Direct Connection's Guide to Fundraising on the Internet

This was the world's first guide explaining how to use the Internet to fundraise. I wrote it in 1995/96 while a fundraiser for Amnesty International UK in London. It was based on my MSc in Information Science at City University, London, where I researched electronic sources of fundraising information for charities. Even by 1994/95 there was a valuable collection of fundraising information on the web and fundraisers connecting with each other online.

The book therefore mixes academic research with my (then) six years experience as a professional fundraiser for Oxfam GB, Afghanaid and Amnesty International UK.

The focus of the book was practical advice. I shared what I thought fundraisers needed to know about the Internet to help them improve their effectiveness.

By the time the book was published I had been publishing UK Fundraising (www.fundraising.co.uk), the online resource for professional charity fundraisers, for 17 months. The book was designed as a way of condensing some of the information gathered on that site and the lessons learned in creating a professional online community.