Online giving has risen sharply in recent years, hitting $22 billion in 2010, a 34 percent jump over 2009. It is already up 11 percent year over year for October, according to Blackbaud Inc., a South Carolina company that makes fund-raising software and tracks charitable giving. What’s more, Blackbaud found that online donors tend to be more generous. Their average gift is $62 rather than $32.
“It’s clear that fund-raising has changed,’’ said Steve MacLaughlin, Blackbaud’s director of Internet solutions. “There’s been a shift in the tech world of people who want to do socially good, who want to have more direct impact,’’ he said. “That is very different from what we’ve seen in the past.’’
Cauzoom is part of that shift. The Cambridge start-up founded by Michael Sattler this year gives community organizations a Web platform to raise money and offers individual donors a menu of projects, which range from helping Boston public schools purchase life jackets for a sailing club to stocking refrigerators in Maine for military families.
“This is how I want to invest in my world, and I think there are a lot of other people out there like that,’’ said Sattler. “I live in Belmont, and I want to invest in my community. I want to be able to select the causes that mean the most to me.’’
The Web is enabling that kind of individualized giving and peer-to-peer donations, and allowing smaller organizations access to a pool of potential donors that once would have taken expensive advertising or direct mail campaigns to reach.
Courtney White, a volunteer at the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights, started a Cauzoom project to buy Charlie Cards for her organization’s clients. She wants to raise $1,500 in 30 days to purchase 75 passes. As of yesterday afternoon, she was $460 away from her goal. “The advantage of it is the ease,’’ said White. “One, two clicks, and you’re there.’’
