One of the most exciting developments we’ve had in the last year was the success of our inaugural Search and Give program where your queries helped to raise more than $250,000 for local schools and non-profits. Over the course of the year the program generated cash donations for more than 20,000 organizations ranging from schools to non-profits such as Doctors Without Borders and ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). Today we’ve launched the latest version of the program that includes a new, easy-to-use design with enhanced features and more flexible donation capabilities.

Here’s how it works

By signing up at http://www.searchandgive.com/, consumers can start donating one cent per search to more than 100,000 schools and 900,000 non-profit organizations worldwide every time they use the Live Search to find whatever interests them. People can also convert tickets they’ve earned playing games on Microsoft’s Live Search Club, at http://www.club.live.com/, into donations for those same schools or charities.

What’s new

• More money donated  You can earn one cent per search for your designated charity by just looking for things online — up to 500 searches per person per month.
• More than 1 million organizations  We’ve grown our list of eligible organizations to more than one million. We’ve also made it easier to find them with a new UI that allows for faster lookup by name or non-profit ID number.
• Watch your community grow  Track your donations, total donations, and total number of contributors for your chosen organization.
• Tell a friend  Search and Give brings communities together around causes that are important to them. People can now send instant emails to friends and family from within the tool letting them know how they too can make a difference.

We need your help

This program is powered by people through word-of-mouth or viral distribution. We’re asking for your help to make this program an even greater success by sharing this information with your friends and family and recruiting them to start searching at http://www.searchandgive.com. If one person can earn $60 per year for their favorite charity just by searching the Web with Search and Give, imagine the power of 10 people = $600 per year; imagine the power of 25 people = $1,500 per year; imagine the power of 100 people = $6000 per year. Together, we can make every search count.

In the end, we hope this program will grow exponentially so we can redistribute more of the dollars coming into search to the local schools and charities that YOU are passionate about supporting. We hope you enjoy the new features and stay tuned as we start showcasing some of the best “Search and Give” campaigns you all have created!

 

Christine Andrews, Product Manager, Search and Give