Wolfgang Amann • Shiban Khan

The Internet has made reaching a vast base of people possible by means of a single click, and has thus significantly changed the communication process in today's world. Nonprofit organizations avail the Internet to disseminate information to the public and to build community support for their causes. This study was conducted to determine the status quo of Internet use for fundraising activities within environmental nonprofits and to propose the necessary improvements. This is a quantitative study that was conducted via interviews with key fundraising personnel of multiple organizations. Environmentally focused nonprofit organizations from the state of Pennsylvania, USA, served as the sample.

The results clearly indicate the overall effectiveness of Internet use for fundraising purposes to be quite disheartening. Due to resource constraints and a lack of technical knowledge, compounded by organizational reservations about its advanced use, online fundraising emerged as a low priority for the targeted organizations. None of the organizations seemed content with their level of online fundraising, despite acknowledging its vast potentials. In this study, two strategy roadmaps are recommended to overcome the current situation - imparting a higher level of priority on the online aspects of the core fundraising process, and implementing the activities with more professionalism.