SOURCE: good2gether

September 24, 2008 09:49 ET

Houston Chronicle's Chron.com and good2gether Launch Do Good™ Channel to Support Hurricane Ike Relief

Web Platform Provides Access to Thousands of Nonprofits Supporting Victims and Communities

CAMBRIDGE, MA--(Marketwire - September 24, 2008) - good2gether, a social media web service that connects people to causes and nonprofit organizations, today announced the launch of Chron.com's Do Good™ Channel, featuring information and access to thousands of nonprofit organizations, including those supporting victims of Hurricane Ike. The partnership represents the first launch of good2gether's crisis resource, which provides the Houston Chronicle's Web property a central location for people to get connected to nonprofit organizations active in the relief effort.

A powerful marketing tool for non-profits under normal circumstances, DoGood.chron.com represents survival to many victims and communities on the Texas Gulf Coast struggling to get back to normalcy in the wake of Hurricane Ike. This new Web service connects people with nonprofit organizations in search of resources like volunteers, and financial and in-kind donations.

"This provides an excellent opportunity to reach out to our print and online readers who are moved by The Chronicle's coverage to do something to help," said Joycelyn Marek, vice president of business development and community affairs at the Houston Chronicle. "This site works by giving critical exposure to organizations diligently helping out our community, including nonprofits like the United Way, Salvation Army and Red Cross, and enabling our caring community of readers to easily help in a variety of ways. By launching the DoGood.Chron.com earlier than we had originally planned, we can take a more active role in the recovery that will likely take many more months."

As part of an expedited launch to provide support for Ike victims, good2gether simultaneously programmed the site and conducted outreach to thousands of nonprofits to populate the channel with resources and information. Nonprofits can enter profiles and update their information to the Do Good Channel at no cost. By harnessing the power and reach of the media to connect people to causes, the Do Good Channel, which already houses information on thousands of nonprofits, also represents a cohesive response platform for crises of any kind. This way, anyone who can access the Internet can instantly find information on how to help, whether they are in the Houston area, Boston, or anywhere.

"When we saw the reports on the storm, we knew we had to get something up and running immediately," said Greg McHale, founder and CEO, good2gether. "This crisis shows the value of the Do Good Channel platform in times of crisis. We designed the platform to launch a channel in minutes, so that our local newspaper partners could quickly and efficiently connect people to causes at the height of the time of need. The new good2gether crises category is a supplement to our other 10 non-profit resource categories, and gives people a single platform for cause engagement so they can respond instantly to a crisis."

"In natural disasters, all hands are on deck," said Anne Neeson, vice president of donor relations, United Way of Greater Houston. "We view the Do Good Channel as a new megaphone to the community, where we can get the word about what is needed at both the local and national level. It has made a difference for the Greater Houston area in just a matter of days with a simply wonderful response."

Poised to deliver much more than Ike relief information, the Do Good Channel is a resource to connect people to any cause. Users can search by the type of cause of concern to them, as well as the different ways in which they can become involved: volunteer, make an in-kind donation, attend an event, etc. They can also look for organizations or events within a certain geographic area, whether it be close to home or work. Search results are accompanied by maps. Social tools, such as the ability to email search results to a friend or share on social networking and book marking sites, like Facebook and MySpace, are embedded within each listing.

good2gether's other media partners, including the Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, are also featuring Ike relief information on their Do Good Channels so readers across the country can quickly and easily get information on organizations providing support to communities affected by Hurricane Ike.

About the Houston Chronicle

The Houston Chronicle, is owned by the Hearst Corporation. It is one of the largest multi-platform media companies in the United States. The net combined audience of the Chronicle and Chron.com is more than 2.3 million adults each day.

About good2gether

good2gether is a new search and social media web service that connects people to causes through a broad network of Web sites, including major media outlets, corporate intranets, college/university Web sites, social networks and more. With a reach to over 130,000 local and national nonprofits, and more than 24,000,000 monthly unique visitor across 6 of the top 10 media markets (and counting), good2gether is enabling cause engagement on an unprecedented scale.

Built on a scalable, Web 2.0 platform, good2gether enables nonprofits to enter volunteering opportunities, events and in-kind donation needs once -- then distributes their information across the entire network, to everyone's benefit.

Nonprofits leverage free traffic, media partners get local content and fresh ad revenue; sponsors deliver their social responsibility messaging in a targeted, scalable fashion; and people get an easy way to discover, share and engage with causes that matter to them most. Learn more at http://www.good2gether.com/.