The Arts and Science Council will soon unveil a new website that allows nonprofits to post – and donors to fund -- specific projects.

ASC President Scott Provancher said the site, called power2give.org, will launch sometime in July. Some nonprofit leaders were given a sneak peek Friday when ASC hosted a private unveiling at the Knight Theater.

With large donations down 71 percent nationally since 2007, according to the Center on Philanthropy, ASC officials said the goal is to give local donors more control over how their money is spent. One of the anticipated results: More frequent giving with smaller average gift sizes.

For local nonprofits, the website will allow fundraisers to appeal directly to donors on a project-specific basis, continuing a trend of citizen engagement made popular by social media.

Donors who visit the site will be shown a variety of projects in need of funding and will be allowed to donate as little or as much as they desire. Most of the projects listed will be seeking to raise $10,000 or less.

Not all projects will be eligible, only those that relate to the arts, science and history. And access to the site will be limited to nonprofit groups that received ASC funding in the previous five years.
Provancher said the new website does not indicate that ASC is walking away from the annual corporate campaigns that encourage employee giving at work. But with 85–90 percent of cultural patrons never donating, he said, power2give.org will be another avenue for reaching potential givers.

“We got a wake-up call a few years ago when we saw 40 percent of our revenue disappear,” he said, referring to the double whammy of the economic recession and fallout from the local United Way controversy.

Although corporate campaigns will continue, he said, “it will not be the growth engine it once was.”

ASC officials said power2give.org "represents the future of the philanthropic landscape."

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