Helping.org becomes Network for Good

Howard Lake | 26 November 2001 | News

Helping.org is transformed into online philanthropy portal with help from companies and foundations.

A coalition of companies, nonprofit foundations and associations have relaunched the philanthropy resource Helping.org as “Network for Good.” It aims to help charities

strengthen their connections with people seeking to donate, volunteer or speak out.

Network for Good is an independent, 501(c)(3) organisation. It was founded and funded by AOL Time Warner Foundation and AOL, Inc.; the Cisco Foundation and Cisco Systems, Inc.; and Yahoo!, in partnership with over 20

non-profit foundations and associations.

It builds on the success of Helping.org, the first ePhilanthropy initiative of the AOL Time Warner

Foundation. In two years, it delivered $20 million in contributions and 175,000 volunteers to non-profit organisations in the USA.

The Web site aggregates and organises content and

resources, making them available in one “comprehensive, easy-to-use destination.”

Visitors will be able to explore and give to the nearly

850,000 charities in the Guidestar database, and 100% of their donation will be credited to the charity. Network for Good says that it will subsidise the transaction and credit card costs of all donations.

Visitors will be able to explore a database of tens of thousands of volunteer opportunities provided by VolunteerMatch, helping community service organizations throughout the USA recruit volunteers.

Visitors will also be encouraged and assisted in campaigning online. They will find a search option to locate and communicate with an elected official or media contact, information on steps to becoming an online activist, and additional resources to contact to further pursue personal interests.

Network for Good is also designed to help charities become more accountable and help donors make more informed giving decisions by providing critical information about each charity, such as descriptions of programmes, financial information, ratios of administrative costs to programmes and

boards of directors.

Steve Case, Chairman of AOL Time Warner, said: “Network for Good represents an unprecedented alliance of industry and nonprofit leaders. By combining the passion, expertise and grass-roots affiliations of our nonprofit partners and the reach, resources and Internet capabilities of our corporate founders, we will be able to make giving, volunteering and speaking out on issues as central a part of the Internet as shopping or getting e-mail.”

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.