Over the past few months, we have been developing this series of ‘Guest Bloggers’ from experts in a variety of different fields to share their insights on who .ORGs are and how .ORGs are using the domain to advance their missions and passions. After speaking with experts in the security, social media, technology, and non-profit fields, we thought it would be interesting to shed some light on what celebrities are interested and invested in and how they are choosing .ORG to be home to their charitable organizations and initiatives, as well as Foundations worldwide. This month, we’re talking to NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. whose Foundation, www.thedalejrfoundation.org, was created in 2007 to provide assistance and support for underprivileged children.

By Dale Earnhardt Jr

For those of you who may not know me, I race cars for a living. I was born into a racing family, so it’s all I’ve ever known. Aside from driving in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, I also own a NASCAR Nationwide Series team and a couple of late model teams. It’s pretty much a family affair for us, as my sister Kelley runs JR Motorsports on a day-to-day basis. Racing has always been a family sport, and a sport that does a lot of charitable works for the community.

I guess you could also say I’m an internet guy. I’ve always been interested in the latest technology and the coolest websites. When it came time to launch my own websites, I was really involved in the process, and I still like to keep the pressure on my team to make sure what we have out there is interesting and relevant to the fans. I went with GoDaddy.com to set up my domain names – they made the process really easy and they do a great job keeping up with new technologies. I was a GoDaddy.com customer even before they came on board as a race team sponsor. They provided excellent customer service to me throughout the process and I’m hoping that JR Motorsports can win some races for them in 2009!

Throughout my racing career I’ve gotten to do a lot of cool stuff. I feel very fortunate to get to race cars for a living, and I believe it’s important to give back to the community. I’ve been involved with several charities since I started racing, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Being able to help out kids is something I wanted to continue to do, so in 2007 I established The Dale Jr Foundation. Our mission is dedicated to giving underprivileged individuals (with a focus on youth) the resources to improve their confidence and education, and the opportunity to achieve extraordinary goals. I wanted to make sure The Dale Jr Foundation stood out as a community service organization, so I used .org for my domain name. The website is www.thedalejrfoundation.org, and I believe the .org means something to folks who are interested in giving back to their communities. The .org recognition not only gives us the ability to network with a strong community of other similar organizations, it also helps us get noticed by donors as a trusted service organization.

Since we established the Foundation, we’ve been able to host some great events to raise money for charity. This year we hosted a two-day event around October’s Charlotte Race Week, starting with a sold-out concert at Whisky River featuring country music star Gary Allan. The second day was our Celebrity Sports Auction that included a ton of awesome sports and music collectibles and a sports roundtable discussion with myself, fellow NASCAR drivers Dale Jarrett, Elliott Sadler, Brad Keselowski, Kerry Earnhardt and Landon Cassill, and PGA Tour golfer Boo Weekley. We were able to donate thousands of dollars to several charities, including Make-A-Wish and The Victory Junction Gang Camp.

We’re still pretty new in the foundation world, but we’re off to a great start. I believe that we’re going to continue to do great things through our events and fundraising efforts. I know that having an informative website is a major key to our success, and I’m excited to continue to expand and grow our site.