Network for Good, a processor of online charitable donations for more than 1 million nonprofits, released a report analyzing the $100 million dollars donated to 20,000 groups through its site and affiliated sites since November 2001.
The report's findings include the following:
- Online donors tend to be young with a median age of 38. Offline donors tend to be over the age of 60.
- More than half of online donors are female and most have given to a charity before.
- The online donors at Network for Good seem to be more generous than traditional donors, giving on average $137 in 2005. That is much more than the industry standard of $27.
- The most generous online donors came from Washington, D.C., New York, and Connecticut.
- Half of Network for Good's donors gave to 1 percent of the charities, focusing on giants such as the American Red Cross and Salvation Army. The rest, however, spread their gifts around and favored small and mid-sized nonprofits. When disaster-relief groups are removed, almost seven in 10 donor dollars went to small and mid-sized groups.
- Most popular organizations in 2005 were disaster relief and international groups with $24.5 million going to tsunami relief, Hurricane Katrina, and the Pakistani earthquake. Animal-related organizations ranked third, followed by human services and education.
