gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.NGO	Public Interest Registry	pir.org	View

PIR is a NGO, and thereby part of the NGO Community. PIR as a NGO has extensive gTLD management experience via the .ORG gTLD. PIR a supporting organization to the Internet Society (ISOC) and is committed to supporting the Internet Society’s (ISOC) mission stated below.

History of PIR’s Relationship to the NGO Community
In January 2003, PIR, assumed responsibility for operating .ORG and maintaining the authoritative database of all .ORG domains.

Created in 1984, .ORG is one of the Internetʹs original seven top-level domains (TLDs), along with .com, .net, etc. Although it is ʺopenʺ and ʺunrestrictedʺ, .ORG has been the domain of choice for organizations dedicated to serving the public interest. The high regard of these well-intentioned organizations was soon conferred to this domain, and today .ORG is considered around the world to be the domain of trust.

Public Interest Registry’s (PIR) primary activity is to maintain the .ORG domain registry as the exemplary top level domain (TLD) registry service, by advocating for higher standards of Internet security, safety and reliability. PIR’s mission is to facilitate the effective use of a global Internet among non-commercial and other Internet users worldwide. In its relationship with the ISOC, (reference Evaluation Questions #9a and #9b), PIR is committed to supporting ISOC’s goals of encouraging the evolution of the Internet as research, education and communication infrastructure equally accessible to the global non-commercial, NGO and nonprofit community. PIR’s activities also include funding educational programs focused on expanding the knowledge and ability of non-commercial, NGO and nonprofit organizations located in technologically deprived areas of the world to more efficiently and effectively use the Internet as a tool to better accomplish their important mission.

The 2003 transition of .ORG from the previous operator to PIR was the largest transfer in Internet history. More than 2.6 million domains were transferred in about a day, without negatively impacting any .ORG registrant or website.

Since 2003, PIR has been connected with NGOs through our management of .ORG, and recently in preparation for our pursuit of the .NGO gTLD domain, we have worked closely with the NGO Community to develop the requirements and specification for the proposed .NGO gTLD.

Current Relationship to the NGO Community
PIR is a strong supporter of NGOs in both a direct role as manager of the .ORG gTLD and through other efforts, including:
• A ʺStrategic and Sponsoring Partnerʺ of NTEN, the Non-Profit Technology Network of 10,000 members and over 30,000 participants in the community, covering 126 countries. NTEN aspires to a world where all nonprofit organizations use technology skillfully and confidently to meet community needs and fulfill their missions.
• Making financial contributions to various organizations, such as the NCUC (Non Commercial Constituency of ICANN) and Centr. For NCUC, annual donations have been in the $5,000 to $15,000 range every year since PIR assumed operations of the .ORG registry.
• In December 2005, PIR sponsored a symposium at the Nelson Mandela Center in Cape Town, South Africa bringing in various Internet leaders in Africa to discuss the needs of the Internet in Africa.
• In response to Hurricane Katrina, in New Orleans, Louisiana, PIR donated $1 for every new create for a limited time. The final donation was over $100,000 to the Red Cross.
• In response to JapanʹsTsunami disaster, a 3 month program was rolled out to waive renewal fees for Japanese domain name holders, in order to help those affected and unable to renew their .ORG domains.

Within the community, there is a wide appreciation of PIR’s role as an advocate of “do good” for the Internet at large, and in many countries around the world there is a general perception that .ORG domains are more trusted than other domains. At the time of application submission, PIR manages nearly 10 million .ORG domains, and is seen to do so in an exemplary way. We are very happy to be judged on this reputation.

PIR has over 500 letters of support from the NGO Community endorsing its application for .NGO. PIR will continue outreach to the community and anticipates receipt of additional support letters from NGOs throughout the ICANN application evaluation process. Specific recognition of PIR’s efforts to support the nonprofit community includes:
• “As a not-for-profit corporation, we believe that being part of the .org domain has done much to reinforce MITRE’s identity as an organization chartered to work in the public interest. [Thanks to PIR’s] continuing work to enhance the .org domain.ʺ - Al Grasso, President and CEO, The MITRE Corporation (the first .ORG registrant).
• “We recognize and applaud PIRʹs long-standing commitment to the non-profit community since taking over the management of .ORG.” - Lisa Vogt, APR, Director of Marketing & Communications, SOS Children’s Villages – USA.

