1. When you envision building a website that will, in time, evolve into something akin to an industry, trade or demographic organization site.
2. When the thrust of your website will be educational.
3. When you plan to use the domain "to organize" people. (Organizations start somewhere, don't they?)
4. For the reasons stated at the PIR.org website.
5. When your mission is to "do some real good" (for someone other than yourself, for something more than money).
6. When you are taking a long view.
7. When there is a commercial element to the online enterprise but it's not commerce in the direct sense of selling. For example, a "steel industry organization" that promotes the economic interests of the industry is clearly of a "commercial nature" but that doesn't mean that the website is the online arm of one brick and mortar entity that maufactures steel or distribute steel.
8. When selling something is incidental to the mission. (Fundraising to support the mission versus making money IS the mission.) Museums have "museum shops" that sell some pretty interesting items, with the funds going to pay salaries for the staff and "the profits" going to support the museum's mission.
9. When you wish a global reach on an issue that is global: health, environment, disease, farming, etc.
Money is not anathema to the .Org domain. No organization functions without funds. Fundraising, which is producing "income" by another name, is very much a part of non-profits but typically they will have a prime directive other than making money. Money or profit is not the end but a means to an end, which is the underlying mission - whatever that might be. For commercial entities the end game is to profit, otherwise capital will find another investment. When you take a hard look at the role of money in either a commercial or a "non-profit" enterprise the role is not that divergent: Pay the rent, pay the utilities, pay the staff, pay insurance, pay for supplies - and then pay for the mission (unless the mission is simply to redistribute funds).
If your prime directive is "make money" it's fair policy to not take the .Org route. If making money enables you to perform some mission that is greater than making money - informing, educating, organizing, promoting, empowering - then .Org is fine.
As the rules are written you can even use the unrestricted TLD .Org as the base URL for selling your widgets, so don't lose any sleep. It's okay.
Do you use a .Org? Did you have a choice of using the same .Com or other TLD?
Why did you choose .Org?
I guess it's just been "understood" in the community for so long that .org, although unrestricted, was intended to serve the noncommercial community. Perhaps even moreso than "understood" it was originally touted as one of the "rules [icann.org]".
The .org domain, operated by Public Interest Registry, is unrestricted, but was intended to serve the noncommercial community.
To me, it makes perfect sense for a non-profit to elect to operate under the .Org domain. It makes for a consistent message. Unfortunately, that decision often doesn't stop someone from registering the .com version of the organization's name.
So, should the NPO register both the .Com and the .Org? Methinks so,
What are the implications of a NPO registering a .Com and redirecting the type-ins to the .Org?
Perish the thought that a NPO should register a .Com domain? No. What really matters is what really is the nature of the work, correct? ;)
So, should the NPO register both the .Com and the .Org? Methinks so
Oh yes. Absolutely. If for nothing else to protect it's name-brand recognition. If you are going to grab either the .com or the .org TLD, you had best grab both when you register. Sit on one or redirect if necessary, but don't leave it up for grabs. It's a cruel world out there.
Also, don't let that "non-profit" organizational tag there fool you. Think "insurance" and you'll come to grips with the concept immediately. Organized as NPOs they at least typically play in the .com namespace. I'll give them that. But the fine line between noncommercial and non-profit is skewed a bit, would you not agree?
But the fine line between noncommercial and non-profit is skewed a bit, would you not agree?
The domain purist could argue that charitable organizations, ones that are primarily devoted to wealth redistribution (cash transfers as grants or support, commodity delivery, etc.) are the only true .Org candidates.
In the realm of non-commercial how is the "fit" of [Steel.org...] to the .Org TLD? What is the non-commercial, non-profit "essence" (philosophical term) of an institute - The Steel Institute - that acts as a proponent for the steel industry?
There are many MANY other "industry organizations" who, by some stretch of reasoning, can lay claim to their non-commercial - even non-profit - status. Nevermind that their fundamental reason for existing is to support a thriving, profit driven industry.
"Yes, but . . . "
There are a variety of reasons why the .Org domain was not restricted to NPOs or non-commercial. Perhaps the foremost reason was the inability to draw lines that would define who gets in and who is excluded.
Steel.org or Oxfam.org? Which is more non-commercial? ;)
CraigsList.org? $25 million in revenue last year. Non-commercial? Ya, if you read today's WSJ report about how CraigsList likely leaves hundreds of millions of advertising dollars on the table by not running a greater variety of advertisements.
I don't lose any sleep about creating the perfect marriage of a website to a .Org domain versus a .Info domain versus a .Com domain. The non-commercial distinction is illusory. Trade organizations promote commerce. Non-profit doesn't mean non-revenue producing. Without a means to generate revenue they don't exist. Unrestricted TLD means unrestricted, which means any company may use the TLD for any reason.
The best rational for using a .Org domain is the one that arises in the mind of the agency choosing to employ the domain. Seeing the .Org extension as an opportunity to create a consistent message between the agency's charter or corporate documents their online presence makes perfect sense.
The non-commercial distinction is illusory.
There you go, you have effectively summarized our somewhat off-topic discussion in a nutshell.
Back to the .org and when to use -- I would hold to the fact that any time you decide to register a .org TLD you had better register the .com for thoroughness. At this point you now have to decide which TLD to use for marketing ... ;)
