Peter Dietz, micro-philanthropy consultant, hosted a Nten webinar on group fundraising last week, reviewing many new services which allow constituents to do their own fundraising for charities they support.  Although funds raised in this manner still represent a small portion of online fundraising, this is clearly a growing trend that nonprofits should take full advantage of.  Major points:

• There are currently about 20 services of this type, all which have widely different revenue and commission structure, ranging for 0% for GiveMeaning (which is sponsored by corporations) to some that charge up to 10%.  It’s best to review what each offers and choose one to focus on, rather than confusing constituents with multiple options that work differently
• Chipin and FirstGiving heavily use widgets which allow placing fundraising buttons on pesonal web sites / blogs;  many of the other services will probably add this capability
• Group fundraising works best when funds are being raised for a specific purpose and the nonprofit organization makes it clear how the donation will be used
• Other differences between the available services:
  • whether they can be used only for 501c3 organizations or by anyone
  • whether they are intended to raise money for specific targets or for any purpose
  • whether they share donor data with the recipient organization
  • some are setup as for profit organizations, others are nonprofit
  • whether or not a fundraising goal can be established

More is available at Nten’s web site.  This is an area that should be explored by all nonprofits.  As Peter suggested, ‘give them (supporters) what they need,’ then ‘get out of the way.’