Technology for Fundraising

RE: Use GoodSearch and Google Grants to raise funds, get publicity

socallady — Sun, 04 May 2008 05:31:00 GMT

Thanks but I'm not up on the Google Grant plan but I'm ck it out asap.

RE: Use GoodSearch and Google Grants to raise funds, get publicity

socallady — Sat, 03 May 2008 05:59:00 GMT

I got our org signed up w/Goodsearch it was quite easy. New web site should be live by Sunday, I'll keep ya posted.

RE: Use GoodSearch and Google Grants to raise funds, get publicity

bbell1 — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:37:00 GMT

We have had a Google Grant for approvimately 8 months and it has been a great benefit to our website traffic. I highly reccomend applying.

We moved from 8% "new visitors" to our website to around 70%. Subscriptions to our email update and has increased dramatically and from many different countries.

The in-kind value for the grant is about $7,000 a month.

It was 5 months from application to acceptance so be patient.

Hope this helps.

Bill Bell
Exec. Dir.
Northwest Parkinson's Foundation

RE: Use GoodSearch and Google Grants to raise funds, get publicity

socallady — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:48:00 GMT

Hi,
We are now approved and going to start w/Goodsearch. I really hope it proves to be good for us. I realize that it is up to us and our efforts to spread the word.
I just hope my org gets behind it ,they are so non tech type ladies.
Not that I'm great but I do enjoy the whole learning curve.

RE: Use GoodSearch and Google Grants to raise funds, get publicity

marodriguez — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 05:17:00 GMT

Our organization has had the benefit of a Google Grant for the past year and Google actually initally helped us set up our campaign by assigning an employee to scan our website and make relevant campaigns based upon their observations. We later tweaked this and continue to do so. It has not resulted in a large amount of donations but it has brought a lot of traffic to our site and resulted in other nonprofit partnerships along with helping us to recruit many volunteers.

I'd recommend applying to any nonprofit. It took a little over the 6 months to get the approval of the grant but was well worth the wait.

I'm not fond of GoodSearch as it uses the Yahoo search engine. I don't use Yahoo for a search and have trouble subjecting our supporters to it.

RE: Use GoodSearch and Google Grants to raise funds, get publicity

webangel — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:15:00 GMT

We have been using Google Grants for a couple of years now. It has been really good for traffic to our site, and I have been able to see direct results based on the way I have tweaked the ads.

Lynn

Angel Covers - http://www.angelcovers.org
Caring for orphans and needy children worldwide

RE: Use GoodSearch and Google Grants to raise funds, get publicity

EvilNetworkOverlord — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 03:30:00 GMT

Robert,

After doing a little research, I believe that hmeininger might be associated with Charlotte Mommies of Charlotte, NC. And indeed, they did raise that amount through goodsearch last year.

But I've checked the stats on nearly two hundred goodsearch listings for Los Angeles and NYC and the numbers just aren't there. The Charlotte Mommies results are so far above typical that there must be more to the story.

I've also been looking for any useful trends or indicators in those stats. Haven't found much, but I did notice a couple things.

Fist, the vast majority of listings show fewer than a thousand searches and little if any money raised. It's what you might expect to see if just one person listed the NPO and then searched for a few minutes every month. Is it real? Planted? I don't know. But the number of such listings is so high that it significantly inflates the claimed number of active participants.

Second, looking at monthly totals, it's common to see a sudden jump in usage, presumably the result of some fundraising activity that highlights the goodsearch program. But the following months generally show a steady decline in searches and revenue. (Not surprising since Yahoo is the search engine.) So the program is not self-sustaining. The NPO's must continue to promote it.

I do hope someone will explain the techniques that Charlotte Mommies used, and whether the associated costs were substantially less than the $2300 received.

-ENO

RE: Use GoodSearch and Google Grants to raise funds, get publicity

rweiner — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:41:00 GMT

Dear hmeininger,

Congratulations! That's great.

Can you let us know what organization you're with, how many constituents you have, and what you've done to promote Goodsearch to your constituents?

Robert

RE: Use GoodSearch and Google Grants to raise funds, get publicity

hmeininger — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:39:00 GMT

My company has been using Goodsearch for the past 16 months and I have to say that we have been happy with the outcome. As a grassroots non-profit with very little capital, Goodsearch has been a really wonderful way for our members to support us and help us without affecting their own pocketbooks. While we have no where NEAR the participation that we could have, we still received a check for $2200 last year and hope to get to $5000 this year. In my company, $2200 is nothing to sneeze at. I'm glad to keep working with Goodsearch and I think it is great that they are sharing what they earn with so many non-profits. I don't see any of the other search engines doing that :)

RE: Use GoodSearch and Google Grants to raise funds, get publicity

ToolsForOrgs.com — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 00:18:00 GMT

Think about GoodSearch like this:

1) GoodSearch gets primo location and space on your website. How much would you charge a local company to advertise in that same space? $50 or $100 per month? And most nonprofits will make less than $5 per month from their goodsearch promotion.

2) GoodSearch gets to charge real advertising dollars for the ads people see on their searches originating from your site. They are making plenty of money. You get $.05 or less per search.

Are you SURE that your organization wants to endorse GoodSearch for the less than $5 per month that you will receive?

Most likely, if you posted on your website that you were looking for a $50 per month 'donation' to advertise in that same space on your site, you would probably find a local company willing to do that. Then you are helping a local company, and they are helping you.

