Each week on Read/WriteWeb they choose a different feature.  This week they will be exploring how non-profit organizations use the Web and the tools available for them. 

Over here at AltSearchEngines, we examine a particular Vertical Search every Monday, so this week we will revisit our Alternative Charity Search Engines to contribute to the conversation. This is not an exhaustive list, but I’ve selected 10 that I think are worth a look.  If you like one that isn’t listed here, please introduce us to it by leaving a detailed comment.

My Criteria

The five factors that I used in evaluating these search engines are:

Factor #1: Is the site global, or specific to only one country?

Factor #2: How many Charities does it help? Can you choose your own?

Factor #3: How much does it give to those Charities? What % of revenue?

Factor #4: How explicitly do they reveal how to check their figures?

Factor #5: How good are their search results? (All the majors are equal.)

So without further ado, here are my findings:

What Charities benefit? Changes monthly (by audience poll)

How much do they give? “Every single advertising penny.”

Example: Last month $505 for “Angel Flight Central”

Who powers the results?

Overall rating? * * *

What Charities benefit? “Pick from 1,000s”

How much do they give? “the major portion” of their ad revenue

Who powers the results? “Various Sources”

Overall rating? * *

What Charities benefit? You can choose from dozens.

How much do they give? “50% of search revenues”

Who powers the results?

Overall rating? * * * *

What Charities benefit? Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and Oxfam.

How much do they give? “100% (of) Profits”

Example: $103 raised in August

Who powers the results?

Overall rating? ****

(Australia)

What Charities benefit? Oxfam; Oaktree foundation; WaterAid; Grameen foundation

How much do they give? “100%. Every cent.”

Who powers the results?

Overall Rating? * * *

(U.K.)

What Charities benefit? 17 Charities that rotate daily.

How much do they give? “50% of advertising revenue”

Who powers the results?

Overall Rating? * * *

What Charities benefit? Various Charitable Cancer Foundations

How much do they give? “70% of all (advertising) revenue”

Who powers the results?

Overall Rating? * *

What Charities benefit? Choose from 43,000!

How much do they give? “50% of Revenues”

Example: ASPCA earned $5,870!

Who powers the results?

Overall Rating? * * * *

(U. K.)

What Charities benefit? (A mere) 170,000 U. K. Charities

How much do they give? “50% of gross revenue”

Example: over £283,823 for charity.

Who powers the results?

Overall Rating? * * * *

 Dooniz has teamed up with Google. That permits them to redistribute a part of the money made on the Internet to charitable foundations. Internet users can make a difference by searching Google using Dooniz.

What Charities benefit? A list of major foundations.

How much do they give? 75% of commissions

Who powers the results?  (unless you choose another).

Overall Rating? * * *

Conclusion

None of the search engines on the list rated a perfect 5 star rating in my book, but several were “very good;” namely GoodTree, GoodSearch, CharityCafe, and EveryClick (U.K. only). With just one exception (SearchGive), they all use a Major search engine to power their results, so you should get good search results.

If you fancy one particular charity, then you ought to be able to find it in this group if you check each one. And if you feel like changing the world one penny at a time, I can’t see the harm in switching to a Charity search engine; go for it!

This entry was posted on Monday, September 10th, 2007 at 5:36 pm and is filed under Verticals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.