Shopping online aids Council of Churches

A new partnership between the Council of Churches of

the Ozarks and Utah-based MyAssociation.com, a technology company that works with associations and nonprofit organizations, gives the public an option to shop online and help fund CCO's programs.

The online shopping, available via a link on CCO's Web site, www.ccozarks.org, will be available year-round, according to Tammy Mast, CCO director of development, but she said it was important to the organization to get the service up and running in time for holiday shopping.

Michael Lowery, the MyAssociation.com consultant working with CCO, said there are more than 70 vendors available online through the partnership, includingÊÊAmazon.com, Walmart.com, Eddie Bauer and Disney.com. He said the vendors list is updated and expanded regularly.

MyAssociation.com works out deals individually with each vendor to see how much of the sales profit each vendor is willing to give to the organization, which in this case, is Council of Churches of the Ozarks.

"It's between 1 percent and 10 percent (of the purchase price). It all depends," Lowery said.

Mast added that it's important that people understand that shopping online to benefit CCO doesn't cost them any extra.

"It's the same cost. It's just that those businesses will give us a percentage of that purchase back," she said.

Having the online shopping option available in time for the holidays is a good idea for CCO, Lowery said.

"People are going to shop anyway for the holidays, so if they can go ahead and shop (online) and a portion of the proceeds goes back to benefit an association (or organization), it's a great fund-raising tool for a nonprofit," he said.

"I don't think any nonprofit is going to quit what they're doing and move directly over to this ... a large portion of society is not into online shopping yet, but this is a great way for nonprofits to supplement their revenue," Lowery added.

Lowery said MyAssociation.com now has 122 clients, representing 15.5 million people. He said because CCO is one of the charter members of MyAssociation.com, the organization receives the technology that provides shopping on its Web site free of charge. Other companies pay for the service, he said.

MyAssociation.com enables nonprofits to increase their Web traffic, and therefore, awareness about their programs, Lowery said.

"Most organizations have what we call a brochure Web site. If you went to ccozarks.org, you could find out what programs are offered, and once you've read it once, you don't need to go back. What we do is provide tools to organizations like (CCO) that create an interactive Web site, which keeps people coming back," Lowery said.

Susan Jackson, director of communications for CCO, is optimistic that the online shopping will not only raise money for CCO's 16 programs, but that it will also increase community awareness about them.

"People who shop at Eddie Bauer or Spiegel, or any of those great vendors on there may not even know who we are or what we are, but that will lead them in and give them those bread crumbs to trail them on down, and hopefully, they'll keep coming back for lots of other reasons," Jackson said.

Lowery said in some cases, organizations will use the revenue they earn from online shopping to pay for future technology needs, but in CCO's case, Mast and Jackson said, the money will be used for programs and operating costs.

Jackson said CCO is funded primarily by private donations, but some individual programs receive grants to pay specifically for services that the program provides.

Mast said no specific goals have been outlined yet for funding the organization receives from online shoppers.

"Right now, we're just trying to get the word out to see what kind of response we do have. But all the money will be going to support (our) projects," Mast said.

MyAssociation.com also offers its members online newsrooms, chat rooms, calendars, surveys and other online services. Jackson said CCO hopes to eventually utilize some of those other services to increase awareness about the CCO and its programs.[[In-content Ad]]