I just got this from the Public Interest Registry who is coordinating the registration of .ngo and .ong domains. (I signed up in hopes that I could own katherine.watier.ong – how cool would that be!)
Based on their note below, I wonder if all nonprofits should add this item to their nonprofit marketing plans and should register for their .ngo domain name:
The new .ngo and .ong domains will soon be available exclusively for the global NGO/nonprofit community;organisations must apply to register these domains and will be able to use them only after having successfully passed a validation process to ensure that they are true, genuine NGOs.
Donors will be able to search for NGOs by name, cause or geographic location within the NGO Portal – a global online directory of NGOs, in which NGOs can only be included if they have registered a .ngo and/or .ong domain name. The portal, and therefore the domain names, will help donors find causes they care about and organisations that they want to support with certainty.
NGOs in turn will have the opportunity to establish trust and credibility with donors, as well as potential business partners and volunteers, by having gone through the validation process in order to register their .ngo |.ong domain names.
What do you think? I can’t find anything related to their marketing efforts behind the portal they are developing, so I’m not sure how much of a boost it will provide, but purchasing a new TLD and 301 redirecting it is a relatively low lift, so perhaps it would be worth the effort for the potential visibility?