Our 5 Favorite Nonprofits Using Technology

Web 2.0 has massively impacted the way people use technology to communicate.  Besides personal use of social media, businesses and organizations obviously want to cash in on this opportunity to reach more people than ever before.  The online sector can especially benefit nonprofit organizations since the most popular networking sites are free and have a huge user base.  There are a bunch of ways nonprofits can (and do!) use online technology to their benefit.  For example:

• Social media can tell the story of the good work NPOs do!
• Location-based apps help produce local interest
• Participating in the online community is a free way to generate funds/donations
• Sharing ideas and combining forces with others of similar interests/goals

Being involved with Zealous Good allows us to work with nonprofits that use online technology for these very reasons!  Here is a list of our 5 favorite nonprofits using online technology:

• Chicago Cares: Chicago Cares utilizes volunteer work to create programs to address the needs of the Chicago community.  Since 1991, Chicago Cares volunteers have completed more than 1.1 million hours of service through more than 25,000 group volunteer projects.
• Donors Choose: DonorsChoose.org is an online charity system that helps public schools in need.  Teachers in American public schools post classroom requests, donors can search wish lists and can pick a cause to support.
• Causes:  Causes is the “world’s largest platform for activism and philanthropy,” with 140 million users, with $30 million raised for 25,000 nonprofits.  Causes is fully integrated into Facebook, which contributes immensely to its user base.
• Sparked.com: The world’s “first Microvolunteering network.”  100% online-based, Sparked makes it easy for people to give back online using their professional skills whenever and wherever they have time.  Nonprofits benefit from the crowd-sourcing and free professional assistance.
• Crowdrise: Crowdrise is another online platform for volunteering and raising money for charity.  Users can create a “project” they want to get funded and share with potential donators.

Obviously, these are just a few of our favorites.  In the age of Web 2.0, we love social media and user-generated content, and non-profit sites such as these make it easy to help almost any cause!