Web searches for Iraq, immigration reform and Paris Hilton could earn money for your favorite charity.

GoodSearch.com (powered by Yahoo!) functions like a traditional search engine, but what makes it unique is that with every search a donation is directed to the user’s pre-designated school or charity.

The benevolent search engine is the brainchild of brother and sister duo Ken and JJ Ramberg. After their mother Connie Ramberg died in 2001 from cancer, Ken became actively involved in charitable organizations only to realize that loosening the purse strings of would-be donors is tricky work.

Ken, being a former co-founder of a college student job search engine called MonsterTRAK, had a revelation: Combine effortless charitable giving with an activity many of us perform online every day.

“When I realized that search engines generated close to $6 billion in revenue in 2005, I thought about what so many good causes could do with even a fraction of this money,” Ramberg said.

GoodSearch is funded through pay-to-click advertisement dollars. A portion of the revenue generated by a search is directed towards charity. The amount of cash a charity receives depends completely on the number of searches that benefit that particular cause.

There are other Web sites that offer profit-for-charity searches like CharityCafe.com and GiveSmart.com. However, most of these sites require user registration or they present a limited list of charitable organizations that could benefit from a search.

How successful has charitable searching been for GoodSearch so far? While it is too early to discuss revenue statistics, Ramberg said that GoodSearch has received an overwhelming response from the Internet community and from a multitude of participating non-profit organizations such as the Life Rolls On Foundation and the North Carolina Coastal Federation.

The benefits of GoodSearch are not limited to large nonprofits, however. Universities across the country are utilizing charitable Internet searches for fundraising.

“What is also very exciting is the response we’ve received from college students,” Ramberg said. “A number of university dance marathons including Penn State, the University of Georgia and Indiana University are also promoting GoodSearch as an on-going way to raise funds for the charities they support year round.”

GoodSearch has raised over $300 since November 2005 for the annual Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, which benefits the fight against pediatric cancer, according to THON.org.