Every internet user is all too familiar with the concept of online advertising, be it in the form of a too-good-to-be-true offer, a survey, a pop-up window advertising myriad of services, and the text that runs along the bottom of streaming online video. As consumers have turned off their televisions and plugged in their PCs for home entertainment, the very nature of these advertisements has changed abruptly and in a noticeable way.

Taking the place of boilerplate, generalized advertisements like those that run on network television, we see customized and targeted information directly related to the content of our emails, our interests on Facebook, and our connections on LinkedIn. While this information is still used to sell products, a movement towards using this idea to address the social concerns of users has been quietly growing across the web.

This platform allows the users and vendors to truly engage in a dialogue, whereby one can select their own personalized ‘advertising experience.’ It is both refreshing and exciting to see the non-profit community benefiting from this new mentality towards user-driven advertising content. Major non-profits such as Kiva.org, the micro-loan marketplace endorsed by Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, have taken full advantage of this new movement, and websites such as YouTube and eBay have followed suit by partnering with various other charitable groups.

The benefits of addressing each user’s concerns through these means are clear, and with such major players as Hulu, Google, eBay and YouTube on board, the future of online advertising in the nonprofit realm looks promising. While these advertisements can still be irksome and easily ignored, this new trend serves both the interests of the user and the needs of the nonprofits.