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Seth Goldberg, a New York executive with a medical malpractice insurance company, is a self-described Internet "news junkie." He had followed reports of the North Korean famine with great concern. So when an October 1997 North Korea news story he read on the Yahoo Web site linked him to the World Vision (WV) Web site, Goldberg decided to give $5,000 for relief efforts with a few strokes of his keyboard. "That made the difference to me, that I was able to get enough information to come to a decision," he says. "It was a very intelligent, easy way [to donate]."

Confronted with donor attrition and the increasing cost of direct mail, Christian nonprofits are turning to technology, especially the Internet, to attract new donors such as Goldberg.

World Vision U.S. (www.worldvision. org), which has had a Web site since April 1997, created an emergency campaign on its site for Sudan, with facts, photos, and video clips of relief work. In July, nearly 170 people donated $70,000 to World Vision through its Web site, about 10 percent of the total amount the agency raised.

The four-year-old Web site of Food for the Hungry (www.fh.org) already has become the group's second-largest source of new child sponsors, nearly doubling to 7 percent over 12 months and generating annual income near $190,000.

Web sites with .org in the domain name (typically used by nonprofits) have grown from a few hundred in 1992 to 115,000, according to Network Solutions, Inc., the company that registers new Web sites. Most of those that accept online donations use secure sites with encryption technology. But not all organizations have been successful in recouping the cost of Web site creation and maintenance. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) added a donation page to its two-year-old Web site (www.billygraham.org) in August, but has received few online gifts. The BGEA, though, believes the purpose of the site is evangelism, not fundraising.

NO FAST MONEY: Those looking for quick financial returns from the Web will be disappointed, industry experts say. Tom McCabe, CEO of KMA, a direct response agency based in Dallas, advises clients, including World Vision, American Bible Society, Concerned Women for America (CWA), and Trans World Radio (TWR), to invest in a Web presence as an information tool to reach a younger, technology-savvy audience.

Brian Kluth, president of the Christian Stewardship Association (CSA), says organizations that clearly communicate ministry goals using the Internet could see an increase in donations through traditional means.

The 182-year-old American Bible Society (www.americanbible.org), with donors on the average in their sixties, launched its Web site last year with daily Scripture readings and a catalog of Bibles and Bible products to try to attract younger donors.

CWA (www.cwfa.org) uses its site as a lobbying tool to inform constituents about pending legislation and link them online with members of Congress. The site also sells resources such as books, cassettes, and bumper stickers.

For organizations without traditional products to sell, "virtual" gifts such as goats or medical checkups for poor families purchased in someone's honor provide direct donations to the organizations and Christmas cards to the gift recipients (CT, Oct. 26, 1998, p. 14).

World Concern (www.worldconcern. org), which has had a Web version of its Global Gift Guide since 1996, raised more than 7 percent of its total 1997 catalog income from online donations, up from less than 1 percent the previous year.

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December 7 1998, Vol. 42, No. 14