Charity begins on the net

It started with a huge credit card bill. When a young American woman racked up more than £11,000 of debts, she used her website, SaveKaryn.com, and the generosity of internet users to pay it off. When the site unexpectedly reached its target, online fundraising changed forever. And, thanks to a recent convergence of web activity, e-rattling a tin with your name on it is now easier than ever.

Cyber-begging is not new, but a free web service called Dropcash has linked data from payment service PayPal with that of blogging system TypePad to make it even easier to create your own fundraising webpage - complete with progress bar.

"People are reluctant to give to others on the street because they can't see the effects immediately," says Andre Torrez, author of Dropcash. "But if you lived next door to Karyn and she brought her mounting debt to you, you would be more inclined to help her because you can watch the effects of your donation. Dropcash is one way to follow up and to see how an appeal is progressing."

Ostensibly part of a drive to increase charity fundraising via the web, Dropcash is a reflection of the change in the way we approach donating money online. Now you can help Ed buy a big car or pay for Katie and Kim to fly to London. People are giving money online to those who wouldn't merit a second glance begging on the street.

Social psychologist Martin Skinner, from the University of Warwick, believes that people spend and donate online in a different way than in the physical world.

"Your perceptions have a lot to do with how you spend," he says. "Because online transactions rely on credit cards or bank transfers, the difference when it comes to small amounts isn't so noticeable. It's what's known as Weber's law. When your credit card statement is around £200, the difference between £205 and £212 isn't much, so donating a few quid to an entertaining cause seems insignificant. But if you have £7 in your pocket, handing over £3 to someone seems a lot."

It also seems neater and more memorable to have a balance of £25 than £26.17 - so offloading the difference is merely lightening your pocket of digital small change.

Some causes have even made use of cyberscrounging to convince people to pay for something that they have previously enjoyed free. When Randy Milholland set up his online comic, he was updating it nearly every day. But real life inevitably interfered and he didn't have time to draw as often. His readers started to complain, so he gave them an ultimatum: pay him what he earned last year - around £13,000 - and he would quit his job and work for them.

"It was intended as a way to get people to shut up," he said. "I assumed they would just grow quiet and let me do my thing. Instead, I got $2,000 in the first day." The average donation was $5 - but with a lot of regular readers, he raised the total in less than a month.

More common on community websites are reader appeals for new servers and updated software - something that Americans, with a long history of public service broadcasting appeals, are used to. The community feel is an important element to the phenomenon.

With less conventional causes, "it's about the novelty value as well", says Skinner. "It's the fun of being involved in a social exchange and you want to know what will happen. You see the joke and, for a couple of quid, you can be part of it. But if it happens too much, it loses its sense of fun."

Some feel cyber-begging crossed that line long ago with a series of SaveKaryn copycats. Occasionally, though, something captures the imagination- such as the climatologist who said on a newsgroup that it would take $100 for him to see apocalyptic sci-fi film The Day After Tomorrow. Fellow users raised the money in hours, and his review went online the following day.

Milholland appreciates that his fans' generosity won't turn into a regular income. "I'm working on business plans to make money independently through the comic," he says. "I never want to do that [fundraising] drive again. It's a card you don't play more than once."

Meanwhile, whether it's getting family members to send Gran on holiday, or Bob in Utah who really wants an iPod, the advent of Dropcash is sure to herald an increase in the amount of online appeals.

"I would like Dropcash to be used to raise money so someone can keep doing something interesting," says Torrez. "Not for paying off credit card debt or getting someone a boob job."

The nature of the internet, however, would suggest he will get plenty of both.

Links


Dropcash www.dropcash.com

Randy Milholland www.somethingpositive.net

Ed needs a Hummer www.edneedsahummer.com

www.londondreams.net