PIR has conducted outreach, worked with established relationships, and developed new types of relationships which will facilitate the delivery of the .NGO domain and related services to the NGO Community. Our discussions and outreach have included NGOs in several countries across Asia, Europe, North America, South America⁄Latin America, and Africa as well as many different segments of the NGO Community to ensure wide acceptance and adoption of our proposed gTLD domain and related services. The segments include but are not limited to agriculture, environment, arts⁄culture, charitable services, human rights, humanitarian, and advocacy for a range of issues affecting societal development.

Accountability to the NGO Community
By offering .NGO as a secure and well-managed domain of trust uniquely for eligible NGOs, PIR believes that NGOs can benefit from the Internet and our specific services as a means to safely and reliably reach out to the community and sponsors. PIR will be accountable to the NGO Community by:
• A NGO Community input process soliciting input from the community through the NGO Advisory Council drawn from the community and accepting a broad range of input to stay current on the issues of importance to the community and manage the NGO verification process;
• Creating and marketing .NGO as a distinctive place on the Internet for NGOs to differentiate and promote their organization;
• Establishing community programs to support capacity building of NGOs with technical and educational platforms;
• Enforcing registration policies that elevate the integrity of the domains in the .NGO gTLD name space, soliciting input from the NGO Community;
• Easing discovery and promotion through the creation, management and promotion of the .NGO gTLD;
• Offering registration from a proven, scalable registry platform that can ensure 100% DNS availability;
• Delivering a challenge process for the NGO Community to dispute the legitimacy of a .NGO registrant or its activity on a .NGO domain; and,
• As a community priority gTLD, PIR is committing to manage the .NGO domain with participation of the community. Failing to do that would put our registry contract in jeopardy.

PIR is in an excellent position to provide such support to the NGO Community given documented experience running a stable and trusted registry. PIR holds a track record demonstrating good intent to the global community by being a leader in activities such as implementation of anti-abuse policies, DNSSEC, active participation in numerous public interest events, etc.

gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.REIT	National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, Inc.	nareit.com	View

i.NAREIT is the worldwide representative voice for REITs and listed real estate companies with an interest in U.S. real estate and capital markets. Its members primarily are REITs and other real estate businesses throughout the world that own, operate and finance commercial and residential real estate. In addition, individuals who advise, study and provide services to the REIT industry also are members.

Specifically, NAREIT’s members include 143 publicly listed REITs representing over 97 percent of the listed U.S. REIT industry’s equity market capitalization, as well as 38 non-listed REITs that represent a significant portion of the value of the public, non-listed U.S. REIT industry. Additionally, NAREIT’s REIT members include major REITs based in Europe and Asia.

NAREIT’s core mission is to preserve, perfect and promote the REIT approach to real estate investment. NAREIT pursues this mission through its three core business activities: public policy representation; research and investor outreach; and industry community-building.

With respect to public policy representation, NAREIT’s mission is to provide information and advice regarding REITs and the REIT industry to policymakers in the legislative, regulatory and financial standards arenas, both in the U.S. and in other countries around the world. The purpose of this activity is to foster a legislative and regulatory environment that enables REITs to operate their businesses efficiently, have access to capital markets, and support the industry’s growth.

