Online fundraising

Online fundraising is the use of Internet-based technology, marketing and communication techniques by non-profit organizations to bring in revenue, frequently as donations.

Fundraising for non-profit organizations and membership organizations has traditionally required a combination of personal requests, direct-mail asks, telephone solicitations and special events.

The practice of fundraising online has evolved from the basic strategy of the "Donate Now" button, where organizations developed a simple web form to capture credit card gifts and posted a "donate now" button on their website, to more complex strategies using lessons from traditional direct mail appeals and the expediency of email campaigns to solicit gifts from a list of opt-in supports; and now organizations have begun employing new strategies with web based tools like blogs, community networking, social peer-groups and advanced virtual worlds. The practice has become known as Electronic Constituent Relationship Management as it is closely related to electronic customer relationship management.