The Missing Link
Think about how Craigslist and its postings worked to replace newspaper ads. Or how Wikipedia and its throes of contributors managed to replace Encyclopedia Britannica as people's main source of browsing new information. Or how Barack Obama managed to raise millions of dollars online by spreading himself through advocates online.
How does fundraising work in the age of the Internet? How do non-profits reach the masses and ask them to contribute? How do they reward them for doing it? How is it better than cutting checks and mailing them in? Is making it digital, through the use of Paypal instead of personal checks, enough of an improvement to make it better?
I think there's a chasm here, one that a few people have exploited (Kiva has done a great job, for one). But I'm willing to bet that in terms of giving to charity in cyberspace, we're going to look back in ten years and realize that 2010 was just ancient history.
That's probably true for a lot of things online, and not just micro-philanthropy.
How does fundraising work in the age of the Internet? How do non-profits reach the masses and ask them to contribute? How do they reward them for doing it? How is it better than cutting checks and mailing them in? Is making it digital, through the use of Paypal instead of personal checks, enough of an improvement to make it better?
I think there's a chasm here, one that a few people have exploited (Kiva has done a great job, for one). But I'm willing to bet that in terms of giving to charity in cyberspace, we're going to look back in ten years and realize that 2010 was just ancient history.
That's probably true for a lot of things online, and not just micro-philanthropy.