This is the first in a series of brief ’spotlights’ of some of the less traditional charitable organizations out there. The aim? To highlight some of the fascinating - and fun - ways that it’s possible to help others in today’s web-based world. I’m going to focus on those charities with a significant web presence, because they’re universally accessible, and particularly those that have a slightly different approach from sponsorship and the other typical methodologies. As you will see, some of the organizations out there are doing a tremendous job of introducing human interest and personality to the process of giving.

GlobalGiving (www.globalgiving.com) describes itself as ‘a marketplace for goodness - where you can browse ways to help others around the world, pick the ones you are most passionate about, and give to the solution.’ GlobalGiving works with a network of well-run organizations, researching their projects and then making it simple to give to those projects and track the impact.

The organization’s vision is to ‘Unleash the potential of people around the world to make positive change happen.’, and its mission is to ‘Build an efficient, open, thriving marketplace that connects people who have community and world-changing ideas with people who can support them.’

Here’s a little bit about the history of GlobalGiving, in their own words:

In 1997, World Bank executives Mari Kuraishi and Dennis Whittle were asked to develop innovative ways to combat poverty. They created the Bank’s Development Marketplace, a first-of-its-kind event where people from around the world competed for World Bank funds. The event’s success unveiled the enormous potential of a global marketplace for philanthropy, and participants asked for a real marketplace that was open year round and operated virtually. Mari and Dennis saw the brilliance of this idea, left the World Bank and launched GlobalGiving.

Its website is central to GlobalGiving’s operation, and it’s very good. Three buttons make it easy to FIND a project, DO more, and SEE results.

Projects can be browsed by region, proximity to funding goal, topic or cause, by project sponsor, or even by using Google Earth. There’s a ‘donation wizard’ to walk you through the steps of selecting a project if you’re stuck. Here’s an example of part of a project page (the real page has much more information about the project, its goals and mechanics):

The site makes it very easy to spread the word about your pet projects by allowing embedding in sites or blogs using WidgetBox. It’s also possible to bookmark any project using social networking and bookmarking services like del.icio.us, Facebook, Digg, Google Bookmarks and so on.

The ‘Do more’ link leads to a store, a selection of ‘gifts for good’, information on spreading the word and volunteering, and more.

The ‘See results’ link shows what’s been done through GlobalGiving, by highlighting funded projects and their results as posted by the project leaders.

Using the site is a great experience, and it’s inspiring to be able to contribute directly to wonderful projects around the world. Take a look at the site now!

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