SQUIDOO.COM IS THE FASTEST GROWING FUNDRAISING CO-OP IN THE WORLD. Site hits 40,000 handbuilt pages

(PRLEAP.COM) Irvington, NY.

Last week the Squidoo community posted their 40,000th lens.

That’s 40,000 handbuilt lenses—or single pages that are free and easy to make—highlighting the best stuff online. See the competitive Top 100 list for an example: http://www.squidoo.com/browse/top_lenses.

"Who makes lenses?" said Megan Casey, Editor in Chief of the site. "A-list bloggers, elementary school teachers, big nonprofits, dog owners, punk bands, eBay auctioneers, grassroots politicians, MySpace groups and more. If you have a business or hobby or passion, and if you care about things like increasing traffic to your main site, spreading the word, and donating to charity, it’s worth the 10 minutes to make a free lens. Hands down."

Squidoo’s lensmasters earn a royalty, but more than half of them are sending their royalties to charity. Charities receiving donations from Squidoo and its lensmasters include NPR, March of Dimes, The American Heart Association and many others.

In addition, 5% of the company’s gross revenue is donated to charity each month. "The site has proven itself to be a fast-growing engine for philanthropic outreach, storytelling and fundraising," said the founder and noted blogger Seth Godin.

"You have done it again—we received another check from Squidoo!" said Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of Acumen Fund. "Squidoo’s creative and generous spirit continues to support Acumen Fund in more ways than you even know. This is exciting stuff and I can’t thank you enough."

"You have no idea how EXCITED we got over that donation," said Jean Caputo-Lee, Director of the Ferrets Unlimited Ferret Shelter in Connecticut. "That was the first donation we had gotten from anyone in 4 months. Things have been really tough here at the shelter. We put the money right to our vet bills."

And Ruth Wharton at Planet Gumbo writes, "We are putting the money raised by Squidoo lensmasters to our Traveling Gumbo Wagon. After traveling to homeless shelters for the past four years, we are now beginning to bring our gumbo show to areas which may not have a kitchen facility, such as emergency hurricane shelters, and will use the money raised to buy the equipment and vehicle to bring the show to these areas."

"To look at it another way, check out this timeline," said Casey.

The Squidoo timeline:

* In late March 2006 Squidoo came out of beta testing.
* In April we worked with Room to Read to fund a school for kids in Cambodia.
* In May we added 15 new charities to the co-op.
* In June we got a note from 10-year-old Cassie Maxwell thanking us for helping in the search to find a cure for diabetes.
* In July we split our Squidoo Charity Fund earnings among all the organizations that first took a chance on us, by way of saying thanks.
* In August we hired 2 people for the sole purpose of supporting nonprofit partnerships and growing new ones.
* In September we hit 40,000 lenses and are helping more than 40 great charities achieve their goals.
* When we hit 50,000 lenses, very soon, we’ll celebrate by giving away $5,000 to the top-voted charity in the site. And another $5,000 if someone is able to guess the exact date and time that lens 50,000 will be created. Who knows….!


Squidoo LLC was founded by internationally bestselling author, noted blogger, speaker and Original Squid, Seth Godin. The stated function of the site is to enable extraordinary people to painlessly engage in philanthropy.

PR Leap is a service of Condesa, Inc. © 2009 All Rights Reserved. Use of our service is governed by our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
Issuers of news releases are solely responsible for the accuracy of their content. Copyright / IP Policy