As well as direct online fundraising, the past year has seen other uses of the Internet by fundraisers and of significance to fundraisers. Fundraising suppliers, consultants, national membership organisations, publishers and events organisers have developed online presences. You can now use the Internet to find suitable suppliers within seconds. You can even find out about this conference and the International Fund Raising Group. The Internet has become an even more useful research tool for everyday fundraising business.
Fundraisers continue to share information and advice via e-mail lists.
This year we have seen the discussion topics expand and refine yet further. You can now discuss Women in Philanthropy, International Grants, German fundraising issues, and the products of various fundraising database and software companies. Christoph and I also set up the Webmanager list, for managers of nonprofit Web sites, including those being used for fundraising purposes. There are now very many training courses for nonprofit staff in using the Internet, some of them covering online fundraising. Some courses are even available in distance-learning form via the Internet.