Written by Joshua Smith

Following in the footsteps of leading e-commerce plays such as Amazon.com and PayPal who have actively been collecting funds on behalf of the American Red Cross to aide in the relief efforts associated with the September 11th attacks upon America, a number of affiliate managers and ad networks have spearheaded charitable initiatives that allow their publisher ranks to put remnant inventory to better use.

New Jersey-based affiliate marketing firm Standard Internet has been resolute in its assistance for the ongoing support and recovery efforts that have taken place in the wake of the organized attacks inflicted upon the people of America two weeks ago. Most notably, the firm responsible for the AllClicks, TextLinks, PopupTraffic and SearchTraffic programs amongst others, has established a fund in support of the family of New Jersey native LeRoy Homer.

Mr Homer was a co-pilot of United Airlines Flight #93, which was a 757 that crashed within a cornfield of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Of the four aircraft successfully hijacked on the morning of the 11th, his was the only one not to collide with a populated landmark. It has been suggested, based on evidence supplied by relatives of a few of those aboard the flight who communicated with the passengers via cell phone shortly after the first World Trade collision, that a group of passengers attempted to regain control of the craft by detaining or attacking the suicidal hijackers. Mr Homer is survived by his wife Melodie and 10 month old daughter.

Standard Internet have invited their 30,000+ active affiliates to voluntarily donate a portion of their monthly earnings to the fund, and these donations will be matched dollar-for-dollar by Standard Internet, up to a maximum of $50,000. In addition to the monetary element of the campaign, the donation form features a field that is being used to gather comments to the family, and these well-wishes will be passed on to the family to help them deal with such a profound and sudden loss.

For more information, or to make a donation to this cause now, please visit:
https://www.standardinternet.com/LeroyHomer/index.php

Standard Internet are not alone in their philanthopic gesture, though. Chet Brzezinski's rapidly-growing startup, FineClicks.com has teamed up with the long-established Websponsors.com in supporting several non-profit organizations such as the United Way and the Red Cross. In these cases, the firms are freely providing their hardware and bandwidth to the groups, while encouraging their affiliate ranks to designate excess or prime inventory to the delivery of banners and text-links that make an appeal to their visitors.

Information about the charitable campaigns supported by FineClicks and Websponsors.com may be found within the respective companies' publisher interfaces.

The fact that affiliate networks, many of whom are struggling in the face of a worldwide decline in online ad spending, are willing to so selflessly generate interest for charitable sources suggests that, contrary to the goals of the terrorists responsible for the disaster, the civilized world has never been so resolute in its sense of unity and generosity.