I think that I’ll save the world, as a fun afternoon activity.

-- “Saving the World”, What to Do With Daylight by Brooke Fraser

You know how it feels when you see those ads full of big-bellied, sad-eyed kids in some poverty-stricken, war-torn land? You’re asked to pledge $1 a day to alleviate their suffering, and you do so, but the damn ads just keep on coming and there are only so many cups of coffee you can forego to keep their adorable little faces fly-free. Or how about when your help is sought for a local hospital or community outreach program, a struggling independent school or church? What about when you’re asked to support women’s rights, or world literacy, or dignity for refugees?

And then there’s the environment. Always, the environment.

And then an Act of God-type disaster hits, like a tsunami or a hurricane or one of the many earthquakes with which the world has been plagued this past year. You want to help, and again, you do so. But relief agencies always need more, more, more, and there is only so much -- at times it seems pitifully much -- you can actually do to assist them. The simple truth is, you could give all of your time, your passion, your expertise and your cash to any worthy cause the world has engendered and it still would not be enough. Nothing could ever be enough. Then you hear tales of administrative corruption and trickledown economics and religious indoctrination carried out by various agencies, and added together with your general need-fatigue, you get disheartened. Maybe you even consider giving up on the whole giving thing entirely.

Happily, there are many ways in which you can help out assorted charities, whether they be local, national or worldwide, with just a couple of mouse clicks. It won’t cost you anything other than a few seconds of your time, and the good you can do is truly immeasurable. This is not to say you should withhold your aforementioned time, passion, expertise or cash from any cause you are able to support in other, more tangible, ways. But in addition to your other efforts, you’ll know that you are making a difference. Simply. Effectively. Daily. Let’s call it Charity Without Sacrifice. CWS.

And here’s how you can do it:

GoodSearch - www.goodsearch.com
You search, we give

Powered by Yahoo!, GoodSearch works just like any other search engine, except that you get to designate a charity for which each search you perform will generate revenue. That’s right, even if you’re looking for the lyrics to a Justin Bieber song or the real names of those ubiquitous Shaytards, you will also be giving something to the non-profit organization of your choice. By downloading their handy-dandy toolbar, you’ll always have GoodSearch at the ready, and if you visit sites like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, eBay and the like via GoodSearch, a percentage of any purchase you make will also go to your chosen cause.

With nearly 100 000 non-profits registered with GoodSearch, you’re bound to find one that suits your tastes in CWS. The ASPCA is its top earner since GoodSearch’s inception in 2005, with US$38 000 and counting. That’s not too shabby for having its adherents do nothing other than type in “how to tie a tie” (2010’s most asked question on Yahoo) or “Miley Cyrus” (the most searched celebrity) or “Abby’s Lemonade” (the most searched charity).

One caveat: Image and video searches, searches for specific websites, word definitions, the Yellow Pages or -- for some reason -- stock quotes, will not generate any donations. For those, feel free to Google.

Reward Points
What, are you really going to use them?

Maybe you travel a lot on business. Maybe you don’t travel that much at all. But the odds are still pretty good that you have one or two frequent flyer cards laying about in your purse or wallet, a hotel loyalty card, or perhaps a credit card that awards you air points when you charge something. But how many of us actually ever manage to use all of those points? How often have you had them expire before you ever gained enough for it to matter, or found the time to put them to good purpose?

In the US, the Make-a-Wish Foundation is partnered with Air Tran, Continental Airlines, Delta, United and US Airways. As their website says, "By donating your airline miles you’re helping the Make-A-Wish Foundation grant travel wishes that require an estimated 2.5 billion airline miles yearly." How nice would that be of you? Simply by handing over your unused miles, you can help make critically-ill children’s dreams come true. (Points accrued at Starwood and Hyatt hotels can also be donated.)

A host of other charities, like the Red Cross, will likewise accept your miles and hotel rewards points; refer to the websites of your specific program/s for information on which causes you are able to support in this way. As examples, Air Canada miles can be donated to Doctors Without Borders, Emirates miles can be donated to their own humanitarian foundation, and British Airways miles can be donated to UNICEF.

Frequently, a particular calamity will lead to a variety of organizations seeking frequent flyer and/or hotel reward points, such as calls to aid in the relief effort following the Haiti earthquake this past January. And most credit card companies with rewards programs make it super easy to donate your points to many different causes: check out your card’s local website. For example, American Express’s Members Give program will give $10 for every 1 000 points redeemed to the charity of your choice.

In the US, check out www.miledonor.com and JohnnyJet.com for more information.

The GreaterGood Nework
Made up of The Hunger Site, and its sisters, The Breast Cancer, Animal Rescue, Veterans, Child Health, Literacy and Rainforest Sites

A click a day is all it takes to help these worthy causes. It is so simple! Start at The Hunger Site, and click the button that says, “Click Here to Give – It’s FREE!” Then click on the tabs for the other sites, and click on their buttons, too, and you will get the immediate satisfaction of knowing exactly what your paltry little click somehow accomplished.

