Hi, George. And The Street, and Thomas A Watson. Re your questions about the hungersite....
Here are the details I think you wanted.
The parent company of hungersite.com is greatergood.com. If you shop via greatergood, the company you buy from (I always buy books from Amazon.com via the greatergood link) gives a commission to greatergood.com. That's how greatergood.com gets its income. Half of the shopping commissions, which can be for a few merchants as high as 30%, goes to one of the two charities I discussed below, the other half to greatergood.com.
So that's how the parent company of hungersite.com stays in business: Sponsors find it a profitable way to attract potential customers.
Until the end of 2000, the hungersite was operated free, first by an individual, a guy from Indiana, then by greatergood.com, and 100% of sponsor fees went to the World Food Program. It was an expensive proposition, costing up to $23,000 a month for server costs alone. (The individual was getting a million hits a month by the fourth month -- too much, so he approached greatergood.com, which had been a consistent sponsor, to take the site over.)
In December of 2000, the Hunger Site began taking a "hosting fee" of up to 25% of advertising (sponsor) revenues, with at least 75% of sponsor revenues going to America's Second Harvest and Mercy Corps.
Note that, as I said yesterday, the hosting fee is figured into the donation equation up front, so that 100% of the donation total appearing on the Thank You page does indeed go to The Hunger Site beneficiaries.
I did some research on these two non-profit organizations.
Mercy Corps, mercycorps.org
America's Second Harvest, secondharvest.org
Their audited financials are there. So are looooong lists of their corporate sponsors. I urge a visit!
Mercy Corps's overhead expenses = 7% of income.
America's Second Harvest was rated in 1998 by the Chronical of Philanthropy, and received an Efficiency Level Score of 99.6%. (Efficiency level determined by percentage of total expenses devoted to programs rather than administration or fundraising.)
The Salvation Army came in at number one. (Yesterday I mentioned the Salvation Army as being excellent in this regard.)
2... YMCA
3... American Red Cross
4... American Cancer Society
5... Fidelity Investment Charitable Gift Fund
6... Harvard University
7... Catholic Charities USA
8... America's Second Harvest
I personally give, modestly, to two of the above charities. But that costs me money.
When I click on www.hungersite.com, it costs me only a click. If they have four sponsors that day, my click produces a cup of cooked food for a hungry person.
My information came from the sites above, and hungersite.com, and from a conversation with the Sponsor-relations Manager at the hungersite. I asked if he earned above or below 50,000 a year, btw. The answer was "Below." I wonder if that was rude of me. I was curious. Edit: I just deleted his name, but he picks up the phone if you call. |
