Sometime during December, Sterling College will receive a check for $50.42—it sounds like the donation of someone counting pennies this Christmas season, doesn’t it? The truth is far from that. The $50.42 is the revenue generated by the search engine, GoodSearch.com, and the online shopping mall, GoodShop.com, and the donation didn’t cost supporters of Sterling College a single penny.
GoodSearch.com was created in 2005 to enable internet users to support their charity of choice through doing what they normally do, through surfing the web. Supporters of Sterling College can visit the GoodSearch.com website, type “Sterling College” under the question, “Who do you goodsearch for?” and begin searching the internet just as usual. Each search earns Sterling College about a penny in revenue. And that can add up. Through GoodSearch, the ASPCA (the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) has earned over $10,000 this year alone.
Sterling College supporters can also use GoodShop.com, which was added to GoodSearch in 2007. This online shopping mall connects users to online stores that contribute a percentage of a user’s purchases simply for connecting through GoodShop.com.
This year’s check of $50.42 may not put lights on the Warrior soccer field or endow a chair for the biology department, but Director of Alumni David Earle, who set up the College's account with GoodSearch, is excited about the possibilities. “If all the people who care about Sterling—students, faculty/staff members, alumni, and friends—put notes on their computers to remind them to use GoodSearch.com for their internet searches and GoodShop.com for their online purchases, we could be generating $50 a day. The end-of-the-year check would be such a great picture of all of our giving put together—one penny at a time.”