Not-for-Profit uses

Not-for-profit uses

The design of Web sites for public, not-for-profit organizations is similar to other Web sites including the same marketing , customer service, and cost control uses seen previously. What makes them different is that they sell items donated to them though auctions, and request donations with no products sold in this last case. These different features are summarized below, but the basic reference for not-for-profit uses is covered in details in chapters 1-5, Book IX, of Starting an Online Business.

Auctions for public, not-for-profit organizations:

Third-party auction on behalf of a not-for-profit organization: eBay Giving Works. To qualify to use eBay Giving Works you need to be certified by MissionFish.org.
Not-for-profit organization doing direct auction: BenefitEvents, GoBid Auctions, cMarket, and AuctionAnything.com.

Soliciting donations

Using online giving sites, or charity portals:
- Main portals: JustGive.org, Network for Good, and CanadaHelps.org.
- No registration fees, but close about 3% is deducted from donations received to pay credit card processing fees
- Must register with GuideStart first, that verifies that the organization is a not-for-profit, charity organization
- Can place a link in the not-for-profit Web site to the charity portal, so that your visitors can do online donations

Placing a donate now button in a not-for-profit Web site directly using special providers:
- BlackBaud, , and CharityWeb.
- the fees vary: can be a setup and/or monthly fees, and/or a transaction percentage
- the charity portals we saw before only charge the credit card processing percentage

Shopping for a good cause or charity malls:

shoppers buy the products they would regularly buy and a portion of the proceeds is donated to a charity of the shopper choice.
this work for the malls because the charities encourage their members and potential donors to go to these malls (this is similar to going to a grocery store and giving the receipts for a given elementaty, middle or high school so that they can receive computers and other goods from the grocery stores, as is common in the Howard County, MD area).
Some charity malls: iGive, and MyCause.com .

This page is maintained by Al Bento who can be reached at abento@ubalt.edu. This page was last updated on January 15, 2010. Although we will attempt to keep this information accurate, we can not guarantee the accuracy of the information provided.