Some people may remember a “Tsunami Relief” fundraising effort I worked on ~4 years ago to generate funds for the Southeat Asian relief effort after the horrific tsunami/earthquake disaster. I launched a search engine at www.ReliefSearch.com, and proceeds from the pay-per-click ads went to the American Red Cross and Direct Relief International. (Ironically, I received a cease and desist from the Red Cross for using their name/logo on the site without permission, even though I was making a contribution to them!)

The original ReliefSearch was a very plain site with a search box that exclusively generated Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads when a search was conducted. At the time, the general feedback was the lack of un-paid, “algorithmic” results contributed to a bad user experience.

Well, fast forward 4 years and I’ve re-launched ReliefSearch with a far better “user experience” that includes BOTH paid listings as well as unpaid listings from Wikipedia, Google, Blogger, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Delicious, etc. It’s essentially a meta-search mash-up.

The bigger play here is based on the premise that in the tough economic times, charities have a harder time raising money. So we intend to create customized “ReliefSearch” sites that are skinned/branded for any charity who wants to participate — XYZCharitySearch.com — and they can promote it to their audience. People will be raising money for their causes based on normal searching behavior with the charity earning revenues from the clicks on PPC ads.

I hope you’ll consider using www.ReliefSearch.com for your searching….and that you’ll help me spread the word! Please also reach out if you work with any charities who could benefit from their own branded search site. This can become a SUBSTANTIAL revenue machine for any organization who will actively promote a site to its constituents. This is a phenomenal new fundraising tool for cash-starved charitable organizations.