The internet is of growing importance as a tool for fundraisers.  The internet fundraising workshop at Community First's AGM 22nd September 2009, facilitated by Mark Walker of SCIP, provided a foundational insight into the pro and cons of using the internet to raise funds.

Taking the form of a guided tour it emphasised the need to use the internet intelligently, i.e. searching with focus and using useful sites as starting point rather than Google, such as:

• Funder Finder offers great range of guides for fundraisers: www.funderfinder.co.uk
• Funding Central provides access to a range of information about sources of funding: www.fundingcentral.org.uk
• Just Giving is one of several services which enable people to donate funds to you online and is used by very large and very small charities with great success www.justgiving.com

We also discussed the rapid growth in the use of social network tools such as Twitter & Facebook and a need for fundraisers to have some understanding of what they are and what people are using them for.

So the top three tips from the session were that the internet can help you with:

• Improving your fundraising skills
• Searching for funding opportunities
• Using the web to generate income