A bit over two months ago I blogged about prospective business consisting of a for-profit corporation, The World Tourism Network (WTN), and a not-for-profit corporation, The World Tourism Foundation (WTF). In effect, the WTN outsourced its marketing to the WTF and, in compensation, sorta, donated 50% of its top-line revenue to the WTN. Sounds crazy, I know – read the post for the nuances. One of the principals in the WTF/WTN, Ed Beauchamp, has alerted me to an up-and-running business that is based on a similar 50/50 scheme.
Back in 2006 Steve Strauss reported on GoodSearch.com in USA Today:
The idea behind this excellent search engine (powered by Yahoo) is simple and brilliant — 50% of all ad revenue generated from the site is donated to the charity of the user's choice, and the money GoodSearch donates comes from its advertisers, so it doesn't cost the users or the organizations a penny.
Here's how it works: By going to GoodSearch.com (or downloading the GoodSearch toolbar to your browser), you can search just as you would on any other search engine, the difference being that half of all ad revenue your searches generate, approximately a penny a search, goes to the charity of your choice. . . .
More than 22,000 non-profits and schools are now generating revenue from the site and more than 100 charities and schools are registering daily.
According to their website, GoodSearch has gotten a fair amount of press.
Meanwhile, Google’s been dancing with Darth Vader, though, of course, he doesn't look like DV. But that's how the man operates.
Life in the fast lane.
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