The Opportunity of GoodSearch

I first became acquainted with GoodSearch a number of years ago. Maryhouse Ministry, the social service ministry at Saint Patrick Parish in Providence (RI), signed up for it as one of its fundraising efforts. I began using it as my primary search engine, and I eventually made it the home page on the computer on my desk.

GoodSearch is powered by Yahoo, and it is a good, basic search engine. Most of the time when I use GoodSearch, I am able to find what I need. If my initial search does not give me what I want, I then go to another search engine (e.g., Google, Bing, AltaVista, Cuil).

What is GoodSearch? GoodSearch is a search engine that shares fifty percent of the revenue generated from the sponsored search advertisers with the charity, school, or other nonprofit organization of one's choosing. This is an estimated one cent per search (although in some years it has gone as high as 1.3 cents per search). The money comes from the GoodSearch advertisers.

A large number of nonprofit organizations (as of this writing the total is 92,358) have signed up with GoodSearch. To view a current list, please visit:

http://www.goodsearch.com/charitylist.aspx

How does one use GoodSearch?

First go to its website:

http://www.goodsearch.com/

Underneath the search box is a question, "WHO DO YOU GOODSEARCH FOR?"

In the box underneath this question, type the name of the charity you would like to support (e.g., saint maria goretti), and click on Verify. Some options will appear. Click on your choice from the options. Your choice will appear in place, with the guidance, "Search now and money will go to your designated cause."

If you do not see the organization you are looking for, you may try a variant on the spelling, or you may go to the list of participating nonprofit organizations (see the link above) to find out the spelling for this use (or to see if the organization is even listed).

Once you have entered an organization to be the recipient of revenue generated by your searches, you can keep informed about the amount of revenue being raised fro the organization by clicking on "Amount Raised."

To make sure your charity is already chosen each time you go to GoodSearch if your cookies are deleted (if your computer allows cookies, the last nonprofit you designated will remain chosen), you may use the following address line as a favorite link or bookmark: http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=xxxx (replace "xxxx" with the Charity ID located on the "Amount Raised" page).

For example, since our parish, Saint Maria Goretti (Pawtucket, RI) has signed up for GoodSearch, I use them as my primary GoodSearch charity. The parish ID: 919867, and I have set up my home page as http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=919867.

I strongly encourage readers to seriously consider using GoodSearch to help an organization they support.