Charities & Technology

The purpose of this blog was to show a connection with technology and faith. Charities around the world have taken advantage of the benefits of technology by implementing technology within their charitable business to improve operations, donations, and even public relations. I have posted two posts showing how two charities, Salvation Army and invisible children are currently using all sorts of technology to spread the word on their specific causes.

Only one in 10 Americans has complete confidence in charitable organizations because they don't know where their money goes. Technology is the future of that missing link between accountability between charities and donors. This is going to be the new standard for how people give.

In a Computer World article, Heather Havenstein discusses how charities now use "widgets," small, single purpose Web applications to improve their services. The article identified Operation Kids, an organization use now uses widgets to provide streaming video and photos of its New Orleans projects and an explanation of each project's goals. The first widget, which was jointly developed by technology firms MediaForge and Cobalt Communications Group, can be used by viewers to donate to Operation Kids.

Users can also download the widget and embed it in their own Web site or social network to raise money for the charity. I have published a post for the Salvation Army Online Red Kettle program which used a widget to show the progress of donations to my kettle.

Accountablity and efficiency have become important criteria for many charities in light of questions of how donated relief dollars were spent during recent disasters. Rick Larsen, co-founder of Operation Kids says, "We can use the technology both as a donation solicitor and a fully interactive communication process to say, 'Here is where your money went, and here is streaming video or a picture of the people you affected.' People can become their own fundraisers -- they can set a fund-raising goal in their online community."

The organization plans to use the widgets to provide before and after photos of the various projects it has undertaken in New Orleans. They include the repair of a damaged day care center and a decimated playground at a charter school of science and math.

While the organization is using New Orleans as a testbed for the widget, its use of the technology has already gone so well that it already plans to apply it to other projects to help provide accountability craved by donors, Larsen added.