If you have a social conscious and want to take control of the kind of web advertisements you see, help is at hand.  The DoGooder, is a new browser plug-in that lets people replace push website ads with ones that they actually appreciate seeing and find useful.

The plug-in is free, takes 10 seconds to install, and creates revenues for good causes: the company behind the plug-in gives 50% of its profits to green initiatives, charities, and nonprofits. The range of causes to benefit include everything from environmental campaigns to child poverty to disease eradication.  Donations do not go back to brand advertisers.

The concept is not all that new. There are a number of online ventures focused on raising cash for third-sector organisations through social networks and similar platforms. But the DoGooder has its own slant on getting cash and raising awareness of social causes.

The fundamental premise is that people would rather help people than faceless corporations. It seems to be working: the plug-in has  already had almost 6,000 downloads since the launch late last year.

In Internet advertising, a company or brand will have its adverts served to a range of websites in the hopes that people will click through to their own homepage.  Impressions in the millions typically generate hundreds of clicks; the low return is attributable to the lack of relevance and personalisation of web adverts.

With the DoGooder, people indicate their preference for information about charities and good causes and because they actually want to see this information, there is a significant improvement in click through conversion rates. So instead of seeing a banner ad for the latest installment of Celebrity Big Brother, a DoGooder user will get information about an environmental campaign, or something similar.  In addition, people who use the plug-in can play a role in deciding who gets the cash raised by clicking on ‘Suggest a Cause’.

Here’s the bottomline: it’s easy, almost effortless to download DoGooder. It doesn’t have to cost you anything and you’ll still be raising cash and helping good causes. The plug-in helps eliminate a lot of the white noise on the web.  Seemingly the proposition is win/win.

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• Change ads with the DoGooder plugin (osocio.org)