The information NAREIT provides to policymakers frequently includes background on the operations of REITs, data and information about the REIT industry, and the role that REITs play in the commercial real estate marketplace and the broader economy. NAREIT also provides policymakers with perspective on how current and prospective tax, regulatory, accounting and trade rules affect or may affect the industry.
In the research and investor outreach area, NAREIT’s mission is to provide the investment community with information to help investors from all walks of life determine how REITs can support their long-term investment goals and strategies. Data gathering and research are key to this activity. Consequently, NAREIT is the primary source and publisher of data about the REIT industry’s size, structure and performance. In partnership with the index company FTSE Group, NAREIT publishes some of the most widely used investment benchmarks for U.S REITs and global listed REITs and real estate companies (in partnership with the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA)). NAREIT also is the leading resource for research on the investment characteristics of REITs and the role of REITs in long-term, diversified investment portfolios.

NAREIT maintains a research and investor outreach staff that functions as a liaison on behalf of the global REIT industry to all cohorts of the investment community, including pension funds, endowments and foundations, defined contribution plan providers and sponsors, investment consultants, financial advisors and others, providing each of them with timely and useful information relevant to their investment activities. NAREIT also conducts major investor forums on REIT investment; maintains the industry’s leading web site, REIT.com, and its primary investor publication, REIT Magazine; and maintains active relationships with financial media who cover the REIT industry.

NAREIT supports community-building within the REIT industry by conducting an ongoing series of conferences and other events at which REIT management teams share their knowledge, experience and best practices with investors, analysts and each other. A number of NAREIT’s conference events are specific to professional disciplines within REITs, such as law, accounting, investment, finance, human resources, and others.

NAREIT’s community-building programs in support of the industry also include a variety of electronic newsletters and information sharing forums designed to keep REIT employees in a variety of disciplines aware of the latest developments impacting their companies.

ii. As noted, NAREIT’s members primarily include REITs, mostly REITs in the U.S. but also REITs in other countries. Thus, NAREIT works actively as appropriate to establish and support a uniform and comprehensive understanding of REITs by investors and policymakers worldwide in part through the compatibility, if not uniformity, of the laws, regulations and policies affecting REITs around the world.
Because many of NAREIT’s non-U.S. members also are members of other representative organizations in their respective countries, NAREIT works cooperatively from time to time with many of these representative organizations in pursuit of compatibility, if not uniformity, of legislation, trade rules, accounting standards and investment guidelines affecting the global REIT community. These organizations include but are not limited to: the Association for Real Estate Securitization (Japan), the British Property Federation, the European Public Real Estate Association, the Property Council of Australia, the Asia Pacific Real Estate Association, and the Real Property Association of Canada.

To facilitate the cooperative activities between and among these various representative organizations, NAREIT has joined with these organizations to form the Real Estate Equity Securitization Alliance (REESA), a forum for the sharing and coordination of global industry policy, research and investor outreach activities.

iii. NAREIT is accountable to both member and nonmember REITs in the United States and around the globe. Its accountability begins with its governance, through quorum voting requirements, an Executive Board, a Board of Governors and a Governance Committee.

NAREIT’s Executive Board is its policy and steering body, responsible for NAREIT’s long-range planning, its financial budgets and investments, and its public policy positions and statements. The Executive Board consists of fifteen individuals acting as CEOs of REITs and publicly traded real estate companies nominated by the Governance Committee and elected by NAREIT’s REIT members. Its Board of Governors is the advisory body to the Executive Board and consists of REIT CEOs recognized for their leadership and management skills. NAREITʹs Governance Committee develops procedures and membership eligibility criteria, with Executive Board approval, and lists of proposed candidates for nomination and election by all NAREIT corporate members to fill seats on the Executive Board, as well as for appointment to the Board of Governors and other roles within the organization. In short, NAREIT is accountable to the REIT community because its membership and leadership are composed of members of the REIT community.

NAREITʹs accountability to the global REIT community is derived in part from its active membership in REESA as described above. Accountability also is ensured, as discussed further in the answer to question 20(e) below, through adoption and implementation of a community enforcement policy for third parties to challenge .reit registrations on the grounds that the applicant does not meet the community eligibility criteria, as well as adoption and implementation of an eligibility reconsideration policy for members of the international REIT community who have failed to satisfy the community eligibility criteria in prior registration requests.