Press

March 28, 2000

Ann Arbor, MI - EcologyFund.com was named Cool Site of the Day for April 9, 2000 by the popular Web site www.CoolSiteoftheDay.com. Users of EcologyFund can save 276 square feet of land each day by clicking on programs to save land in the Patagonia Coastal Steppe, in wilderness land near U.S. National Parks and in the Amazon Basin Rainforest. The Cool site, founded in 1994, is the original "awards" site. Once a site has been selected as a Cool Site of the Day, the public may vote for that site to be the Cool Site of the Year. The New York Times calls the Cool Site of the Year the "arbiter of taste on the Internet."

"We're very proud to have been selected," says EcologyFund co-founder Greg Hesterberg. "I think it's wonderful that the Cool Site selected a philanthropic Web site for such an honor. The world needs more visitors to click-to-save land-they can only do that if they know about the site. The Cool Site selection will help get the word out about EcologyFund."

Launched this year on Valentine's Day, the EcologyFund Web site gives the public the opportunity to click to preserve wilderness at no cost. Visitors to the site select a project and "click to donate." Sponsors of the site including World Journeys, iPrint.com, CharityMall.com, Novica and CoolSavings then donate money to acquire the threatened wilderness areas and add them to nature reserves or parks. Currently, the site works with the Rainforest Trust and the Wilderness Land Trust to facilitate three land preservation programs through the site. With three clicks of the mouse a day one person can save over 276 square feet of wilderness! "We modeled it after the Hungersite.com," said EcologyFund co-founder Tim Kunin. "We are interested in using the Internet to help solve world problems." In just six short weeks since the launch, over 600 acres of land have been preserved and the numbers are increasing steadily.

"The Cool Site selection couldn't have come at a better time," notes Hesterberg. The April 9th Cool Site Day comes just before EcologyFund's Earth Day 2000 (April 22) awareness campaign. EcologyFund hopes the green celebration will remind people to make helping the planet part of their daily routine. "Along with putting their newspaper in the recycle bin everyday, hopefully people will think to click-to-save wilderness too," says Hesterberg.

CONTACT:
Jessica Frost, Publicity Director
CharityMall.com/EcologyFund.com
216 E. Huron St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104
ph: 734-213.7777
fx: 734-913-5555
[email protected]