With just a few extra clicks, your online holiday shopping can help fight poverty in Somerville. The Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS), which works to alleviate poverty in our city, can get a donation every time you make a purchase at more than 1,600 online retailers. All you have to do is shop via the Internet shopping portal GoodShop.com—and it's easy to do.

Just go to the GoodShop.com website, choose The Community Action Agency of Somerville as the nonprofit you "goodshop" for, and then click-through to your favorite retailer, such as Amazon, Target, Apple, Macy's, and Best Buy. The prices are the same. The difference is that GoodShop will donate 3 to 20 percent of the sales price to the agency.

The need is pressing.

Agency spokesman Dennis Fischman explained that donations are urgently needed so that the nonprofit "can use the money where it's needed the most right now."

Demand for the antipoverty agency's services has been rising since the start of the economic downturn. It is busy helping unemployed and underemployed residents avoid eviction, train for new jobs, and apply for needed services like SNAP/food stamps benefits. Read our full story here.

In short, the agency needs your support so that it can offer others its support. 

You can also help the agency by searching with GoodSearch too.

"For every search conducted on the GoodSearch.com search engine, approximately one penny is donated to your favorite charity," explained Fischman in a statement. "Use it exactly like any other search engine, but with GoodSearch, the pennies add up quickly. Just 500 people searching four times a day will earn approximately $7,300 a year for CAAS."

To get started:

1.   Go to Goodshop.com

2.   In the second box from the top of the page, look for the question "Who do you GoodShop for?"

3.   Just below that, enter Community Action Agency of Somerville. (Just copy and paste the name from here.)

4.   Click Verify, and you'll be ready to search or shop to benefit CAAS. Of course, you can always donate to CAAS directly, too. 

5.   To search, go to Goodsearch.com.