18 cents a day

I've done this nearly every day for almost a year now, and sporadically for much much longer than that.

Today I simply had to double check.

The premise is so simple.  I visit a website.  I click on a button.

I get a thank you note as the screen shifts to show me advertisements from sponsoring corporations who purportedly donate funds to feed the world's hungry, just for the chance to show up in front of me on this page.

It is up to me whether I visit the corporate sites, or pay any attention to who is on that page, but these corporate sponsors apparently are willing to donate what amounts to about three cents for the chance to catch my eye, generate some goodwill, and potentially attract me as their customer.

Three cents donated for food to hungry people for less than three seconds of my time.

If I decide to click a few more times, I can do even more.

I know, it sounds too good to be true.  It sounds like a scam, a something-for-nothing scheme.  One of those tricks where you innocently try to do something wonderful and you end up with all your financial records and passwords downloaded to some Mob processing center.

Well, according to extensive research (read:I just Googled it), the Hunger Site is a lot of things, but a trick or a scam or a scheme is apparently not one of them.

The Hunger Site, and the associated partner sites generating funds to protect endangered habitats, support programs to increase child literacy, provide free mammograms, support animal rescue organizations and promote child health, are ingenious partnerships capitalizing on the mechanism by which corporate sponsors will pay, just as they do for space on various other web sites, maybe even your blog among them, just for the opportunity to catch your eye.

In return for that chance, as you click on the buttons each day, sponsors send three cents to the site managers who distribute the proceeds in the form of grant monies to their charitable partners.  If you are a forgetful type like me, each of the sites is even set to send you a daily email reminder to click, with a link to the buttons for all six causes.

Just think of it.  You click six times, spending only a few seconds, and eighteen cents a day, times three hundred sixty-five days a year, yields $65.70 in corporate funding given to charity with laughably little effort.  Even if you miss a few days on vacation or whenever you are away from the internet, I am sure you could easily end up generating at least $50 annually.  Just for pointing and clicking, something I bet you typically do all day long.

$50 a year of corporate money going to make this world a better place.  Because you want it to.

No unsolicited return address stickers.  No hokey calendars or flimsy greeting cards.  No telephone calls at dinnertime or solicitation of any kind.  You visit at your convenience, from the comfort of your desk, once every day.

When I donate my own money I do so very carefully.  I investigate the organizations and see how they are rated, how much of my contribution goes towards work, how much goes for administration, etc.   According to GreaterGood, 100% of the corporate funds generated by visiting these pages go to their charitable partners.  So far, I simply can't come up with a down side.

How about you?  Ready to spend a few seconds to make the world a little better place?  Just....click!