Yes, exciting times.

I've had a talk with Ben from www.change.org and I like the fact that it has so high ambitions, even trying to include the political element of improving the world.

I was looking at the www.razoo.com site, and I found the $10k award as a teaser for people to join very interesting. Rebecca, can I email you on how this is working for you? I can imagine there are some downsides to this, but it has to be working good for PR.

At the moment www.Helpalot.org is smaller than change.org and razoo.com, we're in beta and haven't started any PR yet officially.

Here's a list I made of a number of interesting sites:

http://www.change.org
http://www.care2.com
http://www.wiserearth.org
http://www.intelligentgiving.com
http://beta.razoo.com
http://www.idealist.org
http://www.globalgiving.com
http://www.networkforgood.org
http://www.changingthepresent.org
http://www.charitynavigator.org
http://www.guidestar.org
* http://www.guidestar.org.uk
* http://www.civilsocietysystems.org
http://www.charitywatch.org
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk
http://www.smartgive.com
http://www.justgiving.com
http://www.askcharity.org.uk
http://www.volunteermatch.org
http://www.netsquared.org
http://www.omidyar.net
http://bridge.thegluenetwork.com
http://www.wearewhatwedo.org
http://www.donorschoose.org
http://www.openplans.org
http://www.goodsearch.com
http://www.givemeaning.com
http://www.bethefullstop.com

- Very Beta
http://www.goodtree.com
http://overview.givewell.net
(not even in the air, but raised 275.000 in startup funds so I guess there is going to be something big soon..)

- Dutch sites (I'm from the Netherlands)
http://www.goededoelentest.nl
http://www.geefgratis.nl (one organization, many websites, same database)
* http://www.allegoededoelen.nl
* http://www.doneergratis.nl
* http://www.doneerwijzer.nl
* http://www.doneerbon.nl
* http://www.onlinecollecteren.nl
* http://www.goededoelenwereld.nl
* http://www.goededoel.nl
* http://www.nationalehulpactie.nl
http://www.fondsen.org
http://www.geefwijzer.nl
http://www.geefenzie.nl
http://www.wildeganzen.nl
http://www.donateursvereniging.nl
http://www.cbf.nl
http://clubvan100.rvu.nl

It's interesting to see these different flavors of charity related social network sites. You can feel that big things are happening right now. I hope in a number of years we can take for granted that we know what charities we can trust.

So I'm working on Helpalot.org, what our differentiating factors are:
- Our focus; make it easy to find charity projects you can trust.
- We want to keep everything open and user generated.
- The ambition is to include évery project that aims to improve the world. No matter how big or small, or if it's certified by an organization.
- We are based in the Netherlands

All the information should have a name attached to it, who's responsible for it, you can message. This brings the information in a relevant social context and makes sure the information will not get outdated in two years.

I could write more and more, but I'll leave it at this.

I love to read your feedback on how Helpalot or other charity related social network sites can be improved, so leave a comment or message me on Helpalot :).

Julius Huijnk
http://www.helpalot.org