By simply searching the Web or shopping online, students can now donate money to a cause they care about without spending a dime.

One such site, GoodShop (goodshop.com), an online shopping site, provides a way for visitors of the site to shop at different companies while also donating to a nonprofit organization or school of their choice.

“When you come on to the site, you enter your favorite charity,” said GoodShop co-founder JJ Ramberg. “When you shop on a store, a percentage (about 3 to 37 percent) goes to the charity. You don’t pay anything extra. The shopping experience you have is no different.”

JJ Ramberg, host of MSNBC’s “Your Business,” and her brother, Ken Ramberg, former founder of Jobtrak, started GoodShop in 2007. The site now has about 1,300 participating stores such as Amazon, eBay, Best Buy, Staples, Kohl’s, Target and Sears.

GoodShop is an expansion of another site, GoodSearch (goodsearch.com), a Yahoo!-powered search engine that JJ and Ken Ramberg started in 2005.

GoodSearch works in much the same way as GoodShop. Site visitors choose a nonprofit organization, church or school they want to support. The site donates a penny to the chosen organization for every search on GoodSearch. The more people search, the more money goes to the organization.

For instance, an organization with 1,000 supporters searching through GoodSearch twice a day will receive $7,300 a year.

“Basically, we wanted to come up with a way for people to support their causes while going about their daily activities,” Ramberg said. “Everybody has a cause they care about, but not everybody has the money or the time to donate.”

Other websites, such as Easyserach (easysearch.org.uk) and BiddingForGood (biddingforgood.com), raise funds to donate to nonprofit organizations. Easysearch works in much the same way as GoodSearch, and runs online auctions to raise money for nonprofit organizations.

More than 85,000 nonprofit organizations and schools have joined GoodSearch, with about 100 joining daily, Ramberg said.

“To participate in our program, your organization must be a registered nonprofit (organization),” she said. “This can include schools, charities, hospitals and clinics, volunteer services, political organizations, fraternal organizations, professional associations, religious organizations, governmental agencies, etc.”

Junior geology major Juliet Hutchins, who used a Great Britain-based website that works the same way as GoodSearch, said websites like that and GoodShop are suitable for students who may not have money to donate to charities.

“I think it’s a very affordable way to give to nonprofit organizations because it didn’t cost any money,” Hutchins said. “It took time and effort but not money.”

There are Sacramento nonprofit organizations and churches that have joined GoodSearch and GoodShop. Some of which are the Assistance League of Sacramento, Child Abuse Prevention Council of Sacramento, Greater Sacramento Urban League, Sacramento Area Emergency Housing Center and Sacramento Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Sacramento State is also listed as one of the participating schools. To date, there have been only four searches – or four cents – for Sac State.

So far, the organization that has received the most funds through GoodSearch and GoodShop is the New York-based American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The ASPCA has raised more than $27,000 through GoodSearch and more than $2,700 through GoodShop.

“We were contacted by GoodSearch founder JJ Ramberg and decided to participate,” said Claire McCabe, ASPCA marketing manager.

McCabe said ASPCA invited subscribers of its online weekly newsletter, which has about 1 million subscribers nationwide, to support the organization through GoodSearch.

“We rely on this type of funding to help animals in need,” McCabe said. “Donations from supporters like GoodSearch helped us to save or improve the lives of more than 20 million animals in 2008.”

Ramberg said the challenge now is to let people know about GoodSearch and GoodShop.

“Students are big users of GoodSearch and GoodShop,” she said. “This is such a simple way to help out a cause you care about. Nonprofit organizations and schools really need our help.”

Kristine Guerra can be reached at [email protected].