Dear Challenge participants,

In 1999, the online industry had just cleared its best year in e-commerce ever. Online retailer association Shop.org was reporting doubled revenues for the industry, and predicting equally lucrative futures.

Yet online shopping represented only a small portion of the overall commerce landscape. And within that, online fundraising for nonprofits was virtually unknown—literally—as it barely registered on the e-commerce radar.

Now fast-forward to today, when online shopping is a fact of life, and nearly 90 percent of consumers prefer it. As for online donating and fundraising, recent tragedies such as 9/11, the Asian Tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina have exhibited the tremendous power of online giving in times of crisis.

What’s more, Network for Good, the nation’s leading online processor for donations to nonprofits, reported a 50 percent increase in online contributions through its website last year. And the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported America’s largest charities experienced a 37 percent increase in online giving during the same period.

This raises a critical question: Has “small-dollar” philanthropy reached its tipping point as an effective way to raise funds and bring new people to the table? That’s what the Case Foundation, along with partners Parade Magazine, Causes on Facebook, Network for Good, and Global Giving, wanted to answer when it launched the America’s Giving Challenge and the Causes Giving Challenge.

Both were designed to introduce millions of people to newer, more convenient, and more efficient forms of civic engagement. Specifically, the Challenges focused on how people could use simple Web 2.0 tools and social networking strategies to put their own passions to work on behalf of their favorite charities and causes.

In the end, these citizen philanthropists encouraged more than 80,000 people to make donations to nearly 700 nonprofits, and raised more than $2.5 million for the nonprofits represented.

Talk about incredible results! We at the Case Foundation are in awe of the enthusiasm and seriousness with which individual participants, the nonprofit sector, and the media approached these programs.

Better yet, such high levels of participation and donor/fundraiser engagement suggest online giving is growing, similar to the e-commerce lifecycle. We intend to carefully research and examine the final numbers and stories to uncover the full impact of these initiatives, and we promise to share our findings with you.

In the meantime, thanks to everyone who participated, from creating a “charity badge” to producing Internet videos in support of your cause. And thank you to the tens of thousands of people who donated, and to those who e-mailed, blogged, posted, and advocated. Your efforts were truly inspiring. You are all Champions.

Yours in giving,

The Case Foundation