New "Home" for MN Giving

MINNEAPOLIS - A new Web site aims to make giving to Minnesota non-profit organizations as easy as paying your cell phone bill or downloading new music. The site, givemn.org, connects organizations with potential donors. GiveMN will help potential donors to search by program type, geography, and other factors to find the programs that best connect them with the causes they favor. The site, said to be the first of its kind in the state and the country, will also allow donors to track their giving, including offline gifts.

Dana Nelson, the executive director of GiveMN.org, says this site allows users to make more educated decisions on where donation dollars will go.

"There's a great opportunity to be on the cutting edge of philanthropy and really move donors online. It's paperless so it's a green effort, it's fast, it's easy, it's strategic for donors."

Nelson says the new Web site will allow many non-profit groups an opportunity to reach potential donors in a way they never had available before.

"The tool itself really allows non-profits to upload video, to show pictures, to really tell their story in a way that is virtually impossible through a letter or any other means of fund-raising."

The site, after it goes into operation Monday, November 2, will allow Minnesotans to choose from among some 33,000 non-profit organizations in the state, including the Minnesota Council of Non-Profits, as well as providing wider access to donate to more than 1.5 million groups across the country.