Online Advertisers Pay Donors' Tabs The Hunger Site was the brainchild of John Breen, a computer programmer from Bloomington, Ind., who
created a site showing a map of the world, with one country darkening every 3.6 seconds to represent a death
from hunger. The sponsors agreed to pay the United Nations food program for each click on the "Donate Free
Food" button; only one click a day by each visitor would be counted. But as the number of visitors
skyrocketed, the time and costs involved in running the site rose, too, and by late last year, Mr. Breen was
overwhelmed. In February, he sold the site for an undisclosed price to GreaterGood, a Seattle-based online
shopping mall that gave part of its sales to charity.

Since then, the site has become more obviously commercial, offering extra donations if visitors buy holiday
wreaths or Hunger Site hats, or click the link to Amazon.com and make a first-time purchase there.

GreaterGood, which has created five more click-to-donate sites since buying the Hunger Site, takes a 25
percent cut of the donations to cover its costs, and has recently been having cash-flow problems.