The Hunger Site Celebrates 10 Years of "Click to Give - It's Free!"

Seattle, WA, June 17, 2009 --(PR.com)-- The Hunger Site celebrates its tenth anniversary beginning in June 2009. Since its inception as the world’s first “Click to Give” website, millions of people have clicked on the yellow button at www.thehungersite.com or shopped at The Hunger Site’s store. The result has been phenomenal, with more 657 million cups of food funded in the past decade for those in need in the United States and around the world.

Recognizing the power of the Internet to connect people around the world, The Hunger Site pioneered a web-friendly method of generating donations: a person clicks on the button and a sponsoring advertiser makes a donation triggered by that click. 100% money raised from the button’s sponsoring advertisers goes to fund food for the hungry through The Hunger Site’s current charity partners: Feeding America and Mercy Corps.

Each click is a simple action taking less than a minute and advertisers pay rates similar to other “click through” advertisements (such as those offered by Google). The accumulative effect over ten years has been significant. The Hunger Site is featuring on its homepage special stories and photographs of projects recently funded by the site’s donations, including reports from the field by Mercy Corps and Feeding America.

“Mercy Corps is a proud partner of The Hunger Site. We see the difference one click makes to the lives of people in need around the world,” stated Neal Keny-Guyer, CEO of Mercy Corps. “With hunger on the rise, innovative and effective ideas like The Hunger Site are more important than ever.”

With greater visibility these days through social networking sites like Facebook and increasing consumer confidence in giving online, donations from The Hunger Site to its charity partners grew rapidly last year despite the downturn in the economy. In 2008, The Hunger Site’s “Click to Give” program alone funded 66,235,889 cups of food (up from 49,612,616 given in 2007). Purchases at The Hunger Site store funded an additional 5,845,025 cups of food (up from 4,025,225 given in 2007).

President and CEO of Feeding America Vicki Escarra, noting The Hunger Site's increasing contributions throughout 2008, said, “We are delighted that The Hunger Site has continued to grow over the past ten years. This user-friendly website makes it easier to raise awareness about the ongoing problem of hunger in America. Our partnership with The Hunger Site has helped us to reach even more people and engage them in the fight against hunger.”

More About The GreaterGood Network

Since 1999, the GreaterGood Network has grown to incorporate six popular sites devoted to a specific cause: The Animal Rescue Site (www.theanimalrescuesite.com), The Breast Cancer Site (www.thebreastcancersite.com), The Child Health Site (www.thechildhealthsite.com), The Hunger Site (www.thehungersite.com), The Literacy Site (www.theliteracysite.com), and The Rainforest Site (www.therainforestsite.com).

The Network’s websites experienced a significant increase in web traffic during the last half of 2008, enabling larger donations than ever before to charities devoted to improving the health and well-being of people, animals, and the planet. According to NetNielsen, more than five million individuals visited the network of six websites monthly by the end of 2008.

Throughout 2008, the GreaterGood Network also increased its Gifts That Give More (TM) program. Through this program, visitors to the sites were able make direct donations to charities or projects that interested them. Like the “Click to Give” program, 100% of the donations made through Gifts That Give More were passed directly to the Network’s charity partners. Currently, GreaterGood Network’s donations through the “Click to Give” program, the Gifts That Give More, and shopping on the sites benefits more than 60 charities worldwide and exceeded $3.4 million in 2008.

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