Type a key word into Google, and the Internet search giant directs you to relevant Web sites, even as it directs billions of dollars of revenue into its own bank account.

Type a key word into GoodSearch.com, however, and a favorite charity gets a portion of the revenue.

GoodSearch.com is a year-old search engine that donates about a penny per search to the user’s designated charity. That doesn’t sound like much, but cofounder Kenneth Ramberg of Los Angeles says that given the number of searches performed in a year, revenues can compound quickly.

Ramberg says that more than 21,000 charities and schools are currently listed on the site, and 100 new nonprofits sign up daily.

They include Bnai Keshet in Montclair, the first local synagogue to enroll in GoodSearch. It was a “brainless” decision, said Jean Folsom, copresident of the Reconstructionist synagogue with her husband, Andrew Glassman.

Beginning in August, BK — which has about 250 member families — earned 43 cents; by early November, that number has grown two hundredfold.

“The beauty for us is that I’m always looking for ways to diversify our revenue streams,” said Folsom, “and this is a form of passive fund-raising, for people who want to support a nonprofit organization but might not have the dollars to give.”

Folsom said she tested the site before approaching her board with the idea.

“It was extremely easy. I wanted to be cautious at first. Any time you ask people to use the Internet, you want to be really careful,” she said. “The results were just as good if not better than the ones I got from Google.”

Folsom said that within about 15 minutes after sending an e-mail to BK’s members asking them to use GoodSearch, the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation of New York/New Jersey forwarded her message to other JRF congregations, urging them to take advantage of the program.

Synagogues are not the only Jewish organizations to reap the benefits of using GoodSearch.

Anita Millman, director of development at Jewish Family Service of MetroWest in Florham Park, learned about GoodSearch from a newspaper article. After her own tryout, she started spreading the word.

“We’re now in the process of informing our board and our supports about the opportunity to support [our] agency through a click of a button by [using] GoodSearch,” she said.

JFS is in the process of reconstructing its Web site, and Millman said the agency would consider making GoodSearch its default search engine.

“As far as I know, there are other fund-raising tools available on the Web, and I think a lot of agencies and nonprofits in particular are starting to do research on how they connect with the bigger world out there for fund-raising opportunities,” Millman said.

According to an article on Searchjournal.com, search engines took in more than $6 billion in advertising revenues in 2005. This year, Google’s third-quarter revenues reached $2.69 billion, Yahoo’s, $1.58 billion. Ramberg and his sister, J.J., whose mother was a cancer victim, wondered about the impact if even a fraction of that money was diverted to charity.

They officially launched GoodSearch in October after a “beta testing” period. The site is powered by Yahoo, the second-most popular search engine. It features a field where visitors enter their nonprofit or educational institution of choice.

“We know there are a lot of people who want to do good but may not have the time or the money to help out,” said Ramberg in an e-mail to NJ Jewish News. “[We make] it as easy as possible. We’ve taken something people do every day — searching the Internet — and have turned it into doing good.”