This study suggests that an “Internet communications gap” exists between higher dollar donors and charities. In short, most causes are not making the best possible use of their Web and email efforts to connect with this critically important audience.

The report is available for download here.

A couple of excerpts from the announcement:

Google Checkout for Non-Profits is a fast, convenient donation process that helps you attract more donors and increase online giving to your organization – and you can use it to process donations by charging credit or debit cards for free until 2009.

For donors, it enables you to complete a donation with just your Google login, and it helps you track your giving in a convenient and central place

Google Checkout for Nonprofits is available only to registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits in the United States. However, nonProfits in the UK can use Google Checkout UK (http://checkout.google.co.uk/), which is also available for free (until the end of 2007).

> Visit Google Checkout for Nonprofits

The guide can be downloaded here (free registration required).

Charity badges — also known as fundraising widgets — are small graphic modules (similar in appearance to online banner ads) designed to help individuals and nonprofits raise funds online. Charity badges solicit donations for a specific cause or organization and can be posted to Web sites, blogs, and social networking pages.

The article describes the basic function and purpose of charity badges and profiles two of the leading providers, as well as offering a case study and strategic advice to using charity badges in fundraising campaigns.

Read Techsoup’s article Charity Badges: Turn Your Supporters into Fundraisers.

CareBadges recently opened the doors on its new service, offering customized badges that people can place their own personal websites. blogs, MySpace accounts, etc.

CareBadges is just getting started (top fundraisers so far is $100), but promises some enhanced features such as adding your own slideshow to your personal carebadge.

Read more about charity badge providers on the NonProfit Matrix

The site features a live, dynamically-updated ‘popularity’ poll where anyone can nominate and vote for the organizatios they think are doing the best job of effectively using new user-driven web tools - such as blogs, photo streams, comment boards ranking/voting and whatever else is new and cool in the social media world.

The list contains many of the familiar names you’d expect: Greenpeace, Oxfam, MoveOn, Sierra Club; and also quite a few smaller unknowns who are doing truly innovative work to explore new web technologies. (check out Kiva, Modest Needs, PledgeBank and Witness for some refreshingly new ideas).

Much of the exploration into Web 2.0 for nonprofits is being done on non-commercial open-source platforms like Plone and Drupal, and by some of the edge-players in the online services marketplace, but increasingly the big players are also coming on board.

Organizations using Kintera Sphere CRM will now have the ability to score and group their supporter base into wealth segments. Kintera Sphere CRM will now provide a novel wealth score based on supporters’ liquid financial assets, enabling nonprofits to easily segment their database by capacity to donate. As a result, nonprofits can customize “ask” amounts based on a donor’s ability to give.

Read the full press release.

The report  is built around an in-depth case study of the SPCA of Texas, and looks at the impact on fundraising results from a program of coordinated communications with donors using multiple channels (direct mail, phone, radio, print).

The study comprised a number of test and control segments with comparative results.

From the report’s conclusion:

The primary objective of this study was to quantify the influence of eCRM – online constituent relationship management in multi-channel communications context. In this case study, the increased value of adding an online donation channel for donors acquired offline is $44.71 per donor over 12 months. Additionally, donors receiving eCRM out-perform those who only receive offline communications, giving twice as much in their lifetimes.
Download the full report here.

Personal Democracy Forum

The part of the guide that will most interest those who are in the market for a software-as-a-service provider will be the aggregate user ratings (i.e. stars) and user-reports of levels of customer service, and the fairness of pricing.

The guide many be viewed in summary on the Personal Democracy Forum site.

To access the full version of the guide, which includes full company profiles, as well as private forums with ongoing dialogues with users  of their tools, you have to register as a premium member of PDF ($25).

“The CivicSpace On Demand service provides any individual a simple, web-based solution to the problem of bringing individuals and groups together on the internet. Communicate with supporters via a website and e-newsletters. Offer them opportunities to act in support of your cause by making an online donation, volunteering or attending an event. Keep track of your supporters in a powerful, integrated central database. No software to install or maintain: all it takes is your web browser.”

This is one of the strongest entries from the open source community to compete with the all-in-one integrated solutions offered by giants like Convio and Kintera.

Registration for a 30-day demo of Civicspace’s Groundswell Professional hosted solution is free.