PIR purchases 4 charitable top level domains, discloses RSP contract bidding

Non-profit expands its TLD portfolio and discloses bidding for backend registry services.

Public Interest Registry (PIR), the organization that manages .org, has purchased four top level domain names in two transactions.

First, the non-profit purchased .giving from Giving Limited.

Second, the organization is “becoming the steward” of three of Donuts’ top level domains. Donuts will transfer .foundation, .charity, and .gives to PIR, and the two organizations will partner to reintroduce them to the market.

PIR ought to be able to market these domains better since it has a singular focus on (and connections with) non-profits and charitable organizations.

.Giving has not been launched yet. .Foundation has been relatively successful, with regarding 20,000 registrations. .Charity and .Gives have regarding 2,000-3,000 registrations. It seems that .charity is underperforming compared to where it ought to be.

Reading between the lines, it sounds like Donuts is transferring ownership of these top level domains for nothing upfront, and PIR will then make some sort of ongoing revenue share or partner payments.

Through its buyout of Afilias, Donuts provides backend registry services for PIR’s domains, counting a very lucrative Registry Service Provider (RSP) contract for running .org. Donuts earns regarding $18 million a year from the contract. PIR disclosed that the contract will go out to bid again in the second half of 2023. It’s Donuts’ contract to lose.

In other news, PIR disclosed that it plans to separate two of its other TLDs, .NGO and .ONG, so that organizations don’t have to register both domains.