The booming online holiday spending trends hold strong potential for hospital fundraising efforts. iGive.com, a top shopping-related charitable giving Web site, has helped several nonprofits raise more than $425,000 for charitable causes since its inception three years ago.
In October, iGive.com helped to raise $90,000 for 2,107 member nonprofit organizations. The charitable causes cover a broad spectrum of more than 6,000 issues, from medical research foundations and animal shelters to women's shelters and missing children advocacy groups.
The Web site recently provided new e-fundraising opportunities for The Children's Miracle Network, an organization that generates funds to benefit children at 165 hospitals and Utah Children, a child advocacy organization.
The site's online merchants, like eToys, CDNow, barnesandnoble.com and J.Crew, offer consumers the same or lower prices they would pay elsewhere with up to 15% of their purchase price benefiting their favorite charitable cause.
"As a relatively small organization, we see a fundraising opportunity such as iGive.com as an extremely cost- and time-effective way for us to raise funds to further our mission to better the lives of children," says Jennifer Christiansen, Utah Children's development coordinator.
(iGive.com, Allison Clark, 847/492-6965)