Here is a selection of five sites to remember for doing Internet research solidarity.
Doona is an association that is not for profit. All the profits generated by its search engine are intended for various humanitarian associations (Action Unemployment 82, Animal Dignity, Planet Emergency …) who will use them for their actions (construction of orphanages in France, safeguarding chimpanzees, fight against drug trafficking. children …). Whenever Doona can organize a donation, she offers Internet users the chance to vote for their favorite association. The one who has received the most votes receives the donation (the association is then put out of the list for three consecutive votes).
Ecosia.org gives at least 80% of its revenue to the protection of Amazonian forests. How? Thanks to the advertising clicks you make when you search the site. The advertising agency remunerates Bing or Yahoo that allow research on the site of Ecosia. Bing and Yahoo then donate a large portion of the money earned at Ecosia. To date, the company has already donated 250K to WWF!
On the HooSeek website, the principle is simple: each web search generates 0.15 cents and each shopping search generates 1 cent for an association. The sums are shared between the selected associations. The user selects up to four associations among the 500 000 present (Kokopelli, for the protection of genetic resources of food and the promotion of practices of gardening and sustainable agriculture, the NGO Terre d’abeilles, specialized in the protection of bees and other wild pollinators, the network “Quit the NuclearFor another energy policy …). HooSeek plans to release new features, such as the Seeker, a tool that avoids clicking on “Next Page” if the ideal answer does not appear in the first 10 results (like 40% of searches). The other answers are loaded automatically below.
The more you search, the more you collect
With more than 60.000 € collected since the launch, VeoSearch provides important assistance to humanitarian associations. A pioneer in the search engine market, VeoSearch supports up to five associations. How? It’s simple: once registered on the site, add those which interest you in the heading “My Selection”. The more you search, the more you collect for them. VeoSearch gives them 50% of the advertising revenue generated by searches. It’s more: a shopping area to compare prices that also give them 50% of the revenue from advertising. Today, 940 partner associations are listed. Among the favorites: the WWF with more than 12,000 fans and $4,400, Handicap International, which raises $3,200, and Clowns z’hopitaux, with nearly $3,000. This association operates in 14 cities in France, retirement. Their creed: to make laugh to reduce the stress of the hospital, the suffering, and the exclusion.
New in the field, the site Zutopi will be put online during June. It will return 50% of its revenues for the realization of concrete actions. Plus: She works in partnership with WWF, GoodPlanet, UNICEF, and Babylonian. Do an internet search and improve education in Africa? This is what Zutopi offers through its partnership with Unicef. It supports the “Schools for Africa” campaign in Mozambique, a program that aims to improve the quality of education for 300,000 children. Via Babylonian, Zutopi helps micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries by financing microcredit. With the WWF, she fights against illegal gold panning – research and artisanal mining of gold in rivers – in Guyana, a source of destruction of biodiversity. Finally, through the program and Goodplanet ActionCarbone, it finances CO2 emissions reduction projects.
Except for Doona, exclusively managed by volunteers, all these sites are companies that donate a percentage of their income to projects. The capital of HooSeek is thus valued at 47,000 $, that of VeoSearch at 78,840 $, etc. Some question the “ethical” side of this business model: Handicap International, Médecins Sans Frontières and Greenpeace would have asked to be removed from the HooSeek listings.
Better still surf these sites that finance humanitarian projects, ecological or solidarity, rather than go on Google that offers nothing like that and achieved, in 2009, 17 billion euros in turnover.