Earlier this year, I wrote about Go Daddy offering customers the opportunity to “Round Up and Give to Hope for Haiti” while checking out and paying for their products. If selected, the total would be rounded up to the next dollar, and that difference would be given to the Hope for Haiti non-profit.
In May, Godaddy reported $20,000 in customer donations to date, which were matched by the company, and I am sure the total is now far greater since this option has continued to be presented to customers. The company has already given over $1,000,000 in financial contributions to Hope for Haiti.
While purchasing some domain names this morning, I noticed that the round up option was still there, but it has changed just a bit. Instead of offering customers the chance to donate to one organization, they can now select one of three non profits, including  Hope for Haiti,  Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and  Arizona Humane Society.
I like to see companies like this giving back, especially when community organizations are involved. As we saw with the first iteration of this endeavor, they’re raising some serious money for these groups, while also raising awareness.
GoDaddy auction just sold PaylPal.com. I wish Godaddy would mind its house instead of deluge the press with its charities PR. Quit sticking the taxpayers with the bill of phishing scams – like Paypal – and we’ll all have more to contribute to charity.
Crooks.
@ Louise
How do you suppose GoDaddy should police trademarks?
Godaddy is the top Registrar, is it not? How about set an example for the other registrars?
It can well do something. The day Oprah and Dr. Oz announced they were going after all the acai berry supplement scammers that were advertising using their trademarks, several Godaddy hosted sites involved in that went dead, and I took the screenshots. From one day to the next, they went dead. Because Godaddy would not want to deal with the liability and bad press from being targeted by Oprah and Dr. Oz.
Godaddy is good about shutting down child porn. It has a process in place to do that much, and that much I will grant Godaddy. It has a rep of shutting down child porn sites.
Pressured by the government, Godaddy enlisted the help of LegitScript to take down fake pharmacy sites. Now, godaddy acts like it invented the movement against fake pharmaceuticals, since it couldn’t participate any longer. In any case, there is a process here.
Godaddy could well divert some of those huge profits it makes to develop a system to screen out trademarks. Maybe not all of them, but it could put a dent.
“Godaddy could well divert some of those huge profits it makes to develop a system to screen out trademarks. ”
@ Louise
I am sure they would be happy to hear your opinion on how they should spend their money 🙂
@ Elliot said: “I am sure they would be happy to hear your opinion on how they should spend their money.”
Yes, you have a right to demand honest behavior of companies that deal in financial, in domains, and deal with the public.
@ Louise
If they are publicly traded/owned companies, you have the right to do that. If they aren’t, you have no business sticking your nose in their business, unless they are doing something illegal. If they are doing something you find to be unethical, do business elsewhere. There’s a difference between legalities and ethics.