The Internet is a nearly unlimited source of information, and for students, the best way to procrastinate on assignments. With the Internet being so time-consuming, there must be something that students can do to justify their time online.

Better The World, a new virtual not-for-profit organization is taking advantage of the amount of time people spend online.

“I had worked for non profits before and it is really important to me to help people. It always felt like that there was a lot of red tape and structure in place that I couldn’t really help the people that I wanted to help," says member Kristen Petri.

Established on February 2009, Better The World was founded with one goal: to raise $ one billion dollars through advertisement fundraising. So far, they have raised $7,690 and they have more than 5,000 members.

The three founders of the organization came up with the idea of online advertising and how useful it is when they were doing research for a school project. Potential donors can download an online sidebar that is used for Internet advertisements.

“The concept is a little difficult to explain to people initially, but we know that it is such an easy way to raise money, and we have so many ideas and concepts onboard to generate interest," Petri says. "I think that it’s going to be really interesting, and I can’t wait to see where it goes.”

The money generated is then paid to a cause that the online member has selected. Petri is raising money with Better The World to help prevent violence against women and children and has raised $48.

Petri says she had “a personal family experience with an abusive situation” and feels “it’s important that they grow up in a house where that’s not happening,” Petri says.

She has also had experience working to help children at an orphanage in Bangladesh.

“I worked for an organization called Families for Children which has two locations in Bangladesh and India," Petri says. "There is a girl there that I support, and I started a beauty salon to train some of the older girls and give them work skills.”

The experience changed her outlook on life, she says.

“The further I am from it, I sort of lose that perspective, but work with Better The World keeps me grounded,” Petri says.

Her most memorable experience with Better The World occurred when she was in Calgary on September 2009 for a high school leadership conference, she says.

“We had a booth set up; we talked to a lot of the students and to see how excited they were about the idea and how much they wanted to help. It was really amazing and inspiring,” Petri says.

Carleton student Rob Mittelman, who is a second-year PhD student in management, is currently involved with Better The World. In an email, he said he thinks it’s important to support charities because many of the charities and non-profit organizations are facing challenges due to the economic crisis.

Carleton currently ranks at 15 out of 126 schools working with Better The World.

Better The World has many causes and charities that members can support. Some of these include the World Wildlife Foundation and War Child Canada.

Ninety per cent of the money raised goes directly to the causes, with the remaining 10 per cent going towards the organization’s operating costs. Petri says this is a major contrast to other donation companies, which would give much less.

“A program like this could really change the lives of kids around the world,” Petri says.