Initiative to Support Validation of Nonprofits Gains Momentum

Charities Aid Foundation and eGrants.org join a growing list of organizations in support of DotOrg Foundations validation concepts

Washington, D.C. -- August 16, 2002 -- The DotOrg Foundation, one of 11 applicants in the ICANN process to select a .org domain registry manager, has added Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) and eGrants.org as supporters for its validation concepts. CAF, a British-based charity with more than 75 years of experience and a global network spanning five continents, is committed to increasing the resources of charities worldwide while helping individual and corporate donors maximize their generosity. eGrants.org is a nonprofit organization created by the Tides Foundation in San Francisco to help nonprofit groups use the Internet effectively to increase resources for positive social change and environmental sustainability.

In its bid to operate the .org registry, the DotOrg Foundation has proposed to facilitate the validation of non-commercial organizations around the world. Marshall Strauss, president of the DotOrg Foundation, welcomed letters from these and other organizations, which can be viewed at www.dotorgfoundation.org under Whats New."

Strauss noted, We are delighted that CAF and eGrants.org have joined a growing list of nonprofit community leaders who have endorsed the validation concepts we submitted to ICANN. Civil rights groups, faith-based organizations, charitable foundations and many other organizations increasingly use the web to reach out to donors and volunteers. More and more, the public -- often called upon for financial and volunteer support -- is looking for confirmation of the claims they are seeing on those websites." Strauss added, We believe that the creative use of the Internet can help provide that confirmation."

The DotOrg Foundation has proposed to introduce web-based technology that will link nonprofit and noncommercial entities seeking validation with those offering such services. The following organizations have expressed support for the validation concepts offered by the Foundation:
§   Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), representing 25,000 members across North America and around the world
§   ePhilanthropy Foundation, which seeks to foster the ethical use of the Internet for philanthropic purposes
§   Independent Sector, a national leadership forum to encourage philanthropy, volunteering, not-for-profit initiative and citizen action
§   GuideStar, with a national database of over 850,000 IRS-recognized nonprofit organizations
§   Charity Navigator, a leading U.S. validator providing information on more than eleven hundred charities and evaluating the financial health of each
§   CanadaHelps, a nonprofit organization designed to facilitate the transfer of technology to Canadas 78,000+ charities
§   World Reach (the Charity Giving Station), whose mission is to help companies help the world through corporate philanthropy initiatives
§   Habitat for Humanity Canada, an independent, charitable, faith-based housing program.

The Foundation also notes the support expressed by Edward E. David, Jr., Science Advisor to U.S. President Nixon and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology.

About DotOrg Foundation
The DotOrg Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded with the sole purpose of administering the .org top-level domain (TLD) registry for The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, known as ICANN. The value of the DotOrg Foundations specific and directed purpose is that it focuses all of the Foundations resources on developing the .org TLD into a more reliable, trusted, productive and distinctive space on the Internet. The DotOrg Foundation is joined in its ICANN proposal by two partners with established reputations in the Internet and nonprofit sectors -- Registry Advantage, a division of Register.com Inc. (NASDAQ: RCOM), as its registry function provider; and Kintera, to provide technical development and maintenance for planned additional products and services. For more information, visit the DotOrg Foundation website at www.dotorgfoundation.org.

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