Recent Posts
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- Alibaba, Name.com among new RDRS opt-ins
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Disadvantaged kids need your money after terrible Name.com charity drive
Domain name registrar Name.com carried out what can only be described as a completely abysmal charity fund-raising drive during this week’s South by Southwest conference, and disadvantaged kids need your help as a result.
During the conference, Name.com got one of its more photogenic customer support guys to go around the streets of Austin, Texas, asking random passers-by to high-five him.
The high-fives were recorded on a great big electronic device the guy carried on his back. For every high-five he got, Name.com promised to donate a nickel ($0.05) to charity.
)
The campaign was videoed and published on the company’s blog (here, here, here, and here)
The end result of this was 10,000 high-fives, which raised an absolutely pointless $500 for the charity concerned, which is the Austin Children’s Center, a very worthy-sounding cause.
The Austin’s Children’s Center provides services for child victims of abuse in Austin, Texas.
But if you watch all of the Name.com videos linked to above, you’ll learn rather more about Name.com than you will about the charity it’s supposedly raising money for.
And all this effort raised a pathetic $500.
There are people reading this post who have regularly spent more than that on dinner.
During the final video, a representative of the charity, the Austin’s Children’s Center, says “We have to raise 65% of our annual budget, and this year it’s $7 million.”
So Name.com raised a whopping 0.007% of its chosen charity’s annual funding needs, while putting rather a lot of effort into attempting to raise its own corporate profile.
I gather that the highfive-counting electronic gizmo that the CSR carried around on his back in the videos costs around $1,200 to buy, meaning that the stunt actually ran at a loss.
Name.com could have donated an extra $1,200 to this charity if it had not run the stunt at all.
That’s assuming, of course, that it didn’t pay the guy carrying the camera, or the guy who did the editing, or the guy who wrote the blog post, or the guy who sent me the press release today…
This kind of crap makes me sick.
I donated $25 to the Center today in protest at Name.com’s bullshit.
If you want to donate in protest too, which I strongly encourage you to do, do it here.
Not many people have donated yet. This charity really does need your help.
If you’re not convinced yet, watch this video and then donate if you find it funny.
Why not talk about .hiv too? A complete waste of money.
I’m not sure why .hiv is relevant to this story mate.
Because .hiv is also a bullshit charity giving back to charity 20-30% of what people will be paying for domains.
I knew .hiv was charitable, but I’ve not really looked into the financial details of it. Why is it bullshit?
All these take out from the registration fee that is supposedly for charity: registrar, ICANN annual registry fee, ICANN domain fee, ICANN application fee, registry backend, salaries, rent, insurance, etc etc.
The list goes on and on and charities will receive shit.
Just give the money directly to hiv charity.
Hello.
Domainincite raised a whopping 0.0004% of its chosen charity’s annual funding needs, while putting rather a lot of effort into attempting to raise its own corporate profile through complaining about the corporate profile of another business.
‘Name.com’ could have done nothing, but they didn’t, they donated 16x what you did, and you only donated after they set the lead.
You’re a real negative nancy.
-Best Wishes
Ha!
You got me there, Anon. 🙂
Did you donate after reading this post?
You are right, I was a little bit of an asshole as I didn’t donate and then became your judge. But money is money and your $25 was probably just as welcome as their $500 and you both did more than many others (including myself).
Over down this way a company gave $4000 to a school but spent 200k promoting that fact, so maybe name.com did a whole lot better than other corporations.
Kev,
I’m starting to like your blog more and more.
I’ve donated, but directly on the shelter’s site. I don’t really want to be associated with the high five bs and I don’t want some other group cutting into their donations.
@Drunk poster
Are you one of those name.com company employees who put together this idea, get real, if you want to donate, donate or dont generate some PR Shit for your own benefit.
Will not use name.com again 🙂 good bye, back to dynadot, or namecheap.
“This kind of crap makes me sick.”???
You appear to be beating up a business because it had a go at something and failed.
Your post suggests that name.com did something improper. That seems a little harsh to me and unjustified.
You’re right, that was a little harsh. The intention was to be playfully snarky but I guess it was a poor choice of words.
More!