National Services Cooperative Website

Online Fundraising...

First and foremost, any and all nonprofits regardless of size should have a "Company Website" that actually has it's own domain name (Internet address) that belongs to the organization. Having a tag along site (page on someone else's site) usually means you are very limited to the depth of marketing you can do, restricts updates and makes the URL or Domain Name very hard to remember for those who wish to return to your site. Plus... having your own domain name allows you to also have matching e-mail addresses which will promote a better organizational image than using the free MSN or Yahoo type web based e-mail accounts. (it's already hard enough to raise funds and this lends a higher degree of credibility).

What is Online Fundraising?

Online fundraising is utilizing a website or online promotions to present your cause to the millions of people who use the internet daily to bring funds into your organization. The easiest and best way is to have your own nonprofit website and have someone within your organization that can do a little more than just design a site, or hire a company that goes to the next level of both marketing your organization and your fundraising programs. Web design and Internet marketing are two completely different fields of expertise. Online fundraising has become the process of choice for many very large nonprofits as it's most profitable resource.

What are some of these opportunities?

The must widely used online fundraising programs are called "Affiliate" or "Referral" programs. these programs are usually free to utilize as you are simply becoming a commissioned salesperson for their products and/or services. Some more advanced programs require a small investment to actually become a "Re-seller" of their products and/or services. These programs require some knowledge of HTML (or another website scripting language) to be able to place your unique & identifiable code (link) on your website to record and get credit for the people who click that link on your site and go to the sponsoring site and buy products and/or services.

The unique aspect of these programs in reference to a nonprofit as compare to a for-profit company signing up is very simple... most nonprofits have a following, or network of people and businesses who support them and one announcement such as: "We now have a whole resource library of books you can buy from us online to enable you to help support our cause by purchasing items through our website that you already purchase elsewhere... Thank you for your continued support". Yes, you can actually make just about any product or service available to your network through one of these programs and earn revenue for your nonprofit organization.