An Online Tool’s Double Purpose: Shortening Web Addresses and Directing Money to Charity

The brevity imposed by Twitter — a social-media site that enables people to post messages of 140 characters or less — has created a boom in tools that shorten Web addresses. The sites, such as bit.ly and tinyurl.com, convert lengthy links into short ones that give users the chance to more easily meet Twitter’s restrictions.

Nathaniel Whittemore, a blogger at Change.org, has identified a Web address shortener, called Good.ly#, that promotes giving.

Here’s how it works, according to Mr. Whittemore: A Twitter user writes a post about a great bag she just bought and then includes a link to the retailer’s page using Good.ly. One of the user’s friends on Twitter clicks on the link, is then directed to the retailer’s site, and buys the bag.

Assuming the retailer has a referral program set up, Good.ly gets a small fee for “referring” the sale to the retailer, and then Good.ly donates 55 percent of that fee to one of a group of selected charities.

Each month, Good.ly picks three charities that will benefit. The company asks organizations that want to be featured to send a message through its Web site.

Mr. Whittemore says the site is an example of “embedded philanthropy,” by which companies embed in customer transactions an opportunity to give.

“I don’t think that this sort of embedded philanthropy is in any way going to diminish more ‘traditional’ forms of philanthropic action, “ he says. “Its power is that it reflects a growing desire I think we’re experiencing to integrate our values with our commercial and career decisions.”

Have you used Good.ly? What do you think of it? And what is your opinion of this sort of “embedded philanthropy”?

— Caroline Preston