Is Person-to-Person Fundraising Dead, or Just Getting Started?

I have volunteered to host the Giving Carnival for the month of April.

The Giving Carnival is a monthly event that gathers the best blog posts on various topics related to Giving (philanthropy, charity, etc). In March 2008, Roger Carr of the Everyday Giving Blog requested Tips for Successful Fundraising Events. In February 2008, Jason Dick of the As Small Change Fundraising Blog asked the question, What Motivates Giving?.

I am asking bloggers, nonprofit tech professionals, and the founders and staff of social action platforms to respond to the question, “Is person-to-person fundraising dead, or just getting started?”

By "person-to-person fundraising," I am referring to the social media tools that permit individuals to raise money on behalf of nonprofits, independent projects, or specific outcomes. These tools include "fundraising pages" (see FirstGiving) "fundraising widgets" (see ChipIn or SixDegrees) and "fundraising applications for social networks" (see Causes or Change.org on Facebook).

I came up with this topic following last month's Nonprofit Technology Conference in New Orleans. Many of the session presenters cautioned nonprofits on the utility of person-to-person fundraising, no doubt led by the failure of Facebook Causes to translate into large aggregate donations for nonprofits.

And yet, other platforms and strategies for putting constituents in charge of raising money for organizations seem to be working. The Guardian recently ran a favorable article about JustGiving, a U.K. based person-to-person fundraising website. The article, entitled Charities go online to stay in the running and reach the next generation of givers, reported that JustGiving has handled more than £250m in donations since 2001.

FirstGiving, the U.S.-based sister company of JustGiving, reported in a recent webinar that they have raised more than $300 million in donations since 1999.

For additional background, please refer to NetworkforGood's white paper on Wired Fundraising and a number of articles/webinars I have produced on the subject: Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Gets a Bad Rap; Sharing the Message: How to Work Effectively with Your Organizatoin's Wired Fundraisers; Group Fundraising 101: Form Benchmarks to Success Stories

The deadline for submissions is April 24, 2008 at 6pm EST. I will publish a collection of all responses on Friday April 25th.

Please email me a link to your response, along with your full name and the name of your blog. If you don’t have a blog but want to participate, please use the comment form below.