USERS PICK A WINNING CHARITY—BUT WHICH ONE? SQUIDOO Sponsors Charity Bake Off: Winner-Take-All Contest to Celebrate 50,000 Lenses

IRVINGTON, NY

Squidoo.com, the fastest-growing philanthropic co-op in the world, is about to donate $10,000 to charity to celebrate the upcoming publication of lens #50,000. But which charity?

190 days since the site officially launched, more than 25,000 people have created hand-built ‘lenses’ about their favorite topics (from handbags to Myspace, and from ferret rescue to travel to London) at Squidoo.com. As Squidoo closes in on lens #50,000, the site is challenging websurfers to predict the date and time of the milestone.

The company has promised to donate 25 cents for every person who votes for one of the charities. (Go vote at: http://www.squidoo.com/50000). Up to $5,000 will go to the charity that gets the most votes. And the company has agreed to double the amount if one of the voters is able to predict the date and time that the 50,000th page goes live. Voting and predictions end on October 15th at midnight, EST.

“We need the money to find a cure,” said Red Maxwell, a volunteer at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. “ "We’re encouraging as many people as possible to visit the site and vote for us.” Even better, supporters of leading charities now have an easy way to get their friends to pitch in as well.

Squidoo pays a royalty of 50% of all revenue to the individuals who build lenses. Nearly half of all lensmasters have committed to donating their royalties to one or more of the 50 charities supported by the site.

The charities in the bake off are: The Acumen Fund, Room to Read, Wikipedia, The American Heart Association, People for the American Way, The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, University of Michigan Football Scholarship Fund, The Albright Knox Art Gallery, The Studio Arena Theatre, Creative Commons Foundation, The TED Foundation, The Squidoo Charity Fund, PETA, March of Dimes, Oxfam and the Global Action Foundation.

So, go vote!

http://www.squidoo.com/50000.