In 1988 , before the Internet was widely available to college students , Ken Ramberg and his mother Connie , founded a service called JobTRAK . Employers would state problem hatchway to JobTRAK , who would then fax them to college career offices .
They grow profitable through the ' 90s , using the Web , of course , and were buy out in 2000 by Monster . This was ultimately bad news for JobTRAK ( which became MonsterTRAK and then eventually give-up the ghost earlier this class ) , but expert tidings for the non gain world . Why ? Because Ken short had a lot of time on his hands , which he used to foundGoodSearchwith his sister JJ ( host of MSNBC ’s Your business sector ) .
If you ’re not yet using GoodSearch to make money for your favorite charity , it ’s high meter you started . The conception is well-heeled : every metre you do a search online through their hunt locomotive ( which is Yahoo ’s search engine repackaged ) , or usingtheir toolbar(you do n’t even have to be on their web site ) , GoodSearch donates 50 % of the add taxation they get from the search to the charity of your pick .
Those penny really ad up if you get a lot of the great unwashed naming your constitution as the beneficiary . And now they ’ve work and addedGoodShop . Whenever you grass online at stores like Target or Amazon ( the Apple Store , 1 - 800 - Flowers , the list is endless ) , a percentage of your entire measure goes to order Greek valerian . What percentage ? That ’s up to the stock . But some retail merchant will donate up to 30 % !
For some more detail , plus an insider ’s look at the amazing hunting company , see out our interview with founder Ken Ramberg below .
DI : After you sell JOBTRAK to Monster , I can picture you sit around going : okay , now what am I going to do with my time . Were there other , competing thought ? Or did you know it was going to be Goodsearch from the get go ?
krypton : After launch and then lock an cyberspace ship’s company for 14 twelvemonth , I was n’t intending on starting a new business organisation . JOBTRAK was a great achiever story , but it was a wad of hard oeuvre to say the least . However , after reading about the billions of dollars that the major search engines were generating in advertising revenue , I think , " What if part of that money could be distributed to worthy causes ? And more specifically , what if it went to the nonprofit organization choose by the users?“ It was such an exciting construct that I felt compelled to jump back in .
We establish GoodSearch , our Yahoo - power search engine , in recent 2005 with the promise that 50 % of our revenue ( which has turn out thus far to be about a penny per hunt ) would be portion out with the charities or schools delegate by our substance abuser . The website has grown quickly and has struck a chord with people who care about making a difference in the world . In fact , 81,000 nonprofit and schools have now sign on and 100 unexampled causes join us each day !
In this saving , particularly , when people want to give but may not have the extra funds to do so , we ’ve make a way to " give without giving . “ As more and more multitude spread the parole , together we have the ability to make a meaningful impact in our biotic community .
DI : When Goodsearch go live , how much did it dissent from what you ’d imagined when you first hit on the idea ?
KR : Other than adding the GoodShop shopping mall , which we were not meditate at the time , GoodSearch is pretty much how I guess it . What continue to inspire me however is the groundswell of keep that has produce around the site . From steady citizenry stress to do good in their residential area , to celebrities such as Jessica Biel , Jeff Bridges , Rob Thomas , and Montel Williams who volunteer to make promotional videos for us , the site has taken on a life of its own .
DI : You ’ve now add an exciting raw characteristic , so people can raise money for their favored charities by betray online . How does it work , precisely ?
KR : In 2007 we expand our conception by make GoodShop , an online shopping mall which donates a percentage of each sale to the shopper ’s cause . More than 1,300 of the very best merchants have joined our effort including Amazon , Nike , Staples , Dell and Best Buy to name a few .
To practice GoodShop , you simply select your favorite charity and then press the logo of any of our partner memory board . Each merchandiser not only makes a material donation to your campaign , but they ’ve also bring home the bacon us with chiliad of money saving coupon and particular offers .
DI : So if I find fault up some books at Amazon , and the total comes to $ 40 , what percentage of that is going to my specify charity ?
KR:1.5 % of your Amazon leverage will go to your designate charity . To give you a few other examples , 7 % from each rules of order at 1 - 800 - Flowers , 4 % from Nike and 2 % from Dell is donated . Other stores and services are donating 30 % or more !
DI : What are a couple of the veridical big success taradiddle ?
KR : The successes are overspread across the board . The ASPCA has earned more than $ 27,000 , the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation more than $ 11,000 and Save Darfur more than $ 11,000 .
What ’s equally exciting is when a smaller organization such as the Blind Cat Rescue in North Carolina , which has earned $ 3,500 , wrote to us saying how vital the money was to continuing their twenty-four hour period - to - day operation . Another effort , the Bubel / Aiken Foundation which helps shaver with disablement , used part of the $ 12,000 they ’ve realise to send a group of Thomas Kyd to encampment this summer .
DI : Talk a little bit about this nerveless , new downloadable puppet cake . What ’s the idea behind it ?
krypton : Thanks for ask . Our Modern toolbar realize it so that you do n’t even have to add up to our situation to earn a contribution for your cause . This is a existent game changer ! you could search the Internet like a shot from the toolbar and when you shop at any of our partner store , the donation is automatically mother . It really does n’t get any easier than this .
Our hope is that million of the great unwashed will download the GoodSearch / GoodShop toolbar . Do n’t let your booster or relatives shop without it ! !
DI : Does it work on all browsers ?
KR : decently now , the toolbar work on IE and Firefox .
DI : What ’s the hardest part about getting people to switch from their favorite lookup railway locomotive to Goodsearch ?
KR : Once the great unwashed see our sites , they ’re by and large lift . Everyone has a causal agent they care about and there ’s no comfortable way to lend their documentation . Our biggest challenge is getting the word out . We ’ve been very fortunate to have been have in The New York Times , Oprah Magazine , Good Morning America , CNN and other press outlets , however our biggest traffic driver still comes from friend tell ally about us .
DI : What ’s next for you guys ?
Khmer Rouge : the right way now we ’re work firmly on spreading the Book about our toolbar . We ’re ask everyone to get their protagonist , family and workmates to download the toolbar , clean a favorite Polymonium caeruleum van-bruntiae and then do some good when they search or grass online .
Just think of the potential if office managers around the area downloaded the toolbar . When they then buy their ship’s company ’s spot supplies online at Staples , OfficeDepot , OfficeMax , etc . the donation would quickly add up !
DI : Planing a vacation from all this ?
KR : I’d have it away to say that we ’ll be let some rest soon , but the piece of work that we ’re doing is just too authoritative . We ’ll keep working intemperately until the doubtfulness " Who do you GoodSearch for?“ is part of the vernacular .
