12.17.2004 ET

(CSRwire) WASHINGTON - As Americans contemplate their holiday and year-end giving to charity this month, more donors than ever before will be connecting with charities online. While traditional offline giving to charities by individual Americans held steady last year, giving online grew by more than 60%, totaling approximately $2 billion.

According to a survey of more than 10,000 Internet users by Network for Good, the largest nonprofit processor of online donations, three out of four people say they have visited a charitable website. Half of them say they have taken an action as a direct result.

The increase in activity between donors and their favorite charities online is the result of a number of factors, according to Bill Strathmann, CEO of Network for Good. "We know two things: First, 89% of Americans households give to charity. Second, they are increasingly comfortable using their credit cards online. Add to that the efficiency of doing charity online and it stands to reason that online giving will mirror the online shopping growth trends."

Network for Good, a website that includes detailed listings of more than one million U.S.-based charities and a searchable database of nearly 80,000 volunteer opportunities, is just one example of how donors are headed to the Internet to give to their favorite charities. Since its inception three years ago, Network for Good has distributed more than $45 million in donations to more than 15,000 nonprofits and also referred more than 175,000 volunteers with thousands of nonprofit organizations nationwide.

Network for Good is also helping smaller charities get in the game. More than two-thirds of donations made through Network for Good are for charities with budgets of less than $5 million, according to joint study by Network for Good and The Urban Institute, an economic and social policy research organization based in Washington, DC.

In fact, about a third of the donations are to charities with very small budgets of less than $500,000. "The Internet and organizations like Network for Good are leveling the playing field for smaller nonprofits," Strathmann adds, "by connecting these worthy charities with the primary funding source in the sector, namely, millions of generous Americans who are completing their giving this holiday season."

About Network for Good
Network for Good (www.networkforgood.org) is the Internet's leading charitable resource, an easy-to-use website where individuals can connect with causes they care about by donating to more than one million nonprofit organizations and by choosing from among tens of thousands of volunteer opportunities. Network for Good also works directly with nonprofits to advance the adoption of the Internet as a tool for fundraising, volunteer recruitment and community engagement. Founded in 2001 by AOL, Cisco Systems and Yahoo!, Network for Good is an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

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