Bible Society in Lebanon launches
online fundraising
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Bible
Society in Lebanon (BSL) recently launched a new fundraising facility
that allows visitors to the BSL web site to donate online.
The facility, which went live on May
15, was funded through an Opportunity
21 investment fund set up to help national Societies increase
their fundraising capacities. It was put in place to overcome factors
affecting the BSL’s traditional fundraising efforts and to take
advantage of the country’s rapidly-growing Internet market.
E-commerce
“We decided to embark on Internet
fundraising for several reasons, including Lebanon’s unreliable
and expensive postal system,” explained Mike Bassous, BSL Deputy
General Secretary. “We are unable to send appeals to donors through
the post and donors, in turn, are unable to send us their donations
by mail.
“Online facilities, on the other
hand, are growing fast in Lebanon. E-commerce is highly successful,
e-mail communication is on the increase and financial transactions are
easier to follow up and administer electronically.”
The BSL is planning to send out fundraising
appeals to donors via e-mail and the new facility will make it easier
for them to respond. Internet fundraising will also mean that the BSL
has access to a much larger audience of potential donors, according
to Mr Bassous.
“Many people visit our web site
to read or download the text of the Arabic Bible,” he said. “As
well as the four million people in Lebanon, there are 11 million Lebanese
living overseas and many are still in contact with their homeland and
would like to support the Bible cause here. We are confident that the
Internet is the future of fundraising and that our new facility will
help us to reach a whole new audience of potential donors.”
Donors who click on the ‘Support
the Bible Cause’ icon, which appears on every page of the BSL’s
web site, can provide either a one-off gift to support one of 8 projects,
or they can contribute on a monthly basis to the Bible-A-Month Club
or the Bible-on-the-Internet Club.
“Once a person donates online,
he or she will receive a ‘Thank you’ letter and receipt in
a matter of seconds,” said Mr Bassous.
Partnership
The facility was built through a partnership
with ABS interactive (ABSi) – an arm of the ABS dedicated
to sharing God’s Word through Internet technologies and electronic
communications. The BSL is the first Society supported by the UBS World
Service Program (WSP) to launch its own online fundraising tool. Only
seven other Bible Societies in the UBS fellowship have similar facilities,
and they are all ‘supporting’ Societies who contribute to the
WSP. (WR 361/25 - 7/8.01)
|