ABSTRACT
No text on fundraising would be complete without a consideration of the opportunities offered by the Internet. Since its introduction in 1991, the use of the Internet has grown faster than any other electronic medium, including, historically, the telegraph. In 1993 when the fi rst web browser became available, only 140 websites existed and only 1 per cent of these were commercial (or ‘. com’) sites. At the time of writing the number of organisations with an online presence stands at 168 million, with new domain registrations up 22 per cent on the previous year (2007). Of course these growth rates are not sustainable. It seems likely that the growth currently being recorded will reach a plateau within the next decade as the numbers of consumers and organisations likely to benefi t from a web presence begin to reach the optimum. Indeed it seems likely that the most signifi cant growth over the next few years will occur in Asia where countries such as China are investing heavily in broadband technology.
