Data from the online fund-raising company Convio confirm what many nonprofit groups have long suspected: Donors make more online gifts on December 31 than any other day of the year.

The Austin, Tex., company processes more than 13 times as many gifts on December 31 than the daily average for the rest of the year, and more than 22 times as much money.

During the last week of the year, December 25-31, donors make nearly five times as many contributions as they do during an average week. And those gifts are 57 percent larger.

Officials at the company said that the top 10 percent of organizations using their system saw 10 times as many donations during the last week of the year and 15 times as much money donated.

They suggest this might be a helpful benchmark for organizations trying to assess the success of their year-end online fund-raising efforts.

More than one million Facebook users voted in the first round of Chase Community Giving. The financial-services company has announced the 100 small and local charities that received the most votes and will continue on to the second round of the $5-million competition.

Each of 100 organizations will receive $25,000 and will have to submit a proposal describing how it would use the $1-million top prize. Five runners-up will receive $100,000 each. In addition, an advisory board assembled for the competition will allocate a total of $1-million to its picks from the nominated charities.

Among the organizations moving on to the second round: the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, in Harpers Ferry, W. Va.; the Center for the Pacific Asian Family, in Los Angeles; the International Society for Infectious Diseases, in Brookline, Mass.; Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, in New York; the...

Charities’ confidence in the fund-raising climate has risen slightly since this summer but remains low, according to the latest biannual survey of fund raisers conducted by Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy.

The December 2009 Philanthropic Giving Index — based on the average of two measures in which fund raisers rate today’s giving climate and how confident they feel about the next six months — is 71.1.

That is an 8.7-percent increase since the summer, when the index was 65.4, and a 9.8-percent increase over this time last year, when the index stood at 64.8.

The survey was mailed to 404 fund-raising executives and consultants. Of those, 146 people responded, an overall response rate of 37.1 percent.

Fund-raisers’ assessment of their ability to raise money now is 62.5, an increase of 7.7 percent compared to six months ago when the rating was at 58, a historic low in...

The Pennsylvania Ballet will soon ask patrons to turn on their cellphones — at least during intermission and after the show.

From December 26-31, audience members at performances of “The Nutcracker” will have the opportunity to participate in a live poll via text message. At intermission, they will be able to vote for their favorite character, and after the performance, they will be able to weigh in on their favorite scene.

Monitors in the lobby of the Academy of Music will display the tally live, as will the ballet’s Web site and the Phillyfunguide, run by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.

The goal of the alliance’s Turn Your Cell Phone On! campaign is to help audience members feel more engaged with arts performances, says John McInerney, a vice president at the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, who notes that neither the ballet nor the alliance will be ...

Charitable gift cards and holiday fund raising aren’t just an American phenomenon.

JGooders.com, a charity portal in Herzliya, Israel, offers charitable gift cards that people can give instead of Hanukkah presents. The person who receives the gift card can then choose a charitable beneficiary from the nearly 300 Jewish projects in 10 countries featured on the site.

Donors have contributed more than $100,000 through the site since it was founded in November 2008.

To try to spur more year-end giving, JGooders will give $1,000 to the project that raises the most money in December and $500 to the project that receives the largest number of contributions this month.

In other seasonal news, through December 21, children who play video games on Club Penguin can use the virtual coins they earn to vote on how $1-million Canadian will be divided among five charities.

Players have three...

AmeriCares is using a provocative message to encourage people to make charitable donations instead of buying holiday presents: Send your mother-in-law to Darfur.

Supporters received an e-mail message with a photograph of a disagreeable-looking older woman standing in a wooden packing crate strewn with Christmas lights and labeled, “Darfur.”

The text begins, “Okay, now that I’ve got your attention, I don’t really think sending your mother-in-law to Darfur is a good holiday gift idea.”

The appeal explains that charitable donations allow the Stamford, Conn., charity to deliver lifesaving medical supplies to places like Darfur, Myanmar, and Ethiopia. The Web site that the e-mail message directs donors to suggests gift amounts: $100 charitable donation instead of a sweater, $250 instead of a GPS, etc.

Donors who make a contribution in honor of a loved one this holiday season can...

A desire for cross pollination and cost savings drove the decision by two New York charities to combine their year-end young professionals events into a joint fund raiser.

For the past six years, the Alliance for the Arts has held its annual young professionals event at Christie’s. The auction house gives the organization free use of the venue.

This year the alliance invited New York Lawyers for the Public Interest to incorporate its year-end event into the party. The legal-aid organization has held an event for its pro bono advisory council for the last three years, but the event has been at a different location each time.

Because the event focused on younger adults — a demographic that typically doesn’t make large donations — the groups decided to experiment, says Marnie Berk, director of pro bono programs at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. It also helped that the...

Yahoo is hoping to spark “a ripple effect of kindness” this holiday season with its new “You In?” campaign.

From the campaign’s Web site, participants can post status updates about random acts of kindness they perform to their Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter networks.

Among the good deeds recorded so far: pulling weeds at a local school, calling a friend who was just diagnosed with cancer, and giving clothes and toys to a family that has taken in children in need of help. The acts of kindness are displayed on an interactive map, which the company hopes will inspire more selfless actions.

The site also includes links to Network for Good, GlobalGiving, and DonorsChoose for people who want to make a charitable donation.

In other holiday news, Best Friends Animal Society is enlisting the North Pole’s help to spread the word about its year-end mobile-giving campaign.

On Monday...

Companies’ holiday-giving promotions are in full swing online.

• For each musical e-card that visitors send from the Fidelity FutureStage Web site through December 31, the financial-services company will donate $1 toward the purchase of new instruments for school music programs in need.

  The animated greetings feature selections from leading orchestras. In one, skaters glide gracefully across a frozen pond, etching a violin-shaped pattern on the ice, accompanied by a Boston Pops performance of “Happy Holidays.”

  The company hopes that visitors will send 500,000 cards during the promotion. Over the past three years, the company has donated more than 925 instruments, valued at more than $875,000, to 49 school and local music programs.

• PayPal is counting on virtual fruitcakes to raise money this holiday season for 24 charities, including Architecture for Humanity, Boys & Girls Clubs of...

Colorado Public Radio plans to hold a three-day fund-raising drive the week after Thanksgiving — but the beneficiary will be the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

“Colorado Public Radio recognizes the CSO’s unique role as one of Colorado’s key cultural assets and petitioned the Federal Communications Commission for permission to conduct a one-time-only, on-air fund-raising drive to support its major classical music provider, the Colorado Symphony,” Max Wycisk, president of Colorado Public Radio, said in a statement.

The orchestra has been hit hard by the economic crisis, which forced the organization to reduce its current operating budget by $2.5-million. This fall, musicians agreed to salary and benefit concessions, which included a 12.5 percent pay cut, up to four weeks of unpaid furlough, and a suspension of employer contributions to the musicians’ retirement fund.

The special...