There is a relatively new way of raising funds for good causes on the net. At a few sites, corporate sponsors provide funding in exchange for free advertisement and links. One click actually accomplishes something on these sites, since the sponsors make donations according to the number of site visitors per day. The theory is that it costs you nothing, yet it works. The most famous site is The Hunger Site.

It is in aid of the United Nations' World Food Program and has raised enough money to purchase more than nine million pounds of staple food since it started in June 1999.

So how does it work? It is an extrordinary merger of philanthropy and your basic capitalist greed. The companies pay five US cents per click to the WFP, in exchange for which they get you to look at their advertisement. It is a little above the average cost of advertising on the net, but it is also tax-free as it counts as a charitable donation. A win-win situation.

As with all good ideas, it has been copied. Two sites that have fashioned themselves after the Hunger Site are EndCancerNow.com and Peace For All.

The first one gives five US cents per click to the American Cancer Society. Peace for All supports the US Association for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Neither one has anything like the traffic on the Hunger Site yet, so start visiting them all and tell your friends too. Note that all three register only one click per day per visitor, so there is no point in sitting in clicking on the button all day. Finally something good can come out of all the hours of spent aimlessly floating on the net.