TECHNOLOGY
By NICOLE WALLACE
The remarkable success of the Hunger Site has inspired a wave of similar "click-and-donate" Web sites for other causes.
Every time a visitor goes to the Hunger Site (http://www.thehungersite.com) and clicks on "donate free food," the site's corporate advertisers each donate half a cent to the United Nations World Food Programme.
The site helps raise awareness of the problem of international hunger and offers visitors the opportunity to help, while at the same time giving exposure to its corporate sponsors, who benefit from the good will their contributions generate.
The more than 49 million visits to the site since its inception in June have translated into more than $1.9-million in corporate contributions.
The site's success has not gone unnoticed. At least 12 other Web sites have sprung up to raise money for causes that include land conservation and aid for refugees.
Among the new entries into the "click-and-donate" arena:
* Three new Web sites are devoted to land-conservation efforts.
EcologyFund.com (http://www.ecologyfund.com), which is run by CharityMall, a shopping site that allows customers to donate a portion of their purchases to charity, went online in February. The site supports the Wilderness Land Trust and the World Land Trust in the United States and South America.
Race for the Rainforest (http://rainforest.care2.com) is a contest run by Care2, a shopping Web site that donates a portion of all its sales to environmental organizations. The contest ends on Earth Day, April 22. Contestants get credit both for their own "clicks" and for those of others they encourage to take part. In addition to the money that corporate sponors donate, Care2 will also make a contribution that will enable the Nature Conservancy, the contest's beneficiary, to buy 1,000 acres of rain forest in the winners' names.
SaveRainforest.net (http://www.saverainforest.net) has raised approximately $10,000 since it went online in December. Seventy percent of the money will go to the Isula Biological Preserve and Research Station, in Peru; the remaining 30 percent goes toward administrative costs. SaveRainforest.net is run by KuKura Unlimited, a company in Las Vegas whose Web site features stories and games about the rain forest for children and sells environmentally responsible products.
* Peringson Web Enterprises, a Web-design company run by a married couple in Moorhead, Minn., has started a site to benefit cancer research and another to raise money for refugee relief. EndCancerNow.com (http://www.endcancernow.com) has raised about $1,600 since mid-December, 95 percent of which goes to the American Cancer Society. In February, the company started Peace for All.com (http://www.peaceforall.com), which benefits the U.S. Association for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
* Cross-Cultural Solutions, a charity located in New Rochelle, N.Y., has created its own site, the Humanitarian Site (http://www.thehumanitariansite.org). The site has raised almost $1,000 in its first two and half months, money that the charity will use to reduce the fees it charges participants in its international volunteer programs.
* FreeDonation.com (http://www.freedonation.com) operates six Web sites that raise money for cancer research, anti-hunger programs, housing, education, immunizations for children, and AIDS research.
Jeffrey A. Meer, executive director of the U.S. Association for U.N.H.C.R., believes the proliferation of "click-and-donate" sites will help, rather than hinder, each site's fund-raising efforts.
"I wouldn't look at it at all as competition. We will only encourage one another's charities."
Howard Lake, a fund-raising consultant who created the UK Fundraising Web site, isn't so sure, and he questions whether the new sites are sending the right message to donors. "One should also be clear about what kind of success a charity would be aiming for with this type of site. Do they really want to give donors the impression that giving is both painless and can cost them nothing?"