The Hunger Site says:

Thank you for clicking! Your click gave the value of
1.1 cups of food to the hungry.

The Animal Rescue Site says:

Thank you for clicking! Your click gave the value of
.6 bowls of food for rescued animals.

The Rainforest Site says:

Thank you for clicking! Your click helped protect
11.4 square feet of rainforest habitat for wildlife.

And if you are thereafter interested enough in their products or services to click through to any of the website sponsors (yes, these donations -- along with most every site’s on here -- are all fueled by advertising) then you will be giving even more money to the assorted causes, for little more than a few moments’ perusal.

Another way to perform some CWS is to send an e-card via any of the sites. You can send them to up to 20 people at a time, and just this small act of reaching out to your friends (and, let’s face it, who amongst us isn’t guilty of neglecting our friends somewhat, in this frenetic day and age?) can go a long way in not only raising needed revenue for the cause, but also spread the word of The [Insert Charity Here] Site and their [free] good works.

Other ways to spread the word: Like on Facebook, Follow on Twitter, Digg on… er, Digg, if you understand how that whole deal works.

And, hey! If you feel like a little online shopping, a quick glance through the various Sites’ stores is always a worthwhile experience. With an array of unusual, handmade, environmentally responsible and often Fair Trade products, as well as more conventional wares, there really is something for everyone here. And there is no better feeling in the world than buying a really cute dress and learning that its purchase also funds 150 cups of food for the needy, or that it helps 27 children get access to adequate health care.

Nothing!

ripple.org - www.ripple.org
Saving the world one click at a time

Ripple has four buttons on its main page: Water, Food, Education, Money. All four mainstays of our everyday lives, and four things we take utterly for granted. Well, maybe not so much the “money” part. Still, many in the world do not have that luxury, which is where ripple.com comes in.

Click on “Water” and you give someone in the world access to clean drinking water for 6 days. (And we all know how important it is to stay hydrated.) Click on “Food” and you support Oxfam Australia in its efforts to provide sustainable farming in remote villages. (You can give a man a fish, and all that.) Click on “Education” and you help a child in East Timor receive two days of schooling via The Oaktree Foundation. (And these are kids who want two days of schooling!) Click on “Money” and you will help finance a microloan that can help a driven but disadvantaged business person get on the road to financial stability. (Fun fact: microloans through the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Grameen Foundation boast a repayment rate of between 95 and 98%... much higher than that of US student loans, or even credit card debts!)

Like GoodSearch, you can also use the ripple.com homepage as your search engine, and this one is powered by Google. So here’s where you can search for those stock quotes!

As the ripple FAQ page says:

• More than one billion people in the world live on less than one dollar a day. • In total, 2.7 billion struggle to survive on less than two dollars per day. • Every 3.6 seconds another person dies of starvation. Most of these deaths are children. • More than 2.6 billion people do not have basic sanitation, and more than one billion people still use unsafe sources of drinking water. If we can, we should all be doing something about poverty.

Don’t you agree? Especially when it’s as easy as clicking on four little buttons and searching “Chatroulette” (Google’s fastest rising search of 2010), “dominos pizza menu” (Google’s #6 in Food and Drink) or “cholera” (Google’s #7 in Health Queries. #7!)

So why not become a “rippler” today?

Care2 - www.care2.com
make a difference

Care2 is a fun one, because not only can your clicks raise money for worthy causes, you can also sign up to join their community -- and track your totals. In addition, you can join a group, start a blog, or catch up on your news, but it is the Click to Donate homepage you should visit first each day. Your click can help sponsor a child in need, or save 7.4 sq. ft. of rainforest, or 11,000 sq. ft. of big cat habitat. It can support life saving breast cancer research, or shelter an abandoned pet, or protect 100 sq. ft. of ocean. It can also feed a rescued monkey, adopt a wolf, give to Amnesty International and reduce emissions by offsetting your computer’s energy use. It can even save baby seals. Baby seals! What, you can’t spare a second to click a button and save baby seals? What are you, some kind of monster?

After all of this you can then click on “my impact” and you’ll see a heart-warming table of how much support you’ve given through judicious mouse usage, which can’t help but make you a little bit proud. There’s even a list of “top clickers” to which you can aspire (although, with only one click allowed per cause per person per day, it might be difficult to break into the rankings at this stage).

Care2 also have a bunch of petitions you can sign up at their aptly named Care2 petitionsite, and why not? You can also sign up for e-mail alerts, or download their toolbar, which contains a useful reminder to click as well as instant access to several other features.

Care2’s site also has a terrific section entitled Healthy and Green Living, with a plethora of information you and your family may find invaluable, another one entitled Community and Fun, where you can mingle with your fellow 15 million members, and when you click to donate, leave comments on blog postings, sign petitions, use their Yahoo-powered search function or send an e-card (yep, these guys have them too – 25 000 of them!), you can earn Butterfly Credits that can later be redeemed for things like carbon offsetting, tree planting, and kitten feeding. Kitten feeding! Oh, and then there’s the Care2 e-mail program. It’s a free web based mail, and every time you log in and use it, you earn money for charity.

