THE PHILANTHROPY 400

Old-Line Charities Succeed With New Approaches to Attracting Donors

By MARINA DUNDJERSKI, HOLLY HALL, and DOMENICA MARCHETTI

Although many of the charities on the Philanthropy 400 are among the oldest and most well-established in the nation,

ALSO SEE: Philanthropy 400 charts and related stories

some of them are also among the most innovative in developing new fund-raising techniques.

The Internet offers perhaps the most opportunities for experimentation, but charities on the 400 list are also testing new approaches designed to appeal to companies and individuals who haven't previously given in large numbers.

The amount that charities on the 400 have received via the Internet is no match for the dollars they receive in other ways -- but the sums raised on line have begun to grow.

The American Red Cross (No. 5) -- which is considered a leader in on-line fund raising -- took in $543.3-million in overall gifts last year but raised only $172,000 of that through its Web site. This year, it brought in $2.5-million on line. The average Internet gift is $110 -- about the same amount the charity receives from people who give through its toll-free number or other more-traditional means.

The key to the Red Cross's success, officials say, is that it updates its site regularly, posting breaking news as disasters unfold and putting alongside the headlines a prominent "Donate now" button that reminds Web visitors that the charity needs financial help.

Other charities are also looking for ways to make sure they have plenty of appealing content for potential donors.

The Atlanta evangelical group In Touch Ministries (No. 269 on the Philanthropy 400 list) soon plans to allow users to pass prayer requests electronically to one of 350 prayer groups scattered around the country. Another feature will enable people to set up their own "prayer room" -- a private place on the charity's Web site where they can store inspirational material, music, and other information of their own choosing.

The charity started concentrating on its site when it realized how many new people were finding out about the organization via the Internet. Every week the charity gets nearly 5,000 orders on line for its free publications from people who are not on the charity's direct-mail solicitation list. It is now adding those names in the hope that the subscribers will make gifts to the religious organization.

No matter how strategic charities try to be in using their Web sites, they are also benefiting from the serendipitous way people use the Internet to get information. Cornell University (No. 21) recently received $500,000 from a donor who had no connection to the university until he stumbled upon a section of the institution's Web site describing its ornithological laboratory. The man, an avid bird watcher, was so taken with the information he received through the site that he sent the pledge via e-mail.

The Internet boom is not only producing new ways for charities to garner donations from individuals. It is also helping some groups win support from companies that have not given to their causes before.

Amazon.com, the on-line retailer, figured it might attract more attention to its auction site if it turned the first auction into a charity benefit. It examined several charities as potential beneficiaries before it learned that the World Wildlife Fund (No. 135) had been working on conservation projects in the Amazon River basin for more than three decades. The connection between the company's name and the charity's work was a marketer's dream.

Amazon.com arranged the auction, purchased the items for bidding -- including such memorabilia as a photograph signed by John F. Kennedy and an original Andy Warhol painting -- and raised more than $260,000 for the World Wildlife Fund. The fund says it didn't have to spend any money on the event.

Other Philanthropy 400 charities are working with companies on increasingly sophisticated marketing deals.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (No. 302) previously relied mainly on telemarketing to solicit donations and to get its message out to the public. But it felt it was spending too much for too little return.

Now it asks its corporate supporters to help with the job the telemarketers used to do. Dial America, a company that sells magazine subscriptions over the telephone, has agreed to ask its callers to deliver a short message about the dangers of drunk driving after making their pitch for magazine sales.

Alamo Rent A Car plays such messages when a caller is placed on hold. The company also prints MADD's messages on the car-rental agreements it gives to customers and displays posters about the dangers of drinking in its rental offices.

Such donations have helped the charity achieve its goal of cutting down on telemarketing. Donations from telemarketing campaigns represented only 11 per cent of MADD's income last year, compared with 65 per cent in 1995.

Changing demographics of donors are behind many of the innovations of the charities on the Philanthropy 400.

For instance, as Americans become more mobile, the Nature Conservancy (No. 14) is trying to build on loyalties they have to places where they might have lived in the past or where they own a second home.

The charity is using a $10-million challenge grant from an anonymous donor to encourage others to support projects outside of the cities where they live.

Fund raisers say that the "cross border" challenge, as they call it, is designed to appeal to donors who own property outside their hometown or have other reasons to take an abiding interest in protecting land in another region.

If a donor in Virginia, for example, wants to support the Nature Conservancy chapter in Wyoming, the challenge grant will match half of every dollar donated.

So far the program has raised $5.8-million, not including the challenge-grant money, in the first three-quarters of this year.

Some organizations are also trying to seek gifts from the growing ranks of people who are retired.

United Way Community Services, in Detroit (No. 199), recently convinced two local automobile giants, the Ford Motor Company and DaimlerChrysler, to create a system for deducting gifts from the pensions they provide to retired workers.

With help from the United Auto Workers union, the companies modeled the new program on the payroll-deduction plans already used to collect gifts from employees. The companies have agreed to contact some 200,000 retirees to let them know about the giving option.

"We've been trying to reach retirees for the last six years or so, but it's been hit or miss," says Virgil Carr, the Detroit charity's president and CEO. "The beauty of this is that we're working with some of the largest companies in the country, with tens of thousands of retired employees, both white and blue collar, who had a long history of giving to us. They have never been asked to support us in this way before."