GoodSearch, while it DOES give pennies to nonprofits, seems to me to just be a way for THEM to make real cash.

GoodSearch is good in theory, not in practice.

RE: Use GoodSearch and Google Grants to raise funds, get publicity

KWFA — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 23:19:00 GMT

We've had a Google Grant and been very grateful for the in-kind sponsored advertising it provides.

I'd feel kind of hypocritical to be grateful for a Google Grant and then tell folks to use a Yahoo search for their searches. Many of our members found us by way of the sponsored ads from the Google Grant we've received.

I'm not convinced Goodsearch is financially worth the effort to promote it among our supporters anyway.

I am still waiting to find out if Goodshop is going to worth being involved in.

RE: Use GoodSearch and Google Grants to raise funds, get publicity

EvilNetworkOverlord — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 06:25:00 GMT

"What is wrong with a for-profit enterprise that benefits nonprofits?"

Nothing at all.

But if the for-profit enterprise is deceiving the nonprofit with unrealistic promises, then the nonprofit might not realize any true benefit, and I become concerned about the extent of the deception and possible negative consequences.

For the record, I'm not saying that GoodSearch has done, or is likely to do anything overtly malicious. I'm just saying that they appear to be no better than any of the other tacky, specialized quasi-search engine providers I've seen. (except perhaps that they've been clever enough to get the nonprofit community to do all the footwork for them.)

I recognize their sales psychology as being a slightly updated version of the decades old multi-level soap powder marketing schemes.

I see them showing "success" examples that your local nonprofit will never be able to match.

Doing a quick check of the GoodSearch affiliated nonprofits in my metropolitan area, I see that very few of them are earning even $20 a year, meaning they'll see nothing.

Ignoring the money/time spent adding GoodSearch to their campaigns, if even one donor is sufficiently annoyed by the swith to Yahoo that they decide NOT to contribute to the latest campaign, the result is a net loss.

You might also want to investigate the GoodSearch toolbar. It's actually a version of the Dynamic Toolbar from Visicom Media, the same folks who created some infamous adware/spyware toolbars.

The GoodSearch toolbar collects additional information about "user behaviour" and gives GoodSearch the ability to generate substantial income without paying your selected charity a single dime.

There's more, but you don't have take my word for it. Read their terms and conditions. Note the disclaimers. Install the toobar. Analyze the changes to your computer and the outgoing traffic and decide for yourself.

-ENO

RE: Use GoodSearch and Google Grants to raise funds, get publicity

Christian_SEO — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 01:38:00 GMT

I had assumed Google dropped them since they were using Yahoo the last time I checked, and right now they still are.

In response to Christian, note that they are donating based on searches.

I'm sorry, where did you see that? They are trying to mislead people. By their search box they say "Fraudulent searches will result in your charity being delisted." There is no such thing as a "Fraudulent search", but there are fraudulent clicks. The searching does not generate any revenue, it's the clicks.

Where does the money come from?

Search engines make most of their money from companies that pay an advertising fee when users click on links during a search.

This is exactly what I am talking about. Most people don't understand paid search very well and can easily become confused.

The problem is that those with little or no means to donate to charities will be very likely to donate in other ways, and therefore click on the paid ads of any site that offers them. While the intentions are well-meaning, it's still click fraud since the advertiser does not benefit and loses money.

Yes, there may be some honest clicks, but how do you tell? The answer to me is NEVER use any type of system to donate to charities where this can happen. A couple of years ago I put adsense on a charity site that I was helping, but I soon pulled it off after thinking more about it. It's better to use affiliate programs where people are paying for something they want and the NP can get some revenue (I have one such program and will help any NP that wants to get started that way. Contact me off-forum.).

And to update everyone on Google Grants: It's a great program, but it's been darned hard for me to get it to work for my NP client. I've been short of time, but after managing an AdWords account that has spent as much as $100K a month, this free account has been a big headache. if anyone has had success with setting up and running a Google Grant account for a NP I would really, really like to talk to them, because in this situation, Google has been almost no help at all.

RE: Use GoodSearch and Google Grants to raise funds, get publicity

dhartman3 — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 22:23:00 GMT

In response to Christian, note that they are donating based on searches, not clicks on sponsored links. Thus, they should not be exposed to or encouraging click fraud the way typical PPC models are. Also, I have not researched this, but since they are using Yahoo's search engine, I imagine they are also using Yahoo click fraud protections, which are not absolute but would likely prevent most click fraud.

In response to ENO, true that it is a business idea but nevertheless with seemingly good intentions and positive results for nonprofits. What is wrong with a for-profit enterprise that benefits nonprofits?

As for it being a second rate search engine, cannot argue there.

RE: Use GoodSearch and Google Grants to raise funds, get publicity

EvilNetworkOverlord — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 01:31:00 GMT

I agree with Chris. I would not recommend using Goodsearch.com.

I have been researching this on behalf of a client and despite the altruistic image created by a very aggressive and polished PR campaign, goodsearch.com is just another click-thru site with no content or product of its own, existing primarily to produce income for the owners (the Rambergs), and relying on the enthusiasm (and naivety?) of the non-profit community to do its marketing and recruiting for them at no charge (much like other affiliate programs).

Users end up with a second-rate search engine and most NPO's will realize far less income than they anticipate, if any at all.

Standard Advice: Read and understand every word of the Terms of Service and the Privacy statements before signing up for this or any other on-line service.

-ENO