Online Philanthropy

Donating money isn’t something that everyone does, but its something that everyone thinks about doing at one time or another. It’s also something that, now that the Internet has been born, is much easier to do than ever before. With sites like JustGive.org and Networkforgood.org the prospect of donating has now become something that people can do anonymously without the hassle of constantly getting someone at your door, because you, “donated last year,” or bags of mail when all you wanted was to do was donate that one time.

Not only is it easier for a person to donate - really all one has to do is sit down at their computer - but it’s also easier to keep track of how many donations were given and thus making it easier to prepare taxes. Both the above mentioned online giving systems offer ways in which you can track how much you gave, who you gave to, and when you donated.

Both these websites are not just about giving, but they’re also about volunteering. For example a user can search out where and who to volunteer for and when to do it. A user can find a local place to volunteer at or a place they may be visiting for the summer or anytime. The sites give users access to any volunteer group in the U.S. or abroad.

JustGive and Network for Good are similar in many ways, but have contrasting aspects. At first glance both sites seem to do pretty much the same thing. A user goes on, click on button, donates to a charity, enters their credit card number and it’s all over. That may be true but JustGive offers a few more advantages than Network for Good. JustGive makes it for a person to find a charity and makes it possible to set up a wedding registry with them, so friends and family can donate to their favorite charities instead of giving sets of silver wear. JustGive has done investigative research for their users. Through this process they’ve found only most respected charities in the U.S. This way of donating can, and usually does, ease the mind of even the most suspicious online giver.