Google is offering Google Checkout to nonprofit organizations. Through the end of 2008, nonprofits can process online donations at the fine rate of $0.00 per transaction and 0.00% fees — can you believe it, a true 100% of the donation goes to the organization!

Here are a few words posted on the Google Checkout Blog about this:

“Besides being free, Checkout for Non-Profits is designed to make the entire donation and collection process more efficient. For donors, it enables you to complete a donation with just your Google login, and it helps you track your giving in a convenient and central place (a feature that should be particularly useful for those of us who tend to start our tax returns on April 14).”

I look forward to taking the system for a test drive.

The true value of the Internet for any nonprofit organizations is in creating and sustaining constituent relationships to ensure ongoing support. This is achieved by implementing an online Constituent Relationship Management (eCRM) strategy to involve constituents — especially donors — in more than one activity so they can provide support for the organization in multiple ways at different times. An effective eCRM strategy not only raises funds online but also:

• Helps drives online and offline giving
• Increases donor lifetime value
• Reduces communication and fundraising costs
• Supports major giving
• Contributes to the success of other activities, e.g., advocacy, volunteering and outreach to new constituents and donors

This is a very interesting article by: Vinay Bhagat

Techsoup (the site that provides tech advice to nonprofits) has published an article on What is Web 2.0 anyway? covering blogs, RSS, tagging, social bookmarking and AJAX. The author Alexandra Krasne writes:

Web 2.0 tools are important, but their impact goes much deeper than their gadget-y novelty might suggest. Individuals and organizations alike are finding new and increasingly effective ways of connecting through Web 2.0 technology. This is the human side of this technical transformation.

Even the smallest organization has a story to share and voices to amplify. Web 2.0 can help you be heard. This new Web of connections is already allowing nonprofit supporters to build movements for social, environmental, economic, and political change. Don’t let your movement leave you behind.”

As a blogger and an entrepreneur, I strongly believe that the emergence of these social technologies (the so-called Web 2.0 trends) will change the ways nonprofits and foundations work and thrive in the Information Age.

Innovative use of the Internet has become a mainstay for nonprofit organizations, with many using interactive technologies for education, collaboration, member communications, management of meeting attendance, and publishing. What was once considered innovative is probably mainstream today, as both nonprofit organizations and their members become more comfortable going online.

Yesterday [September 22], in mid-town Manhattan, four nonprofit organizations were honored for their outstanding work in ePhilanthropy. Hosted by the ePhilanthropy Foundation, the 2005 International ePhilanthropy Awards recognized 23 finalists whose innovative use of the Internet in meeting their missions set them above the rest of the nominees. The awards, distributed in four categories, consisted of a $500 cash award to a charity and an original glass sculpture, and were presented to the winners during a two-hour ceremony led by Bob Carter, President and CEO of Ketchum.

Find out which organizations won the awards (article by Kate Golden, OnPhilanthropy).

Today’s donors know what they want. They know how they want to accomplish it. They are direct and decisive. They want to know what’s going on, where their money is going, how it is being spent, and what their last donation did, before you ask them for more. They want to understand what you do, how it’s different from what other organizations do, and what you’ve accomplished…

So, what should nonprofits do for their donors? Here are a few guidelines to follow in shaping your nonprofit organization’s communications strategy:

Donors want to feel appreciated…
Donors want to feel involved…
Donors want to be recognized…
Donors want to help solve problems…
Donors want to help people…
Donors want to feel more than think…

Yes, you will definitely raise more money, but first, please, give donors what they want. Read more…