Case Study: Oxfam Helps Others By Using Internet Case Study: Oxfam Helps Others by Using Internet

"When I first heard about the tsunami, I was relaxing in Maine, playing with my niece and nephew, consciously avoiding the media," explains Dave Moore of Oxfam America. "I quickly checked my email and was relieved to see that people were already working on the response. Out of mere curiosity, I checked the donation figures and was surprised to see that people had already given $25,000 to tsunami relief. 'Hmm…That’s a bit higher than I expected,' I thought to myself. Then I turned on the TV. I soon realized, of course, that this would not be a typical emergency. News channels were covering the tsunami non-stop. The death toll kept spiraling upward. Pundits were using phrases like ‘biblical proportions.’ And donations were soon arriving at our office at unprecedented levels. Moreover, these were almost all unsolicited donations. We hadn’t had time to reach out to our donor base, but people were still giving. Loyal followers of Oxfam, one-time $35 donors, people who’d never heard of Sri Lanka or Oxfam – they were all tracking us down – online, by phone, or through other means – and then they were giving. In very generous amounts. And they weren’t waiting for an appeal from us."

"A typical online appeal will bring in $50,000-$100,000," he continues. "But for this emergency, we needed a whole new yardstick. For a few days between Christmas and New Year’s, we were taking in over two million dollars a day. And that’s just online. (Our phones – I should mention -- were constantly ringing for close to two weeks.) When things finally ‘calmed down,’ we still were taking in about $100,000 a day."