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Industry Wrapups
	From the January 4, 2002 print edition

A click of the mouse means money in the bank for charities

"Donate Now."

In the last couple of years, those two simple words have brought in tens of thousands of dollars of charitable donations for the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross. The words appear on the chapter's Web site in the form of a oval-shaped red button.

Online donations to the chapter have steadily increased. In 2000 it raised $18,632 online. Through Dec. 18, 2001, it had raised $29,714. New donors especially seem to be using the site for online donations, according to George Day, a volunteer for the Red Cross who oversees its Web site.

Many local and national charities have turned to the Web to complement their fund-raising activities. Ninety percent of nonprofit groups plan to continue or increase their online soliciting throughout 2002, according to a survey by the San Diego-based Internet marketing services firm Kintera Inc.

For the Santa Clara Valley Red Cross chapter, a click on the "Donate Now" button leads to a special Web page over a secure connection, allowing the visitor to make a credit card donation.

Donors are asked to provide personal information, the amount they wish to donate, the specific program they want to help, and their credit card information. A verification screen appears, allowing donors to confirm or change the information. The site gives the donors an online receipt with a donation case number for tax records.

Throughout the process, donors can use a checklist to track their progress. The secure Web pages are designed and hosted by Entango, a San Francisco-based e-commerce firm that works primarily with nonprofits. Entango believes retaining the look and feel of the Santa Clara Valley Red Cross chapter Web site is important in encouraging donors to return.

"If you're at the American Red Cross site as a donor and suddenly you're whisked away to something that looks different, feels different, it's unclear if you'll ever return -- that's a bad experience. It's not one that's going to encourage you to make your donation or to be confident that someone hasn't hijacked you," says Steven Harkness, CEO of Entango. People generally can have difficulty filling out online forms, he notes, so a well-designed site will help guide donors through the process.

This also is a concern for other nonprofits who tap into online fund-raising.

The Santa Clara and San Mateo counties chapter of Second Harvest Food Bank wanted to make sure its donation service was properly integrated into its Web site, according to Jenny Luciano, communications director.

The local chapter's donation site was designed by San Mateo-based design firm Maus Haus and funded by Santa Clara-based semiconductor equipment manufacturer Applied Materials.

In 1998, the Web site brought in $12,000, with 95 percent of that money coming from new donors. In 1999, online donations totaled $70,000, and grew to more than $100,000 in 2000.

"For Silicon Valley ... this style of giving is really the wave of the future," says Ms. Luciano.

Online donations are helpful for donors as well as charities.

When employees worldwide at Adobe Systems Inc. wanted to help the Red Cross' Sept. 11 relief efforts, the San Jose-based software developer turned to the Santa Clara Valley chapter and Entango to create a donation site on the Adobe intranet. Entango created the site within 12 hours, including a currency conversion calculator for employees in Europe and Asia.

"The ease of an online donation option was very attractive to many of our employees," according to Lesley Dierks, community relations programs manager for Adobe.

Through the site, Adobe was able to better track employee donations in order to provide matching funds.

Similarly, Cisco Systems' internal I-Give Online site allows employees of the San Jose-based computer network equipment manufacturer to donate to various charities.

"The beauty of this system is that it has streamlined our two programs -- employee giving and matching gifts -- into one package," says Maribeth Reyes, Cisco Systems spokeswoman.

AARON MALCHOW covers general assignments for the Business Journal.

Copyright 2002 American City Business Journals Inc. Click for permission to reprint (PRC# 1.1641.528798)

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