A new study indicates that more and more people are donating to political causes online. For political junkies, this is really exciting as it opens the door to new donors.

The George Washington University Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet along with the Campaign Finance Institute found that a quarter of donations to Republicans and more than half of donations to Democrats are now made online. Especially exciting is that many of these are first-time donors:

A large portion of small online contributors ($100 or less) gave unsolicited donations. About 46 percent said their first donation was self-motivated, not triggered by a phone call, letter or email. In years past, unsolicited donators had to work harder to find a way to make a contribution.

For anyone who has ever had to file a campaign finance report, compliance can be a nightmare. Trying to hunt down a donor’s details can be time consuming and many times fruitless. Online donations don’t have that problem, as donors are required to enter their information before the donation is processed.

Through our experience designing political websites, campaign websites, and policy websites, we have found several online donation tools with reasonable transaction fees and great service. It really can open the door to new donors, both today and down the road.