Several years ago, after more than 200,000 miles and a number of costly repairs, my husband informed me that we would not be putting more money into my beloved Toyota. Instead, we shopped around for another car. We didn’t trade in the Toyota so I called our local high school and arranged to donate the car to their auto body and auto mechanics class. They appreciated it and I felt better saying goodbye to my car, knowing it would be put to good use. A few years later, we did the same with the old Crown Victoria my mom had passed on to our son.

Car Angel is another place where you can make a car donation for a good cause. This non-profit organization uses the proceeds from donated cars to create videos for kids and teens. They then provides those videos at no charge. To date, they’ve given out over 2 million videos! Wow!

I’ve been online for over a decade. I remember back in 1993, hearing about something called “the World Wide Web” and wondering if I’d ever be able to experience it here in my little West Virginia community. I wanted so badly to access this wonderful new medium; I could barely even imagine what it was all about. I knew only that people could communicate in real time because of it. That was enough for me.

Since then, the internet has become as much a part of our lives as the TV. From the youngest toddlers to great grandparents, people all over the world are online and communicating with each other. That’s a good thing. Of course, you can’t help but know about the bad stuff, too. We can’t ignore the fact that bad people will use the internet for bad things. In that respect, cyber life is no different than real life. It’s just that sometimes we forget to notice the good things. So today, I want to show you one of the good things.

I’ve been visiting a search site, Ripple.org, that is dedicated to helping non-profit organizations with funding. The really cool thing is that every single person can join in and help and it won’t cost you a cent. All you have to do is conduct your searches with Ripple.org!

You can also click on one of the “causes” listed on the site and click on the ad for that cause to help generate money for it. The more people who know about Ripple.org and visit every day, the more money will be generated for these wonderful charities.

Those behind Ripple.org have set this up at their own expense. They have pledged to donate every single cent – that’s 100% – to the charities. And the groups that are being supported by Ripple.org range from the youth-run Oaktree Foundation to the Noble Peace Prize recipient Grameen Foundation.

If you’re interested in giving something back to the world, please consider stopping by Ripple.org to click on advertisements, conduct searches or download the searchbar for convenient searches right from your browser. Let’s support the “good” side of the internet.

I’m all about donating to good causes. I support Habitat For Humanity and our local HealthRight. A great way to support good causes is to search through SearchKindly. You get the same great Google search results as you would at google.com but you also get to help worthy causes at the same time.

In February, over $350 was raised for Save Darfur and this month Smile Train, dedicated to helping those with cleft lips and palates, will recieve more than $1200.

Bookmark SearchKindly and do your searches there. Watch the money add up as you help those organizations that are helping others. It’s such a small thing that does so much for others.