Wedding Gifts that Make a Difference
JustGive Makes Online Charitable Giving Easier Than Ever- Unique Wedding Registry Service Offers Links to More Than 850,000 Charities

San Francisco (February 28, 2002) - The new trend for giving charitable gifts has extended past corporate donations and holiday gifts. With more and more people getting married later in life, there is a new trend for soon-to-be-married couples asking for charitable donations in lieu of traditional wedding gifts. JustGive.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing overall charitable giving, has streamlined this process by offering a unique online wedding registry service for those couples looking to create a wish list of their favorite causes or philanthropic organizations that they would like to help.

"A charitable gift in a couple's name makes a wonderful and truly meaningful wedding gift," says Kendall Webb, founder and CEO of JustGive. "A lot of couples nowadays tend to already have the basics for their homes covered, and they don't really have a need to register for the traditional dishes and glassware. We've seen a big increase in the amount of people registering for our wedding service, who would like to offer a meaningful and personal charitable donation as a gift option for their wedding guests."

JustGive makes it simple and convenient for people to get involved with the charities and causes they care about. Recently voted as the best website for online giving by Forbes Magazine, the site is the premiere destination to visit when trying to find anything related to philanthropic giving. Users can search from over 850,000 charities registered with the IRS, or browse the JustGive Guide of 1,000 expertly screened charities in 19 user-friendly categories. JustGive provides users with a comprehensive set of services, resources, and tools to make knowledgeable decisions and to enable them to give with confidence.

Visitors can donate directly to any U.S. registered public charity, create a charity gift wish list to email to specified individuals, search for local volunteer opportunities, read educational information on causes and review detailed financial information about each charity, including percentage of overhead costs. In addition, the site offers summarized tax receipts at the end of each year and a personal account area for individuals to track their donations, making www.justgive.org, a smarter way to give.

Few charities have websites and online donation capabilities due to the high cost and infrastructure involved. JustGive offers these organizations a platform to reach thousands of new donors at no cost. With the cost of direct mail fundraising as high as 150% to acquire each new donor, and attrition rates of 20-50%, traditional fundraising is both costly and environmentally wasteful. JustGive is a resource to ultimately lower the nonprofit costs, getting more out of every dollar donated directly to the programs. JustGive is able to offer this free service to donors and nonprofits thanks to its generous corporate sponsors: Aveda, Calvert Social Investment Foundation, Carmichael Security, DaVita, Oracle, Providian Bank and Starwood Foundation.

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