GSS launches new income-generating search engine branded for charities
Howard Lake | 26 August 2013 | News
Midlands-based Global Search Solutions (GSS) has developed a branded search engine page for charities that will help them generate income. Each search on the site by supporters generates a small payment from the search engine provider, part of which GSS then donates to the charity.
Dr Jeryl Shepherd Director at GSS said that the company was also extending the service to other companies provided that the money they generated was donated to charity or to its corporate social reponsibility.
She said: "The great thing about this initiative is people can raise money by doing something that they do every day – searching the web and best of all it costs them absolutely nothing".
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Dr Shepherd told UK Fundraising that the company had initially focused on sports charities, working with angling charities given the large number of people who take part in the sport. It is also working with football teams and their foundations, including Everton FC and their Everton in the Community charity, and with smaller charities such as Teams4U.
How is GSS different?
The model of a charity search engine is not new of course, with Everyclick and Easysearch being two of the longer standing examples.
Dr Shepherd explained that Global Search Solutions passes 20% of the total search engine's revenue to each charity. She pointed out that other providers might give 50% but that is "after expenses".
GSS offers two different templates, one single Google-style search bar and one with space for news and advertising space, the revenue from which is received by the charity with no deduction.
GSS also works with partner charities to help them make the most of the opportunity. Dr Shepherd said that GSS helps "identify various user groups to approach and how best to implement and communicate with these groups over time ensuring promotion and maximum take up".
She added that "We are the only provider with an app for Blackberry, Android and iPhone."
The company was also working on a community for charity partners to enable them to communicate and learn from each other.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.