Kintera/Luth Non-Profit Trend Report Indicates Increased Online Giving

SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- The Kintera/Luth Nonprofit Trend Report is the brainchild of the research partnership between Kintera, Inc. -- the leading technology provider for nonprofit organizations -- and Luth Research, a veteran online market research firm.

This second comprehensive report about the U.S. population’s online donation habits is based on two surveys administered in March and April 2005 to the Luth Research SurveySavvy Panel, a widely recognized online sample source with 3.5 million individuals in the United States. The first survey received 1,543 responses, and the second received 1,599 responses.

Key discoveries as a result of this research are:

• More than 8.6 million U.S. households donated over $3 billion online in 2004, an increase of more than 50% from our estimate for online giving in 2003.

• The Internet played a role in influencing more than 65% of donors before giving a donation, whether online or offline.

• The study showed that the vast majority of donors are going online to study causes they care about. As for the larger donors (those giving $10,000 or more), all who responded to our surveys used the Internet at least sometimes to learn about causes for which they donated.

• More than 65% of donors visit at least one of the websites of the nonprofit or fund-raising events before making their donations; more than 40% of donors always go online before making the donation.

• More than 75% of donors who go online before making a donation noted that doing so made some impact on their decision whether or not to give, and more than 25% said the impact was significant.

• On average, online givers donate in total (both online and offline) more than 50% more than those donors who do not give online.

• More than 12% of all donating households in 2004 made some online donations.

• About 35% of all online donors gave at least half of their donation amount online; 22% of all online donors gave all of their donations online. This means about 3% of all donors in 2004 gave all their donations online.

• About 5% of donation amounts given by households that gave less than $10,000 in 2004 were given online.

• The year 2004 saw online giving reach the mainstream. About 1.2% of all donations came online, from more than 8.6 million households.

For more findings and a complete report, log on to www.kintera.org/Kintera-LuthReport2005.