Founded by Don McChesney, Ark.com is a recent creation that aims to bring about a social change through their social networking site. It allows buyers to earn 5% on their online purchase that can be donated to causes like charities, churches, school projects or a local project created by the buyer(s).

One can buy from several online stores listed with ark.com. Some of the examples are, Amazon.com, Livingsocial.com, iTunes, Buy.com, Expedia.com etc. They have about 3000 stores listed on their website and more than 200,000 causes to choose from.

"We founded Arl.com because we were increasingly frustrated with our inability to make positive change in the world around us. Like a lot of people, we never has enough extra time or money to devote to causes that we care deeply about. What we needed was a new source of funding for our causes that harnessed our existing online routine and did not require any investment of our own money of time."

The goal is to bring about a positive change in the world through the power of internet. A system where buyers simply have to use ark.com to shop for stuff online, and without shelling out any extra money from their pockets they can give something back to a noble cause that they believe in.

Ark.com has impressively partnered with thousands of online stores and buyers can follow the store of their choice within Ark.com and also invite their friends to join them. You can instantly register with Ark using your Facebook account.






















Overview:

Support causes that you connect with: There are endless causes to choose from, one can also see the causes supported by their friends.

Earn Badges: Since this is a social site, it lets buyers earn badges on the basis of donations made to their favorite causes. All this can be seen in user's profile with a unique URL that can be shared among friends and family.


















Start Your Own Cause: If a user is not satisfied with the causes mentioned in the site or perhaps is already working on a noble cause, Ark.com lets you start your own cause. It could be raising money for your local church or starting a cleaning-up movement for your local park.





























Meet New People: Other than connecting with people that buyers already know, they can also meet new people who share similar interests or similar sentiments towards a particular cause.

It's Like Buying on Facebook: When I registered and logged in with Ark.com, I felt as if I am in some Facebook page. The design is amazingly similar, therefore I didn't have a hard time navigating through the website. It's blue & white, it lets you like stuff, it sends you notifications and lets you send & receive messages; you also have a wall.





























What I Love the Most

Other than a noble movement and an incredible idea, Ark.com has managed to create an active and passionate community. And using it is very simple, instead of going to amazon.com, one just needs to visit ark, and buy stuff through them (kind of an affiliate program). Buyers don't even have to bother about handling the money earned, it automatically gets updated on a user's profile.

But what I really love about Ark is their cute little mascot, an adorable penguin that just makes you say...awww...also on their website you will notice tiny little penguins taking a walk or rolling, swimming or just rolling around. These penguins are actually Ark users, so when you hover your mouse over them, you will see a tiny window with a link to their profile and  the cause that they're supporting.








Don McChesney says:

"We see ourselves as the dominant social network for giving to causes on the Internet and something that people have integrated into their everyday lives because they want to support causes they otherwise could not.  With online identity becoming increasingly important, Ark will be peoples’ identity for good, much like Facebook is to social identity and LinkedIn is to professional identity.  Your Ark profile will be the best representation of what you care about in the world, backed up by real donations made to the causes you care about the most."

Having said that, there are endless social networking sites with all kinds of concepts. Do you think Ark.com has what it takes to make it big and bring about a positive change in the world?

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Source: Forbes.com