Reston, Virginia’s Public Interest Registry operates .org. It’s the familiar top-level domain with more than 10.5 million domain registrations worldwide, mostly tied to nonprofits, mission-driven orgs and other organizations.
“We operate the crown jewel of the internet, the domain system .org, because we provide services to the best customers imaginable, the people who are doing good and helping improve our world,” Jon Nevett, the CEO and president of PIR, told Technical.ly.
Now, PIR is now expanding its portfolio of top-level domains. This week, it announced the acquisition of .giving from Giving Limited, a UK-based domain manager. It will also take stewardship of .foundation, .charity and .gives from Donuts, another manager headquartered in Washington state. PIR did not reveal the financial details of the acquisition.
Nevett said that having all the top-level domains in one place will give organizations, nonprofits and others more control over their place online.
“We want to help those who are serving others as much as possible and give them opportunities to define their own digital presence,” Nevett said. “And by giving them more choice, we think that we’re providing a positive impact for them.”
Additionally, PIR will also be making changes to its .ngo and .ong domains — which stand for non-government organizations (NGO) in English and Romance languages, respectively. Previously, when registering with a .ngo domain, organizations had to also register for the .ong name or vice versa. Now, Nevett said, PIR will allow users to pick just one.
The push for mission-driven organizations and giving, Nevett said, is one that’s bloomed over the past year. According to GivingTuesday Data Commons, donations were up 37% over the past two years on Giving Tuesday, while Cyber Monday sales were down. Nevett thinks it’s a signal of changing priorities.
“People are really realizing that this mission-driven work is so critical, and now more than ever,” Nevett said.
With the new top-level domains under PIR’s umbrella, Nevett said it will be easier for organizations to do things like create a specific domain for their giving or charity efforts. Alternatively, if a new nonprofit is starting up and a name is already taken, they can easily switch to a .foundation or other address.
“.Org will always be the crown jewel and always be the gold standard for every top-level domain, we’re the… most trusted with an online home and stable platform for pretty much everyone who does good online,” Nevett said. “We wanted to supplement that, though, with some complimentary top-level domains that give users more choice and the ability to have flexibility.”
PIR will be following the review process from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers for the new domains.
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