When most of us hear the word fundraiser we envision car washes, bake sales, raffles; things that we did to raise money for causes when we were kids, even though some of us might have been a child only a few years ago. Remember trying to sell magazines or candy bars for your school with your sights on that best seller prize. The idea of being a salesperson always seems alluring, but most kids burn out all too quickly. You may have noticed a new trend in fundraising. Just like many other industries, fundraising has found a new home and platform on the Internet.

Ten years ago using the Internet to raise money for a special event or an important cause was new and strange. One of the most difficult obstacles was that people were worried about sending money online, but today the practice has become commonplace and people are comfortable transferring money as long as it is through secure channels. Today when people hear the term fundraising, more and more they have begun to make the connection with online fundraising. Fundraising using the Internet has grown in leaps and bounds.

Fundraisers of yesterday, more often than not, involved providing some kind of service in return for a donation. In the past there was only a finite amount of time that students or kids could dedicate to putting the work in between classes and extracurricular activities to go fundraising, fundraising done online can work around the clock to raise money for schools and students. Kids standing in front of Wal-Mart are going to encounter hundreds of people, but an online fundraising page has the potential to reach thousands of eyes and bring in donations from people that a child may never even met.

Services such as GoFundMe.com, a website dedicated to helping individuals meet their fundraising goals in an easy and intuitive way (http://www.gofundme.com), have allowed anyone to put together an attractive page and begin asking for funding through social networking, such as Twitter and Facebook. Even organizations that once did fundraising solely offline, have begun to implement online fundraising with notable results. It is rumored that many formerly offline charities now see as much as 5-10% donations through online sources and growth in overall donations thanks to the notoriety brought from an online presence.

GoFundMe.com is incredible easy to use and it is clear that it was designed with the user in mind. It is free to sign up and simple enough that with a little help from parents; even children will be able to feel a part of the online fundraising process.The sign up process is as simple as defining and naming your goal, sharing your fundraising page with friends and family through Twitter, Facebook and Email and tracking donations as they come in. You can even respond to donors on your fundraising homepage with personalized thank you messages. You won’t be forced to think for hours about potential fundraising ides for your kids, you can start now and allow your customized page to work to raise funds for your cause even when you can’t.