Charity Badges: Cheap and Easy – and Distributed – Online Fundraising Tools

An interesting flurry of activity in past weeks with the appearance of a new type of online fundraising tool that could bridge the gap between tried-and-true online donation forms, and the emerging world of Web 2.0 applications (myspace, youtube, wikipedia, etc.): charity badges — also known as fundraising widgits. (widgits are small objects that you can put anywhere on a web page to add new functions, new content, etc.)

Idealware posted a roundup of the candidates that appeared just in time for the holiday giving rush. URL: Tis the Season… for Cheap and Easy – and Distributed – Online Fundraising Tools

Charity badges are interesting new tools that could open up a whole new area in online fundraising – it’s still a bit early to tell if and how these tools might catch on.

I’m going to start my own list here for now. I am already planning get a new category for peer-to-peer and personal fundraising tools set up on the main Matrix directory, so watch for a more comprehensive listing there soon.

Here’s my current list, starting with the ones mentioned in Idealware’s post:

• ChipIn
• Network for Good
• GetActive
• Kintera
• Convio

If you know of more fundraising widgit providers, let me know (irishg@nonprofitmatrix.com) and I’ll include them here, and in the directory.