Mondonation - a survivor's success story

Last week, the BBC published a story on the Marchionness disaster, which occurred 20 years ago. I remember watching the horrific news footage in 1989, when over 50 people celebrating the birthday of a friend were killed in a boat collision on the Thames. The story mentioned Ward Bingham, who was interviewed about his memories of that night. Ward mentioned that his experience had led him to set up a business, Mondonation, so I checked it out.

According to its website, Mondonation is committed to inspiring positive, global change through the development of sustainable, charitable strategies. The first of these are "believe" T-shirts . The theory is that if we all share our beliefs on a daily basis, they will grow in strength. Visitors to the site are encouraged to write their own belief statement, that is printed onto the back of an ethically-made T-shirt. Included in the price is a charitable donation to a charity of their choice.

Mondonation seeks to create a new business model, which combines a for-profit approach with with substantial charitable contributions. In a moving video on the site, Ward Bingham explains how he has been searching for meaning in his life since the Marchionness disaster and how his role as the creative force behind Mondonation is the embodiment of his desire to make a difference.

Inspired by Ward and the Mondonation vision, I ordered my own T-shirt, pink and long-sleeved, bearing the legend "I believe every one of us can be a force for good". So if you spot me wearing it, say hi.

Everyclick search engine

Everyclick.com is a great way to raise money for charity by doing something you would have done anyway. It's a search engine, but with a difference. Every search raises money for your nominated charity, and it's already raised over half a million pounds. To celebrate its 100,000th registered user it's awarding an extra £100 to every 10,000th new user's charity of choice until it reaches 200,000 registrations. Everyclick also hosts fundraising pages for sponsored events, with Gift Aid support so that the charity you pledge to receives your donation grossed up to its before tax value. Evouchers are available which you can give your friends to enable them to make a donation to a charity of their choice (and the charity receives more cash than it would do if the same donation was made directly with a credit card). There's even a shopping channel, with top high street brands. Better still, charities don't have to pay a fee to get included.

It's a fantastic concept, which has already earned its founder Polly Gowers the Triodos Bank "Entrepreneur of the Year" title at the Women in Ethical Business Awards 2007, a place in the Semi Finals of the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year and a BlackBerry Women in Technology Award in 2008. Is this the idea that could finally topple Google as the search engine of choice?