 37 percent said they thought about making a text-message contribution.

Among donors ages 30 to 45, 14 percent said they gave by text message and an additional 27 percent considered it.

By contrast, only 3 percent of people ages 46 to 64 and 3 percent of people who are 65 or older reported sending a text contribution to relief efforts.

Other types of donors who made text-message donations in large numbers: people whose household income is $200,000 or more, 29 percent of whom sent text gifts; minorities, 1...

On Thursday night, American Idol will encourage viewers to support relief efforts in Haiti by donating to the United Nations Foundation.

Last year's winner, Kris Allen, visited Haiti with the foundation to see United Nations relief efforts firsthand. This week's results show will feature footage from the trip, and information about how to donate either online or by text message to the United Nations Foundation Fund for Haiti.

The foundation is reaching out to its supporters asking them to hold viewing parties and encourage their guests to contribute.

"The UN needs our support to continue to provide food, water, shelter, medicine, security, and economic opportunities to the earthquake victims," Kathy Calvin, chief executive of the United Nations Foundation said in a written statement. "The UN and Haiti are rising to the challenge and we all have a chance to help them rebuild their...

With the unprecedented amount of money donated by text message on cellphones after the catastrophe in Haiti, mobile technology is very much on the mind of charity officials. Two new reports help shed light on the future of texting in the nonprofit world.

Thirteen percent of Americans made a text-message gift to aid Haiti relief efforts, according to a new survey, commissioned by Cone, a Boston marketing firm.

The results suggest that the earthquake may prove a turning point for text-message gifts. Last fall a similar survey found that only 6 percent of Americans had contributed via text message to any cause in the previous year.

Nearly one in five respondents to the current survey -- 19 percent -- said they would prefer to text a donation rather than giving another way, such as writing a check or donating online, while 22 percent said that they would donate via text message only when ...

Many nonprofit organizations have been the lucky recipients of four-digit online donations, but the Human Rights Campaign has devised a strategy to actively solicit them.

For the last three years, the Washington advocacy group, which focuses on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues, has run a series of e-mail campaigns to recruit new members for its Federal Club, a donor society for people who give $1,200 or more annually.

The Human Rights Campaign has learned that it's important to identify donors who won't be put off by a request for a large gift, according to a new case study that discusses the group's e-mail campaign. The case study was published by M+R Strategic Services, a consulting company in Washington.

Over time, the advocacy group has developed its criteria for who should receive the appeals:

• People who give more than $50 monthly.
•  Monthly donors who stopped...

As relief organizations analyze the donations they have received for Haiti, several groups have found that while the total number of gifts is higher than after the Asian tsunamis in 2004, the average size of those gifts is down.

In the first 10 weekdays after the earthquake in Haiti, Mercy Corps received 61,505 contributions, compared with 49,561 donations during the same period after the tsunamis. But the average size of the Haiti gifts was $109, compared with $208 for the tsunami gifts.

The Portland, Ore., relief and development organization attributes the smaller average gift size to the recession.

Average gift size is also lower for the American Red Cross -- the charity that has raised the most money for Haiti.

As of Wednesday, the American Red Cross had received approximately $231-million, a little more than a third of the more than $644-million raised by major U.S. relief group...