GoodSearch.com is a website that enables you to give monetary donations to charity without taking any money out of your own pocket.
After registering with GoodSearch, you designate a charity you want them to donate money to. Then, with every online search you conduct, GoodSearch will donate 50% of its revenues earned from those searches to your designated charity.
The money comes from GoodSearch’s advertisers, as people click on ads at the GoodSearch website. You can also set up buttons on your website to invite others to search, shop and donate money to your favorite charities.
We estimate that each web search will generate approximately $0.01 for the designated charity or school (image, video and site-specific searches are not included). It quickly adds up!
Let’s talk about the pros and cons of using Goodsearch.com, many of which I gleaned from reading the GoodSearch FAQs.
Pros:
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You can designate any school or charity you want to receive revenue from your search activity.
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If you don’t have a favorite charity, they have a list containing thousands of charities to choose from.
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Since it’s powered by Yahoo, you are not dealing with a third-rate search engine.
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Users/donors never have to pay a cent.
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You can monitor your giving. It’s interesting to see (in real-time) the number of searches and money you’ve raised
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If the charity you choose has tax-deductible status, your donations are tax-deductible.
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They make it easy… you can add GoodSearch to your IE, Firefox, or Mac toolbar.
Cons:
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Only 50% of GoodSearch.com’s revenue goes to charity.
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There are no fraudulent click checks. The site trusts users to be honest.
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GoodShop, part of the GoodSearch family, gives charities money based on shopping revenue. So if you shop online, your charity could also receive money from this part of the site. However, not all online retailers will pay GoodSearch a commission, so you are not guaranteed revenue for your charity when you shop though the site.
Is This Legit?
In summary, if you have ever used Google Adsense to make revenue on your own website, or you’ve seen the Google ads on others’ websites, then you know how GoodSearch works. It’s a legit way to raise money, even though the act of accumulating revenue for your specific charity may be quite slow.
The main difference is that with Google Adsense you are not allowed to search using your own links, but with GoodSearch you can make revenue from your own searches — plus the searches of your family, friends, and visitors to your own website.
What People Are Saying About GoodSearch
Popular review website Viewpoints.com gives GoodSearch.com an approval rating of 4.83 out of 5. No one ranked it below a 3 and only 2% percent of users gave it a 3 rating. The main complaint is about the search engine’s capabilities itself… it’s no Google! (But it’s close… since it’s powered by Yahoo.) The site is also down sometimes for maintenance.
MikesEyes blog listed GoodSearch as his favorite website in 2006. Today, there is still a button for GoodSearch.com at the top of his page. (An indicator that he still likes it.) Mike goes into some detail about how much money various charities earned earned from using the site.
In all, there are no complaints about the ethics of GoodSearch.com. There are no Better Business Bureau complaints either. My guess is because people are not giving any money out of their own pockets, so they have no problem with splitting their search revenue between their favorite charities and GoodSearch.
RELATED:
There are lots of other websites that donate money to charity based on your usage of their site. A few of them include:
FreeRice.com – give money while playing an online word game.
MixedMarket.com – shop away the world’s problems.
GoodTree – another way to donate money while searching online.
Check out GoodSearch vs GoodTree: A Review.
I have been a certified tightwad since I became pregnant with my first child and decided to find a way to stay home with him. I enjoy sharing my experiences in my journey back to financial health and planning for a future — which will include sending 2 kids to college and early retirement.
