Non-Profit Tech Blog

Above is a screen shot from Forbes.com. Check out the #1 most searched for item on the site. I find the word “charities” interesting as it is used interchangeably with the word “nonprofit” here in the US. I decided to take a look at a Google Trends comparison between the two terms. Check it out:

I’ve marked up the interesting peaks for the word “charities”. The first two arrows point to the 2004 tsunami and Hurricane Katrina disasters. The other arrows point to the seasonal peaks in giving every year. Clearly, that’s what we’re seeing when Forbes shows “charities” as its #1 search term.

For extra credit, I ran this Google Trends search and limited it so that it only covered searches in the US. You’ll find that there is an even more stark comparison between the two terms during times of disaster.

The lesson is: Yes, you are a nonprofit but use the word charity if you’re the kind of nonprofit that is sought after during disasters.

The news business however prefers to use the term nonprofit over charities. There are many more news items with the word “nonprofit” in it than there are items with the word “charities”.

In the last four years, search volumes for both terms have steadily dropped while the number of news items about nonprofits and charities have risen. I think this is attributable to the general economic downturn we’ve been seeing but it may also be that people are looking to particular web sites and simply using old bookmarks when they seek out charities.

If that second thesis is true, nonprofits that don’t have significant web presences are going to see diminishing returns as users start to home in on their preferred web sites when their need to contribute to charities rises. It’s hard to tell without more data than just a Google Trends chart but it’s certainly something to see if it holds in the future. All we really need is an economic recovery (not likely right now, I know) so we can see if the decrease in search volume continues. I’d love to hear your comments.