March 22, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
Money talks, and for nine major nonprofit organizations, talk is now money.
Microsoft has unveiled a feature on its instant-messaging service that allows people to support a charity with minimal effort. Users of the software can type the name of one of nine nonprofit groups into a text box, causing a special logo to appear next to the person’s name on the chat window.
Microsoft then sends advertising revenue from the chat to the selected organization, and will continue to do so until the user changes his or her preferences.
Microsoft officials described the program — named “I’m making a difference,” with “I’m” a pun on the shorthand for instant messaging — as “micro-giving on a massive scale.”
People can donate “without spending a dime and in many cases doing something they already do each day,” said Jack Krumholtz, Microsoft’s director of federal-government affairs.
Each organization that benefits — the American Red Cross, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, National AIDS Fund, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, NineMillion.org, Sierra Club, StopGlobalWarming.org, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and U.S. Fund for Unicef — is guaranteed a minimum of $100,000 in the first year by Microsoft.
Most of the nine organizations said they planned to alert their supporters about the new promotion through e-mail, but they thought word of it would spread quickly in other ways, given the nature of the Internet.
Microsoft says more nonprofit groups could be eligible to receive funds in the fall.
To get there: Go to http://im.live.com.
