There is an increasing demand for charities and organizations to become more donor-friendly through the use of the web. Websites, such as GlobalGiving.com, are meeting the demands of small donors who want to be involved in large charitable projects but on a much smaller scale. Some small donors want to be involved on a bigger scale but don't have the means to accomplish it. Whatever the demands are, there is a big financial challenge ahead for nonprofit websites, such as GlobalGiving.com, that enable small donors to make gifts or loans directly to charities, low-income individuals, and schools.
 
These sites are popular among large foundations and wealthy individuals, who have contributed money to help these organizations get started, and the number of small donors making gifts or loans through these sites are rising rapidly. But as the number of small donors are rising, so are the administrative costs of maintaining these sites. Even as these websites enjoy early success, most of them want to find a financing approach that will allow them to thrive over the long haul. They know they cannot keep relying on wealthy benefactors, since most of the donors and foundations say they want the charities to be able to make it own their own financially in the next three to five years. Most of these charities pay their bills in part by charging administrative (mandatory or voluntary) fees for each gift made through their sites ranging from 10-25% of the donation. But when making charitable gifts, some donors think twice if they know the middleman is taking a cut, which is the reason why sites like Kiva.org, a San Francisco based charity which allows people to lend funds at 0% interest to entrepreneurs in developing countries, have avoided mandatory administrative fees for each donation and have made it optional instead.

Charles Best, founder and CEO of DonorsChoose, which connects donors to classroom projects in public schools, says their charity charges an optional 15% fee for gifts to schools because he wanted no one to be discouraged from giving through the site. "Our website does attract some people who have become skeptical about writing checks to big institutions," he says. "They didn't know where their money was going, and didn't have a connection to people touched by their gifts. Given that profile, we felt we needed to let donors 'choose' when it comes to our operating costs, as well as with the classroom projects on our site." He further notes that 90% of the charity's donors have opted to pay the optional fee, which helps to cover roughly 30% of the charity's budget. Mr. Best predicts the optional fees will cover 100% of the budget within the next three years assuming the number of donors continues to grow.