In the spring of 2001, a survey by BBB Wise Giving found only 6 percent of Americans had made an online donation of $10 or more, and just 22 percent said they would consider making one in the future. Then came September 11.
Hours after the terrorist attack, Amazon turned its website into a donation platform for the American Red Cross. The company was not yet the mammoth online marketplace it is today, but by 2001, it had already diversified its products well beyond books and reached a broad audience. Regular Amazon users emailed the link to friends, which quickly generated a giving tsunami. Within the first 24 hours, the Red Cross reported receiving nearly 41,000 donations through its website, totaling $1.18 million.
Leading tech companies of the time — AOL Time Warner, Cisco Systems, eBay, Microsoft, and Yahoo — also banded together to help. They launched America Liberty Partnership, which tracked online giving and provided links to 30 government-vetted nonprofit organizations that were providing services in the aftermath of 9/11, including mainstays like the Red Cross and Salvation Army but also newly created groups. Two months after the attack, online donations through the website topped more than $106 million, compared with $250 million collected online for all causes in 2000.
Powerless in the face of devastation, giving provided people with a way to act — and now they had a quick and efficient way to do it. Rather than mailing a check or calling an operator, they could give to those in need with the click of a donate button. In all, more than $2.8 billion was donated to causes surrounding the September 11 attacks, and after decades of disengagement, a new era of civic mindedness was born in America.
But this sea change in giving was not without challenges, some of which continue to reverberate today. Concerns about the potential for fraud and lack of accountability grew as donations flooded in at an unprecedented rate.
Red Cross Scandal
The first test came when the Red Cross was called to task for not distributing enough of its massive fundraising windfall to the families of 9/11 victims. By November, the organization had raised $564 million for its Liberty Disaster Fund, but had distributed just $154 million to those affected by the terrorist attacks. As was its practice, the Red Cross held back some funds for future disasters.
While this reflected good stewardship of its resources, members of the public didn’t see it that way. They had rushed to give, many through new online portals, and wanted their donations directed quickly to causes related to the attacks.
An uproar ensued, congressional hearings were held, and the Red Cross agreed to give all the funds raised to 9/11 relief. The next year, the Red Cross started requiring online donors to confirm that they understood how the Red Cross would use their gifts.
Accountability Challenges
As online giving has grown and new platforms like crowdfunding and payment apps have taken off — especially during the pandemic — a lack of accountability continues to pose challenges. For example, direct-support social media campaigns such as GoFundMe are simple to set up to meet immediate need, but difficult to track to ensure those funds are being used for their intended purpose. As such applications grow in popularity, creating oversight mechanisms similar to what is required for traditional nonprofits will be critical.
Greater effort is also needed to ensure the continued growth of online giving, particularly as climate-related disasters increase. The online giving platform Network for Good, formed after 9/11 through the continuing collaboration of AOL and Yahoo, was firmly in place when the country’s next major disaster struck in 2005 — Hurricane Katrina. Following Katrina, the platform collected 107,000 donations totaling $13 million for 344 charities — 20 times its normal volume.
But recent data suggests nonprofits could be doing more to take full advantage of online giving. While a record 13 percent of donations came from online giving in 2020 as Covid-19 struck, just 9 percent of gifts were made online during the relatively calm year of 2019, according to Blackbaud Institute. Blackbaud also found that online donors are about as likely to give to a nonprofit again as those who use more traditional means.
A Donate Button Is Not Enough
To bring in more donors, nonprofits need to improve their online donation platforms. While a donate button on a website may have felt like an innovation after 9/11, it is no longer enough. Consider that 30 percent of online gifts last year were made on mobile devices. To attract more Gen Z and millennial donors, nonprofits need to embrace innovative methods of giving on a range of devices and platforms.
They also need to do more to compete with GoFundMe and other direct-giving platforms, which have grown in popularity but lack the ability to reach a broad swath of those most in need. In some cases, these campaigns may actually exacerbate inequities. A study of 175,000 GoFundMe campaigns at the start of the pandemic found that 40 percent raised no money and that the most successful campaigns were carried out by people living in wealthier neighborhoods.
Today’s giving trends may also reflect deeper societal problems that were not as evident 20 years ago. While the 9/11 tragedy united Americans through the act of giving and community service, the Covid-19 disaster has reinforced societal cleavages.
There is much the nonprofit world can learn from the lessons of two decades ago about Americans’ desire to give in the face of disaster. People want to give, but how they give is an expression of the urgency and emotions of the moment. Making giving as easy and direct as possible means quickly adapting to current trends and technology — whether that means adding a website donation button or another innovation that lies around the corner.
