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The New York Times
September 14, 1999

New Audience for Advocacy Groups on the Internet

By Rebecca Fairley Raney

Advocacy groups like the Sierra Club and the Humane Society have been facing a problem: the 12 million or so Americans who make up their base of contributors tend to be over the age of 60, and young people have not shown much interest in supporting such groups.

The Internet might provide a solution. A study released Tuesday indicates that about 25 percent of adults in the United States have gotten involved in social causes and are on the Internet, making them potential donors or volunteers for groups with an Internet presence.

These socially engaged Internet users are younger and more diverse in their political leanings than traditional donors, according to the study, which is the first to examine the potential for online donations to activist groups. And they are also more interested in seeing those groups demonstrate real progress towards their goals.

For years, nonprofit fund-raisers have been frustrated by the fact that baby boomers, the people who first rallied around causes like the environment, have not been big contributors. The survey gives them some encouraging news: While nearly two-thirds of traditional donors are older than 60, the average age for people who have been involved in social issues and have Internet access is 42.

"There was a baton pass and no one to take the baton," said Mark Rovner, director of the interactive division for Craver, Mathews, Smith and Co., the political consulting firm that commissioned the poll. "With the Internet, that baton pass may be completed."

Of the socially engaged Internet users surveyed, 16 percent said they would be willing to take action on an issue online. Eight percent said they would be willing to donate money online to a charity or public interest group. Yet fully two-thirds of these potential online activists were unaware of opportunities to get involved in causes electronically.

"There's this large audience waiting to be brought in," said Mark Mellman, a well-known Washington pollster who conducted the study. "Even these people who are very much involved in their causes don't know that the opportunity exists to get involved on the Internet."

Mellman's firm, the Mellman Group, conducted a random telephone survey of 800 adults who have Internet access and who said they had been involved with issues like poverty, civil rights and the environment. The sample's margin of error is 3.5 percentage points. The clients of Craver, Mathews, Smith, which commissioned the poll, include the non-profit groups Habitat for Humanity, the Humane Society and Amnesty International.

The difference in political leanings between traditional donors and potential online activists are as striking as the age difference.

While 74 percent of direct-mail donors polled in a separate survey last year considered themselves liberal, the activists with Internet access showed an even split. Only 43 percent said they were liberal, and 44 percent said they were conservative.

But young online donors could place far more demands on nonprofit groups than their traditional supporters. More than half said it was "absolutely essential" for groups to be more accountable to donors. In the separate survey of direct mail users last year, only 28 percent asked groups to demonstrate real progress.

Nonprofit groups also face serious obstacles in driving traffic to their Web sites and reassuring users that the personal information they present will not be misused, according to the new survey. Most respondents said they found charity sites through word of mouth, search engines or news reports. They also said they would be far more likely to donate to a group whose name they recognized.

Rovner advised non-profit groups: "Don't think that having a Web site will solve all your problems. People don't go out and say, 'Which charity Web site am I going to donate to?'"

For Rob Stuart, the findings of the study rang true. Stuart, with the backing of the Pew Charitable Trusts, ran "Our Forests," an online campaign to save national forests. He worked on the campaign with a consortium of environmental groups, and ultimately delivered 187,000 e-mail messages on the issue from individuals to Vice President Al Gore.

The response rate for the campaign's messages to Internet users was far greater than that for targeted mailings. The campaign sent e-mail solicitations to users of Juno, a service that provides free e-mail to customers who agree to view ads on their screens. The first solicitation went to Juno users who had indicated they were interested in hiking, camping or fishing. Eleven percent responded. The second solicitation went to the larger Juno population. Surprisingly, the response rate was still 11 percent.

"People are looking for ways to engage," Stuart said. "In order to survive, groups that want to be active have got to be online and giving the public an opportunity to get involved."

Even so, he warned that organizations should not turn their Internet efforts into a repeat performance of the failings of direct mail. Many activists have been turned off by the many requests for donations they receive in the mail.

Though nonprofit organizations are largely behind the curve on using the Internet to spread their messages and raise money, the Mellman Group's study shows there is serious potential.

"We will have eBays of the non-profit world," said Phil Noble, president of Politics Online, a consulting firm in Charleston, S.C. "We will have Amazons of the non-profit world. Who's going to be the new United Way of the net?"

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