Plenty of companies advertise how their product can help the world in some way. Firms sometimes brag about using recyclable materials or the charities they donate to. Even if I think the company is doing it for publicity reasons, the donations still help a good cause, so I approve. Well, now Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has designed a creative way of drawing in customers and sending out donations.

The program, called i'm (think instant messaging), donates a portion of the ad revenue that Microsoft receives each time you use Windows Live Messenger or Windows Live Hotmail. So just by using its services the user can give to a worthy cause. Since March of last year, this service has raised over $1.5 million in ad revenue for charity.

Starting June 23, the initiative is hosting the i'mtalkathon (read the disclaimer at the bottom). It's "30 days of e-mailing and IMing for the common cause." The intention is to get people who stumble upon the 'blog' to go and sign up for one of the offered services. Surely, this will help raise money for charities as well as Microsoft.

The best part is that there is no cap on how much Microsoft will donate, so each time you use the service you can count on some money going to the cause of your choice. What are your choices? There is a moderate selection of charities like The American Red Cross, Sierra Club, and others. To join in, simply go here and sign up for one or both of the two services. Then you get to select the charity you would like the money to go to and you're all set.

It's clear that Microsoft has many new customers to gain, and presumably ad revenue too, since only a portion will go to charity. This should help it compete with other online services that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) offers, like Gmail. It will even help soften the evil image that Microsoft seems to have. Although, the company has been charitable before and some people still seem to hate it.

Overall, I think it is a great idea to sign up, as long as it really is helping others out, as the $1.5 million indicates. The only thing I want to know is what percentage of the revenue $1.5 million represents.

Brendan Cleary does not hold positions in any of the stocks mentioned above.