Hope Blooms Eternal as New Website Brings Charitable Giving to the Facebook Generation

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Facebook. MySpace. LinkedIn. The social networking trend is projected to grow by an estimated 43 percent annually over the next five years (according to Forrester Research). Now a new website is leveraging this social networking phenomenon to build online communities dedicated to helping the world around them. Hope Equity® (www.hopeequity.org) enables individuals, groups or organizations to invest in long-term sustainable giving to causes or charities they support worldwide.

HIV/AIDS, Environmental Issues, Hunger in Africa and funds for impoverished countries including Kenya, Mozambique, and Afghanistan are only a few endowments currently established by Hope Equity®. The site is currently undergoing an upgrade slated to launch June 1, 2008 and will enable this philanthropic community to blog, receive RSS feeds, join groups, contribute to other individuals’ endowments, conduct research on various charities and causes and fundraising tools to strengthen their economic portfolios.

“The next generation of charitable donors is socially and globally aware as never before,” said Greg Spradlin, Vice President for Hope Equity®. “A brainchild of the Heifer Foundation, Hope Equity® has grown to invest over $5 million dollars since its original launch in 2007, helping 130 causes worldwide. Launching the newly upgraded Hope Equity® website will enable these entrepreneurial individuals to connect with the non profits and causes they are interested in supporting; thus providing a tangible, sustainable method of helping the world around them.”

With the look and feel of a traditional stock portfolio, Hope Equity® creates an online “portfolio of giving” investing in endowments that support ending huger and poverty while caring for the earth. This online model offers a type of investment coined: Micro-Endowments™. Hope Equity® invests the donations and makes a percentage available to the donor’s selected causes annually. This allows for the original contribution to remain untouched, continuing to grow in perpetuity.

Additionally, Hope Equity’s® work is supported by a separate endowment that allows gifts made through the web site to remain intact. Whereas significant portions of donations given to other charitable non profits go to support the organization’s work, all funds contributed to Hope Equity®, remain in tact and support furthering the donor’s designated cause(s).