Dear ICANN:Charity Navigator, a leading charity validator servicing the public,
is proud to support concepts from the DotOrg Foundation's proposal to operate the
.org registry in ways that we believe will benefit the non-commercial community.
We believe that both validation and the DotOrg Directory are important components
for advancing a more effective philanthropic marketplace and ensuring a strong future
for the .org community.
Charity Navigator currently validates over
1,100 non-profit organizations and will expand that number to 2,500 by July 1, 2003.
Our goal is to help donors make charitable contributions with confidence. At the
same time, we aim to help non-profit organizations by shining lights on truly effective
organizations and by easing the costs they incur in raising capital. In doing so,
we believe we can help ensure that charitable giving keeps pace with the growing
need for charitable programs.
As a leading validator of non-profit organizations,
we believe that the use of validation and the DotOrg Directory will help enhance
the level of confidence of Internet users when visiting .org, nonprofit, or non-commercial
websites, as well as helping to distribute critical information about these groups
to the public. We also support the idea of involving the nonprofit sector in
future decision making about the .org registry and support focusing the .org domain
on noncommercial activities and discouraging an increase in the activities of commercial
entities.
Further, we support the DotOrg Foundation's goals to do outreach to current
and potential validators and users of validated information. If the foundation's
validation model is implemented, we plan to participate as needed to ensure that
the validation process meets the needs of the validation community.
We believe
the concepts put forth by the DotOrg Foundation are critical to ensuring that the
.org registry is operated in a way that is responsive to the needs, concerns and
views of the global nonprofit and philanthropic Internet community.
Sincerely,
Kyle Waide
Deputy Director
Charity Navigator
www.charitynavigator.org