OnGood Weeds Out Fraudulent Nonprofits
One challenge facing nonprofits and NGOs is trust. Fraudulent organizations collect money from donors, making it harder for legitimate ones, says Brian Cute, CEO of Public Interest Registry, the nonprofit manager of the .org domain. The organization launched a community website called OnGood that validates nonprofits with the .ngo and .ong domain name. (.ong is the translated equivalent of NGO for countries where Romance languages are prevalent.) The organizations can create a profile page, and the site includes a searchable directory for potential donors looking for a certain type of organization to fund and a “donate now” button. The site has been up about a week and .ngo has over 1,000 entries so far.
Brian says OnGood wants to be the first global directory of NGOs, and Public Interest Registry is the first to validate them through an exclusive domain. DC-based Wilderness Society is already on board. (No more questioning a mama bear's validity.) Depending on selected registrar services, organizations pay between $50-$100 to register the .ngo domain and to be on the OnGood site. Public Interest Registry also launched Enset, a nonprofit retail channel similar to GoDaddy and Network Solutions, where organizations, especially those in underserved markets, can register for an .ngo and .ong domain.
