Nonprofits turn small donors into fund source

Internet sites link givers, beneficiaries for specific projects

San Francisco Business Times
by Sarah Duxbury

The Internet is giving rise to a new breed of nonprofits whose existence would have been inconceivable a decade ago.

These new nonprofits are building philanthropic marketplaces that allow donors to browse for the exact good works they wish to fund. If educating girls in Third World countries is your thing, Changingthepresent.org can tell you exactly how much a nonprofit needs to buy a pair of shoes to get a girl to school and it can help you make that donation online. If you’d rather help a Hunters Point classroom fund a field trip to Alcatraz, Donors Choose can facilitate that. What these sites and others like them share is that they allow donors to search for projects that excite them and make clear exactly how donations are used.

Full Story: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2007/04/30/story10.html?b=1177905600^1453825