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18(a) Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.NGOPublic Interest Registrypir.orgView
The mission⁄purpose of the .NGO gTLD is to serve the global NGO Community by supplying it with an exclusive gTLD that will offer NGOs and NGO Associations differentiated and verified online identities, and thereby building confidence for their respective clients, partners, and benefactors.

Members of the NGO Community include Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and NGO associations. NGOs are defined as organizations whose mission and activities are broadly centered on improving the human condition, and are non-governmental, non-profit and non-criminal. NGOs have created NGO associations that are global, regional, and national in scope to face their common challenges and promote their common themes in a coherent fashion despite their diverse missions. For example, many NGO associations promote codes of conduct and self-regulation frameworks designed to reinforce their cohesion.

The NGO Community establishment is found in Evaluation Question #20 of this application.

The exclusivity of the .NGO domain will be provided through domain name registration restrictions and enforcement mechanisms. Domain name registrations under .NGO will solely be open to Non-Governmental Organizations who pass all established eligibility requirements. These registration restrictions will give users’ and benefactors’ confidence in the credibility of the .NGO websites they are visiting. This will afford individuals and groups greater assurance that the .NGO they are researching is a valid, Non-Governmental Organization.

PIR has conducted numerous outreach and research activities within the NGO Community to identify needs for additional services beyond a .NGO domain. This has revealed that the NGO Community has a need for an online source of information about NGOs, combining regional and local organization information, ideally a directory to provide a global platform for raising online awareness. To address this need, PIR is considering an online, global directory for .NGO registrants. Within this directory the .NGO registrants could promote their organization, and share their contact information with the Internet community within a single, unique and trusted repository.

Today, the global NGO Community is estimated conservatively at 6.7 million NGOs and NGO associations. NGOs face many challenges in describing and differentiating their unique characteristics on the Internet. They need to be able to distinguish themselves online from the commercial, for-profit, government entities and casual, unstructured groups. This distinction on the Internet is critical for NGOs to raise awareness and manage fundraising within their fields of service online and thereby reaching the global online market. As such, while the term “NGO” is already well recognized around the world, when coupled with a new gTLD, it will give NGOs the opportunity to bring their distinct characteristics to global Internet users by clearly differentiating themselves with their own online domain. .NGO will be launched as a restricted gTLD, which in turn will provide Internet users worldwide the confidence that they are interacting with a valid NGO. In this way, the .NGO gTLD domain provides to the NGO Community a tool to enhance accountability and transparency which is critical to donors, foundations and others who wish to contribute to NGO activities.

As a NGO itself, the Public Interest Registry (PIR) is acutely aware of the needs and challenges for NGOs managing online activities. PIR manages .ORG, an unrestricted gTLD – the domain which has served the international NGO Community (among other communities) for more than 25 years. Part of .ORG management has always involved direct discussions with non-commercial, NGOs, and nonprofit organizations. PIR has discussed the unmet requirements of the international NGO Community starting with outreach prior to the assignment of .ORG in 2003; and has carried this forward, specifically regarding the ability to distinguish verified organizations from those domain holders without a specific non-governmental function. It is through this history of interaction with the nonprofit and NGO sector that PIR has identified and is responding to stakeholder interest in a restricted, community gTLD.

To remain connected with the needs and challenges of NGOs, PIR will create a special NGO Community Advisory Council composed of members from the NGO Community to advise on issues including broad .NGO policies and the introduction of new services. Their perspective, representing voices from the global NGO Community, will play a vital role in the long-term success of .NGO. PIR has already established a “pre-NGO Community Advisory Council” that will assist in the creation of the NGO Community Advisory Council and will advise on the verification process for .NGO registrations.

The .NGO gTLD will be a valuable part of ICANN’s expansion consistent with guidance defined in Section 9.3 of the Affirmation of Commitments (AoC). Specifically, the .NGO gTLD will promote the goals of the new TLD round and the AoC reflected in the following ways:

• A stable launch of a new gTLD that provides registrants a clear choice with a relevant domain;
• Internet users trusting in the authenticity of the .NGO gTLD; and,
• An active NGO Community involvement in the .NGO gTLD, such as through PIR’s NGO Community Advisory Council.

In short, the .NGO domain will be the choice for NGOs in need of an exclusive online space to raise visibility, to drive awareness for a cause, and to make a positive impact. The exclusive .NGO domain, administered in a trusted and responsible manner by PIR, will give NGOs a unique, relevant, respected place on the Internet.
gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.servicesFox Castle, LLCdonuts.coView
Q18A CHAR: 7985

ABOUT DONUTS
Donuts Inc. is the parent applicant for this and multiple other TLDs. The company intends to increase competition and consumer choice at the top level. It will operate these carefully selected TLDs safely and securely in a shared resources business model. To achieve its objectives, Donuts has recruited seasoned executive management with proven track records of excellence in the industry. In addition to this business and operational experience, the Donuts team also has contributed broadly to industry policymaking and regulation, successfully launched TLDs, built industry-leading companies from the ground up, and brought innovation, value and choice to the domain name marketplace.

DONUTS’ PLACE WITHIN ICANN’S MISSION
ICANN and the new TLD program share the following purposes:
1. to make sure that the Internet remains as safe, stable and secure as possible, while
2. helping to ensure there is a vibrant competitive marketplace to efficiently bring the benefits of the namespace to registrants and users alike.

