ARTS FUNDRAISING ONLINE:
How Arts Organizations Use Their Websites to Increase Donations

Online fundraising likely won't replace the old-fashioned kind anytime soon: few donors are comfortable yet with online contributions; high dollar fundraising will always require the same personal approach; foundations probably won't start handing out grants in response to anyone's online solicitations anytime soon. But every organization with a website should think about the ways in which it can tie in to development efforts, however subtly. At a minimum, the core function of most websites - providing information about the organization - is itself perhaps the most important way in which websites increase donations. And websites with an interactive component can be a marvelous source of information for arts organizations' development efforts - even without online gift acceptance, the names and addresses of those requesting information are a great place to start.

Arts organizations currently use their websites to increase donations in a wide variety of ways, ranging along the continuum from simply providing contact information for donations, to online crediting of donors, to solicitation of online memberships, to a level of sponsor acknowledgment that verges on advertising. And, as other panelists will address, arts organizations also profitably use their websites for merchandising and online shops and catalogues, and use the web (as opposed to their own websites) to research funding opportunities.

Each organization needs to explore where along this continuum it feels most comfortable, both technologically and in terms of its relationship with its current and potential members and donors. As with many aspects of website development, one of the best ways to think about the different forms of online fundraising is to spend some time researching other websites. And, as with many aspects of website development, the key to this research isn't in looking for the most innovative technological approaches with the most bells and whistles, but in thinking about the approaches that will work for your audience and your revenue sources.

A few of the approaches that arts organizations have taken:

Contact Information

At the subtle end of the continuum, the National Film Preservation Foundation, http://lcweb.loc.gov/film/nfpf.html, simply provides a contact "to receive information on the Foundation (including donation information)."

Press Releases

If the website includes press releases, these may include announcements of major donations, as the National Endowment for the Arts has done, http://arts.endow.gov/news/Openstudio11-6.html.

Acknowledgment of Donors to Website

Many websites include acknowledgment of donors directly to the website - whether of equipment and software, like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, http://www.cpb.org, - or of general website support, like the Public Broadcasting Service, http://www.pbs.org. Such lists can include links and logos for corporate sponsors, as on the National Public Radio site, http://www.npr.org/inside/sponsors.

In some instances, the donor is given credit as a partner in the website, as with the National Endowment for the Humanities/MCI Edsitement site, http://http://edsitement.neh.fed.us, or the Library of Congress/Ameritech National Digital Library Competition, http://lcweb2/loc/gov/ammem/award/index.html.

Acknowledgment of Donors to Organization or Program

A website may include a section specifically listing sponsors or partners, as on the Open Studio site, http://openstudio.org/about.html#partners. Such a list may employ the traditional nonprofit ranking of different levels of sponsors, as on the National Digital Library site, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/sponsors.html.

This listing may be quite detailed, and may include not only links to the donor's own website, but also a description of the sponsor's business, as in the National Science and Technology Week site, http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/nstw/partners/sponsors.htm#corporate.

Solicitation of Donations and Memberships

At the low-key end, an organization may simply provide information on how to donate. An interesting example of using this approach to reach high-dollar donors is the National Gallery of Art site, which provides information about the $1,000-up Circle and solicits bequests: http://www.nga.gov/ginfo/involved.htm.

A technologically intermediate site is the National Museum of American Art site, which includes a mail/fax membership form. http://www.nmaa.si.edu.

The Smithsonian site, which accepts online credit card donations, exemplifies full online donation capabilities: http://www.si.edu/youandsi/join/members/start.htm. The Smithsonian does not provide encrypted donations; some charities do, such as One Child At a Time, http://www.childrenscharities.org/onechild.html. This year's Greater Washington-Baltimore Area Donor Guide to Charitable Giving specifically listed not-for-profits with on-line donation options - and in a significant lesson for all not-for-profits considering advertising their online capacities, the information appeared inaccurate for several of the websites listed.

Sponsor Banner Advertising

Somewhere along the line between fundraising and merchandising is using the website literally as a source of revenues, by allowing sponsors to advertise. Internet advertising revenues are enormous: $343.9 million in the first six months of 1997, a 322% increase over the same period in 1996. (Internet Advertising Bureau, Toronto Post, Nov. 4, 1997). A very few arts organizations employ full banner advertising on their websites: for example, National Public Radio, http://www.npr.org, includes "sponsor" banners. For a strong discussion of the issues to be considered in accepting website advertising, see Snyder, Rosenbaum & Schlag, Advertising on the World Wide Web: Issues and Policies for Not-for profit Organizations: http://php.indiana.edu/~hrosenba/Papers/ASIS961.html.