Freelanthropy
Encyclopedia
Freelanthropy was started in 2004 to help non-profit organization
s raise money online.
Freelanthropy was developed to tap the power of "pay per click
" (PPC) search advertising for non-profit organizations. In August of 2004 along with its parent company, Freelanthropy was merged with Vendare Media and Freelanthropy launched to the public in early 2005 with its first product, the Charitable Toolbar, powered by Yahoo!
and AskJeeves (now Ask.com
) search services. Dan Sheehy, who had originally conceived the idea and retained social entrepreneur Thorsten Hoins to develop the beta site, purchased Freelanthropy from Vendare in December 2005.
organizations (registered US non-profits) in Freelanthropy's database. In 2006 Freelanthropy entered into a new multi-year partnership with Yahoo! who now exclusively powers the search experience for both Freelanthtropy's custom browser toolbars as well as the Freelanthropy.com search portal. Ask.com is no longer involved. Freelanthropy also helps to generate revenue for its non-profit partners through its "Shop & Give" directory which includes hundreds of online merchants. When people access any of these merchants through Freelanthropy's Shop & Give program, money is raised for the designated non-profit organization. All of Freelanthropy's services are completely free for its non-profit partners, their constituents, as well as the general public that support charities through the Freelanthropy.com search portal. Freelanthropy does not collect any personally identifiable information (PII). The toolbars that Freelanthropy creates for its nonprofit partners are free of any adware, spyware or "malware," and function purely to reinforce the charities' brand with their supporters, facilitate Yahoo searches, and deliver messages from the charities to their supporters via the toolbar's RSS feature.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
s raise money online.
Freelanthropy was developed to tap the power of "pay per click
Pay per click
Pay per click is an Internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, where advertisers pay the publisher when the ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market...
" (PPC) search advertising for non-profit organizations. In August of 2004 along with its parent company, Freelanthropy was merged with Vendare Media and Freelanthropy launched to the public in early 2005 with its first product, the Charitable Toolbar, powered by Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
and AskJeeves (now Ask.com
Ask.com
Ask is a Q&A focused search engine founded in 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, California. The original software was implemented by Gary Chevsky from his own design. Warthen, Chevsky, Justin Grant, and others built the early AskJeeves.com website around that core engine...
) search services. Dan Sheehy, who had originally conceived the idea and retained social entrepreneur Thorsten Hoins to develop the beta site, purchased Freelanthropy from Vendare in December 2005.
Current Business
Freelanthropy still offers free customized browser search toolbars to non-profit organizations, but no installed software is required to use the service and Freelanthropy's offerings have expanded to include a consumer search portal that allows users to designate support for any one of more than 1.3 million 501(c) and 527 group527 group
A 527 organization or 527 group is a type of American tax-exempt organization named after "Section 527" of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code...
organizations (registered US non-profits) in Freelanthropy's database. In 2006 Freelanthropy entered into a new multi-year partnership with Yahoo! who now exclusively powers the search experience for both Freelanthtropy's custom browser toolbars as well as the Freelanthropy.com search portal. Ask.com is no longer involved. Freelanthropy also helps to generate revenue for its non-profit partners through its "Shop & Give" directory which includes hundreds of online merchants. When people access any of these merchants through Freelanthropy's Shop & Give program, money is raised for the designated non-profit organization. All of Freelanthropy's services are completely free for its non-profit partners, their constituents, as well as the general public that support charities through the Freelanthropy.com search portal. Freelanthropy does not collect any personally identifiable information (PII). The toolbars that Freelanthropy creates for its nonprofit partners are free of any adware, spyware or "malware," and function purely to reinforce the charities' brand with their supporters, facilitate Yahoo searches, and deliver messages from the charities to their supporters via the toolbar's RSS feature.