Your nonprofit’s website and email campaigns are the foundation of your online brand and choosing the right domain for your website and email campaigns is critical to your organization’s online success. The top three domains for the social good sector are .org, .ngo, and .ong. .org is the most trusted domain on the Internet and open to all while .ngo and .ong are new domains that require legal verification to register and use. To help your NGO better understand the domain names available to the NGO sector, this webinar was presented on November 1.

A brief history of the .ORG domain

How .NGO and .ONG are different from the .ORG domain

  • Long associated with nonprofit organizations, in truth .ORG is open to individuals, companies, and organizations of all kinds.
  • Released on May 6, 2015 the .NGO and .ONG domains can only be registered and used by NGOs, ONGs, charities, and nonprofits.
  • “NGO” is the widely adopted acronym for “non-governmental organization.” “ONG” is the same, except in romantic languages (i.e. Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian).
  • There are an estimated 10 million NGOs worldwide of which the majority are not yet online.
  • According to the 2017 Global NGO Online Technology Report, “NGO” is the predominant term used in Africa (53%), Asia (52%), and Europe (31%). “ONG” is the predominant term used in South America (35%). “Nonprofit Organization” is the predominant term used in Australia & Oceania (49%) and North America (79%).

How .ORG, .NGO and .ONG affect online fundraising success

  • According to the recently released 2017 Global Trends in Giving Report, donors are more likely to trust websites and email addresses that use .ORG (72%), .EDU (7%), and .NGO (6%) while they are least likely to trust websites and email addresses that use .NET (30%), .COM (29%), and country-code domains, such as .ca, .uk, and .au (13%).

How to purchase and complete the verification process for .NGO and .ONG

  • The .NGO and .ONG domains are sold bundled. You buy one and get the other free.Step 1. Purchase your domains from a participating registrar. The .NGO/.ONG domain costs $30-50US.
    Step 2. Upon purchase, you will be prompted to create an account at OnGood.ngo to complete the verification process. It takes 5-10 minutes and requires documentation to prove your nonprofit, charity, NGO, or ONG is legal and in good standing.

How to use your new .NGO and .ONG domains

  • For those organizations that prioritize .ORG:“Redirect” .NGO and .ONG to your .ORG website, such as savethechildren.ngo. This is free and easy to do through your domain registrar.
  • For those organizations that prioritize .NGO or .ONG:
    – Pick a date for launch and direct your website to your new .ngo or .ong domain.
    – Update print materials, email signatures, etc.
    – Set up your .ngo or .ong email addresses.
  • .NGO and .ONG make ideal URLs for microsites or campaign redirects, such as worldaidsday.ngo, savethewhales.ngo and diadeldoar.ong.

2017 Global Trends in Giving Report

Based upon the survey results of 4,084 donors worldwide, the 2017 Global Trends in Giving Report explores the impact of gender, generation, and ideology upon giving and volunteerism.