Clicks Against Breast Cancer, and Hunger, and Deforestation, and…

My friend Katharine sent me a message that the Breast Cancer Site was having trouble getting enough people to click on their site for donating free mammograms every day to underserved women. She said, “It takes only a few seconds to go to their site and click on “donating a mammogram” (the pink button in the middle). It doesn’t cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors and advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammograms in exchange for advertising. Here’s the web site!” www.thebreastcancersite.com

This sounded just like the Hunger Site. (Have you ever clicked there to donate a free bowl of food for a hungy person?) In 1999, it had become one of most popular destinations on the internet. The Good News Network featured it in 1999, the first online activist web site. Well, whaddya know? I went to donate a mammogram with a simple click of my mouse and found — on the same page — not only the Hunger Site, but the Rainforest Site, The Child Health Site, the Literacy Site, and the Animal Rescue Site!

Two longtime environmental activists, Tim Kunin and Greg Hesterberg bought the Hunger site in 2001 and set up CharityUSA.com. The pair have maintained the sites’ simple and efficient method for web users to support good around the world. It is a win-win-win opportunity for the web user, the sponsors/advertisers, and the charity services who deliver the benefits. (They also founded GreaterGood.com, where up to 30% of any purchase automatically goes to the charitable cause you select – at no extra cost. Products range from clothing to jewelery, to electronics and toys, to books and flowers, including fair trade goods and native arts and crafts.)

In its first six years, the Hunger Site has delivered 417 million cups of food. While 70% of the donations go to alleviating hunger in the developing world, 30% help those within the US. Since the Rainforest site’s advent in 2000, 1.2 billion square feet (29,000 acres) of endangered forestland has been protected and preserved.

I wonder why more people are not clicking every day. It took me around 60 seconds to click on, and move through the six pages and their accompanying ‘redirects’ exclaiming, ‘thank you, please support our sponsors’. Yesterday, March 22, produced the following total numbers of charitable clicks for each site, and the benefits donated on their behalf. (Katharine and her breast cancer pals participating in the e-mail campaign have pushed up their numbers nicely.)

Breast Cancer – 295,714 clicks generated 7.7 free mammograms for women. Animal Rescue – 167,036 clicks generated 50,111 lbs. of food for animals (22,730 Kg) Hunger Site – 146,379 clicks generated 9.4 tons (9,380 Kg) of food to hungry people. Rainforest Site – 97,189 clicks conserved 25.4 acres of land (10.3 Hectares) Literacy Site – 90,730 clicks generated 1,671 books donated to kids in need. Children’s Health – 91,887 clicks served 1,671 kids with needed shots or hydration. (One even received eye surgery or prosthesis.)

People are visiting and yet not clicking to benefit each of the six good causes. Literally passing up the chance to help for the price of 15 seconds and a flick of the wrist…

Each of these sites has their own attractive store for shopping, the proceeds are in addition to the totals above providing more bowls of food, more mammograms, and more rainforest habitat. Let’s see if the Good News Network can push up those daily click totals. We’ve included a reminder button on the left of the GNN-i site. Don’t forget to click on six. Visit the Hunger Site, and click, click, click (don’t stop yet), click , click — and, click!