Ask.com Supports Autism Speaks

As you probably know by now, April is Autism Awareness Month.

But you may not know that autism is diagnosed in one out of every 150 children in the U.S., and it affects boys at a rate four times more than girls.

Most sobering of all, autism has grown tenfold in the past decade.

It’s an illness that strikes at a child’s brain, limiting and disrupting their ability to communicate, affecting their personal relationships, and causing behavioral challenges for millions of parents.

This week we’ve introduced a charitable project to raise funds and awareness for a remarkable organization called Autism Speaks. Founded only four years ago by Suzanne and Bob Wright after their grandson Christian was diagnosed with autism, Autism Speaks is now the nation's largest autism science and advocacy organization, dedicated to funding research into the causes, prevention, treatments and a cure for autism. You can learn more at www.AutismSpeaks.org.

What’s unique about this project is that consumers don’t have to spend a dime to help. Simply using the Ask.com homepage Skins designed especially for this initiative generates donations. The way it works is this: every week this month, Ask is featuring a special homepage designed to educate consumers about autism. We donate $.50 to Autism Speaks for every new user who chooses an Autism Speaks Skin as their Ask.com homepage design.

These heart-warming Skins feature photos of children with autism, as well as original artwork by Andrew Bianchi, a 10-year old boy with autism from New York. The Skins display a series of questions that challenge consumers’ understanding of autism; for each correctly answered question, Ask donates another $.01 to Autism Speaks. Consumers can use Ask.com at any time to find the answer to a question, and simply answering a question correctly is counted towards the total donation amount. Ask.com is promoting this special program directly on the Ask.com homepage several days throughout the month of April, as well as in the Ask.com Skins Gallery at www.ask.com/skins.

It’s that simple. A few clicks can make a difference toward finding a cure for autism and advocating for the needs of individuals with autism and their families. We hope you’ll share our project with your friends and family and encourage them to get involved. 

Thanks for reading.
Robbie Waeschenfelder, Senior Marketing Manager