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Donors turn to Internet to give money
31 December 2004WASHINGTON - Faced with searing images of suffering and grief in South Asia, Americans are finding an instantaneous way to reach out to tsunami victims: on their home computers.
Like never before, people are turning to the Internet in droves to donate money, the latest step in a revolution that has altered everything from shopping to presidential campaigns.
''This is like 1951, when television really took off,'' Paul Saffo, director of the Silicon Valley-based Institute for the Future, said this week. ``We are in the middle of a fundamental shift from mass media to the personal media of computers and the Internet, and charitable giving is a logical progression.''
At Amazon.com alone, more than 95,000 people had donated more than $6 million by Thursday after the company made an urgent appeal on its website on behalf of the American Red Cross. Catholic Relief Services was so overwhelmed with Web traffic that its site crashed. Online donations to the Red Cross outstripped traditional phone banks by more than 2 to 1.
The online generosity was a key part of a massive U.S. response to the crisis in South Asia.
''Online, by phone, the mail,'' marveled Steven Gotfried, of Washington-based B'nai B'rith International, which has been overwhelmed with offers to help. ``Every two or three minutes, we get a donation. People are really giving from the heart.''
Much of that came from people at their computers. That has happened before, mainly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But relief officials said the scale of online giving has grown dramatically since.
As of Tuesday, for example, 25,000 people had visited RedCross.org to pledge money for tsunami victims. About 9,000 people had called the donor line, officials said.
Stephen Schwartz, chief financial officer at the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, said that nearly half of the $18,000 they collected for tsunami relief Wednesday and Thursday had been given online.
Online donations beat phone gifts 2 to 1 at the Boca Raton-based Cross International, which will distribute resources through Christian ministries already in areas hit hardest, said President James Cavnar. ''We've gotten twice as many gifts from the website as from our 1-800 number,'' Cavnar told The Herald on Thursday. ``This is the first time that's ever happened.''
Donations after Sunday's calamity in South Asia already outpace those after other disasters. From Aug. 13 to 23, the Red Cross estimated it received $19 million in pledges for victims of Hurricane Charley. As of noon Wednesday, the Red Cross had received $18 million for tsunami victims.
''Technology has had a huge impact on our ability to disseminate information,'' said Kara Bunte of the Red Cross. ``The support has been overwhelming, amazing.''
Relief officials say money is the fastest way to help.
The instant-response capabilities of the Internet, combined with a desire to reach out to bigger audiences, prompted many companies to encourage donations on their own high-traffic websites.
The Internet search engine Google posted a link just under its ''Google Search'' feature that offered ``Ways to help with tsunami relief.''
On America Online's ''start'' page, AOL subscribers found links to donate through Network for Good, a Web-based nonprofit.
A Network for Good survey said online giving grew last year to about $2 billion.
In the world of fundraising, the Internet is ''the great equalizer,'' said Nancy Aossey, president of International Medical Corps, an L.A.-based humanitarian relief agency.
Herald staff writer Elaine de Valle contributed to this report.
Source: Miami Herald
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