By Alan Sharpe, CFRE
If I asked you to recall the domain names of the 20 largest US charities, you’d do pretty well, I know.
You’d remember mayo.edu, of course, the largest US charity, and ymca.net (2nd).
And clevelandclinic.org (4th).
And redcross.org (6th).
And likely salvationarmyusa.org (7th).
But would you remember nyp.org, mskcc.org, csmc.edu, bgca.org, and chop.edu?
I didn’t think so.
Although these charities are the 9th, 12th, 13th, 15th and 16th largest charities in the United States, their domain names fail the three tests of an effective charitable domain name. They are neither easy to spell, pleasant on the ear, nor memorable.
If you want your donors, clients, employees and the media to remember your non-profit domain name, follow these 20 Do’s and Don’ts for naming yours.
1. Accentuate the positive
www.muscle.ca
Muscular Dystrophy Canada
2. Ask for the gift
www.supportcamh.ca
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Foundation
3. Call yourself what everyone else calls you
www.sickkids.ca
The Hospital for Sick Children
4. If your initials are well known, use them
www.aa.org
Alcoholics Anonymous
5. Turn a popular perception on its ear
www.autismspeaks.com
Autism Speaks Canada
6. Cut your name in half
www.amnesty.org
Amnesty International
7. Put your case for support in your domain
www.livestrong.org
The Lance Armstrong Foundation
8. Use hyphens
www.oprah-winfrey.org
Oprah Winfrey Foundation
9. Use some alliteration
www.metmuseum.org
Metropolitan Museum of Art
10. Say it backwards
www.unicefusa.org
United States Fund for UNICEF
11. Reduce your name to a verb
www.adopt.org
The National Adoption Center
12. Name your country with the suffix
www.heartandstroke.ca
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
13. Name your city in your name
www.seattlehumane.org
Seattle Humane Society
14. Name your state in your name
www.oregonhumane.org
Oregon Humane Society
15. Name your country in your name
www.americanheart.org
American Heart Association
16. If your initials are not well known, don’t use them . . .
www.rnzfb.org
The Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind
when you can instead spell out your name . . .
www.blindfoundation.org
Blind Foundation for India
17. Don’t abbreviate your name to initials that appear to spell an unrelated word
www.artic.edu
Art Institute of Chicago
18. Don’t abbreviate your name to initials that are meaningless to the unconverted
www.chrisapp.org
Christian Appalachian Project
19. Don’t compound your troubles by using initials in your sub-domain name and your domain name
www.irp.wisc.edu
The Institute for Research on Poverty oat the University of Wisconsin-Madison
20. Remember that even the longest names can be shortened memorably
www.kennedy-center.org
John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
By the way, the 9th, 12th, 13th, 15th and 16th largest charities in the US, the ones with the forgettable domain names (above), are Presbyterian Hospital, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. But then you knew that, right?