ICANN harnesses the power of private enterprise to bring forth these public benefits. While pursuing its interests, Donuts helps ICANN accomplish its objectives by:

1. Significantly widening competition and choice in Internet identities with hundreds of new top-level domain choices;
2. Providing innovative, robust, and easy-to-use new services, names and tools for users, registrants, registrars, and registries while at the same time safeguarding the rights of others;
3. Designing, launching, and securely operating carefully selected TLDs in multiple languages and character sets; and
4. Providing a financially robust corporate umbrella under which its new TLDs will be protected and can thrive.

ABOUT DONUTS’ RESOURCES
Donuts’ financial resources are extensive. The company has raised more than US$100 million from a number of capital sources including multiple multi-billion dollar venture capital and private equity funds, a top-tier bank, and other well-capitalized investors. Should circumstances warrant, Donuts is prepared to raise additional funding from current or new investors. Donuts also has in place pre-funded, Continued Operations Instruments to protect future registrants. These resource commitments mean Donuts has the capability and intent to launch, expand and operate its TLDs in a secure manner, and to properly protect Internet users and rights-holders from potential abuse.

Donuts firmly believes a capable and skilled organization will operate multiple TLDs and benefit Internet users by:

1. Providing the operational and financial stability necessary for TLDs of all sizes, but particularly for those with smaller volume (which are more likely to succeed within a shared resources and shared services model);
2. Competing more powerfully against incumbent gTLDs; and
3. More thoroughly and uniformly executing consumer and rights holder protections.

THIS TLD
This TLD is attractive and useful to end-users as it better facilitates search, self-expression, information sharing and the provision of legitimate goods and services. Along with the other TLDs in the Donuts family, this TLD will provide Internet users with opportunities for online identities and expression that do not currently exist. In doing so, the TLD will introduce significant consumer choice and competition to the Internet namespace – the very purpose of ICANN’s new TLD program.

This TLD is a generic term and its second level names will be attractive to a variety of Internet users. Making this TLD available to a broad audience of registrants is consistent with the competition goals of the New TLD expansion program, and consistent with ICANN’s objective of maximizing Internet participation. Donuts believes in an open Internet and, accordingly, we will encourage inclusiveness in the registration policies for this TLD. In order to avoid harm to legitimate registrants, Donuts will not artificially deny access, on the basis of identity alone (without legal cause), to a TLD that represents a generic form of activity and expression.

DONUTS’ APPROACH TO PROTECTIONS
No entity, or group of entities, has exclusive rights to own or register second level names in this TLD. There are superior ways to minimize the potential abuse of second level names, and in this application Donuts will describe and commit to an extensive array of protections against abuse, including protections against the abuse of trademark rights.

We recognize some applicants seek to address harms by constraining access to the registration of second level names. However, we believe attempts to limit abuse by limiting registrant eligibility is unnecessarily restrictive and harms users by denying access to many legitimate registrants. Restrictions on second level domain eligibility would prevent law-abiding individuals and organizations from participating in a space to which they are legitimately connected, and would inhibit the sort of positive innovation we intend to see in this TLD. As detailed throughout this application, we have struck the correct balance between consumer and business safety, and open access to second level names.

By applying our array of protection mechanisms, Donuts will make this TLD a place for Internet users that is far safer than existing TLDs. Donuts will strive to operate this TLD with fewer incidences of fraud and abuse than occur in incumbent TLDs. In addition, Donuts commits to work toward a downward trend in such incidents.

OUR PROTECTIONS
Donuts has consulted with and evaluated the ideas of international law enforcement, consumer privacy advocacy organizations, intellectual property interests and other Internet industry groups to create a set of protections that far exceed those in existing TLDs, and bring to the Internet namespace nearly two dozen new rights and protection mechanisms to raise user safety and protection to a new level.

These include eight, innovative and forceful mechanisms and resources that far exceed the already powerful protections in the applicant guidebook. These are:

1. Periodic audit of WhoIs data for accuracy;
2. Remediation of inaccurate Whois data, including takedown, if warranted;
3. A new Domain Protected Marks List (DPML) product for trademark protection;
4. A new Claims Plus product for trademark protection;
5. Terms of use that prohibit illegal or abusive activity;
6. Limitations on domain proxy and privacy service;
7. Published policies and procedures that define abusive activity; and
8. Proper resourcing for all of the functions above.

They also include fourteen new measures that were developed specifically by ICANN for the new TLD process. These are:

1. Controls to ensure proper access to domain management functions;
2. 24⁄7⁄365 abuse point of contact at registry;
3. Procedures for handling complaints of illegal or abusive activity, including remediation and takedown processes;
4. Thick WhoIs;
5. Use of the Trademark Clearinghouse;
6. A Sunrise process;
7. A Trademark Claims process;
8. Adherence to the Uniform Rapid Suspension system;
9. Adherence to the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy;
10. Adherence to the Post Delegation Dispute Resolution Policy;
11. Detailed security policies and procedures;
12. Strong security controls for access, threat analysis and audit;
13. Implementation DNSSEC; and
14. Measures for the prevention of orphan glue records.

DONUTS’ INTENTION FOR THIS TLD
As a senior government authority has recently said, “a successful applicant is entrusted with operating a critical piece of global Internet infrastructure.” Donuts’ plan and intent is for this TLD to serve the international community by bringing new users online through opportunities for economic growth, increased productivity, the exchange of ideas and information and greater self-expression.