In short? Care2 is one stop shopping for all your CWS needs. Plus, click through to their sponsors to give even more, plus do some actual shopping, too!

Ecology Fund - www.ecologyfund.com
Save land for FREE!

It’s all about the planet at The Ecology Fund, where clicking on a button can save 70 sq. ft of South American rainforest and 16.5 sq. ft. of Mexican wildlife (what is that, like 200 Chihuahuas?), but only .25 sq. ft. of US wilderness – everything’s more expensive in America. You can also plant a tree in a butterfly forest with your click. Sweet! If you sign up, you save 500 sq. ft.; set up a free e-mail account and save even more every time you use it; or go to the Rainforest Rewards section and save yet more land by clicking on any one of dozens of site banners and following the directions (join for free Harlequin romance stories, download Gator password manager for free, register with PayPal, what have you).

It’s worth noting that EcologyFund is owned and operated by The Hunger Site people. And it’s another “one click per project per day” deal, so go back again and again to give the most back to Mother Nature.

ClickToGive - www.clicktogive.com
Together we can call make a difference

Another sign up and count your impact site, ClickToGive fights homelessness, child abuse, animal cruelty and cancer while also helping to feed the poor and sponsor children around the world. You can sign up for a daily e-mail reminder, and watch your stats grow. Your points -- you earn 1 per click -- can later be redeemed for actual stuff (T-shirts, caps, jewelry and the like) and you get bonus points by referring your friends, getting you even closer to earning the stuff. If it feels a little weird to you to be getting tangible evidence of your CWS, not to fret; all the items are purchased at full price from the charities themselves and, at a guess, they’re stock overruns, anyway.

Red Jellyfish - www.redjellyfish.com
Save the Rainforests… Automatically!

Red Jellyfish is purveyor of hundreds upon hundreds of posters (you can even get that one of the dogs playing poker) and also has two buttons for CWS clicking: one marked Save Rainforest for FREE and another marked Feed Chimps for FREE. This site actually links you to Art.com for the poster sales, but a percentage goes to their designated charities. So if you’re in the market for a poster, click on through from Red Jellyfish; even if you’re not and you just want to Save Rainforest or Feed Chimps, in partnership with AdoptanAcre.org and the Jane Goodall Institute (or do an online puzzle, or learn often depressing statistics from their “Did you know?” box), then just pay them a visit anyway. Oh, and their Green Living section is a natural product extravaganza!

Free Rice - www.freerice.com
For each answer you get right, we donate 10 grains of rice through the World Hunger Programme to help end hunger

The site poses trivia questions -- subjects include English Vocabulary, Chemical Symbols, World Capitals and French, etc. -- and for every answer you get right (and you should get a good deal of them right, especially after they give you the correct answer and then ask you again), 10 grains of rice are donated to feed the hungry. Now, 10 grains isn't a whole hell of a lot, but spend half an hour playing around on FreeRice instad of the half hour you'd spend on Sporcle.com or some Facebook game, and you'd be surprised how they add up. Or even better, challenge your children to collect as many grains as they can; they'll be learning as they're giving whilst also not killing zombies and running grandmothers down in stolen cars during their computer time. And wouldn’t that make for a nice change?

Free Poverty - www.freepoverty.com
Knowing helps

Another fun game donation site is freepoverty.com (yes, the poverty is free! Get your free poverty here!), where you are given a map of the world and are asked to place various cities and landmarks correctly in order to earn cups of clean drinking water. True, you may initially find it a somewhat punishing exercise in humility (oh, so that’s where Guatamala is!), but still, the ones you inexplicably get right will make you feel like a Jeopardy! champion. Keep playing, and you -- and/or your kids -- will get better at geography, all the while providing cups and cups of water to those who need it. (The site has so far given over 250 million.) Talk about a win-win scenario!

Solve Poverty - www.solvepoverty.com
Solve Poverty by Providing Opportunities

When you click on the bright red “Click once to freely donate” on the homepage of this loftily-titled and confusingly-designed website, you are redirected to e-inclusionsite.org (“transforming drops of concern into an ocean of change”), which aims to garner four million clicks in order to release the funds promised by their sponsors. SolvePoverty also pledges to help you use social outsourcing for all of your telemarketing and website design needs, utilizing needy but qualified personnel in the Philippines. If you have telemarketing and website design needs, that is.

Oddly? The “Thank you” box on e-inclusionsite.org has alt text that says “paycheck”. Yeah. What’s up with that?

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With the dizzying array of options given here, what’s a goodhearted netizen to do? Well, just to make things simple, click below to go to our Charity Without Sacrifice Easy Giving Guide. Bookmark it, or set it as your homepage. Return whenever you go online, and do your bit to save the world.

One click (and search, and question, and point redemption) at a time.