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Net Donors Try to Save the World with a Mouse

Doug Alexander writes from London
***Groups fighting disease, hunger and environmental destruction hope they have hit on an effective new way to raise money and awareness via the Internet. 'Click and donate' websites are mushrooming, reports Gemini News Service, and, for the concerned 'surfer', putting the world to rights has never been simpler.***
f f T^X'ERY hour, six species 1—1 arc lost for ever." warns 1 Jthe Internet website.
Images of animals flicker on the computer screen to reinforce the message.
However, help is al hand for the rainforest and its inhabitants. Push the button." says I he advice below. "Make a difference."
With one click of a computer mouse, visitors lo Care 2. com can make a free" donation lo Nature Conservancy, a United St ales-based environmental group, to help defend threatened rainforests.
Sponsors have agreed lo make a small donation tor each hit . in exchange for an advertising plug. The viewer pays nolhing.
Such 'click and donate' sites are mushrooming on Ihe Internet. For those with computers, tackling Ihe world's woes has never been easier.
Many organisations now use the method to raise funds to fight everything from hunger and poverty to cancer and environmental degradation, while creating a buzz about important issues among the world's growing on line community.
These sites are successful in terms ol generating income and. at the moment, it has grabbed people's attention by getting massive publicity." said Howard Lake. British author ol Fundraising on the Internet. and i specialist In donor schemes. "It does sound too good lo be true, but that’s why it has worked so well. It's one ol the clever ways io generate money on the Internet."
Au early attempt al this type ol scheme — a website called Cyberspace Christmas Campaign al Ihe Electronic North Pole — llQp|X'd In late 1994. says Lake. It sought lo raise money for nine charities, but became Jammed wnh • mall messages.
Ollu i-' i"llwed. but (he Idea did nm • li on until John Breen, .in um-rlcan. computer
consultant, unveiled The Hunger Site in June 1999. with all donations going lo Ihe World Food Programme. a I haled Nations agency that helped to feed more than 85 million people last year.
Breen's site — www. the hun-geriste. com — enabled people to give on-line ai no cost to themselves. with corporate sponsors picking up the tab.
Since it started. 35 million visits to Ihe site have raised enough to deliver 4.300 tonnes of lood lo hungry people. Spcn sors agree lo pay about half a US cent per click. The World Food Programme says il has received more than $700,000 from the site so far. Donations assist its school feeding programmes in Bangladesh. Bolivia. Burkina Faso. Ethiopia. Haiti and Nepal.
"ft's a new revolution." said Francis Mwanza. a spokesman for the organisation. "I think the potential is tremendous.
The Hunger Site, which now attracts an average of 350.000 visitors a day. has been acquired by Greater Good. com. a US company that helps charities harness Ihe Net for fundraising.
The whole urea of Internet marketing is what 1 call the dot comet ." said Jay Hair, a company ofllclul H's Just a blur out there. There are hundreds ol sites.
The Internet Is the single most exciting opportune, tv generate new sources of revenue for charitable organisations mid, more importantly, lo create a real intimate community between charities and individuals.”
The Uare2.com site has made a game out of on-line donating, creating a "race for the rainior-est" — a contest to see who can save' (hr most area by Earth Day on 22 April.
Despite the sudden popularity ol such sites, some on-line fundraising schemes have not lared so well.
Nel Aid. a charily backed by the United Nations Development Programme, broadcast three rock concerts via the In lernel to raise money for 13 organisations lighting poverty. Concerts from New York. London and Geneva attracted 2.3 million visits on NelAid s web-site, but raised a disapjxiinting $12 million.
Two sponsors contributed $10 million and $1 million respectively, adding to on-line donations totalling only $1 million. This compares with the $120 million raised for famine relief from two Live Aid concerts organised by rock star Bob Geldof in 1985.
"It really wasn’t about raising money — it was about raising awareness and about showing people the Internet can be used for more than just e-com-merce. commented James Moore, a NelAid spokesman.
British specialist Howard Lake speculates that NelAid s fundraisers may not have had sullicient experience with the Internet — and its limitations.
Such schemes do not proride a long-term relationship between potential donors and charities, says Lake. He feels that the popularity of click and donate" websites could wane in the future as the novelty value wears off.
"It may last longer If there are lots ol individual issue sites, such as the Save the Rainforest' site or End Cancer Now site," he adds.
They may well continue lor a number of years. You'll see more of these Bui fundraising models come and go. It's hot now. They're successful. But I think it won't be a key fundraising tool next year.
— Gemini News
The author is a Canadian Journalist currently working with Gemini Neil'S Serckv on a fellowship from Canada s International Development Re search Centre.