The mission and purpose of this TLD is to expand consumer choice by providing a clear namespace associated with agent identifier, but also doubles for help, assistance and support. Registrants may include individuals and organizations providing or seeking assistance.
The applied-for gTLD is sustainable because the need to coordinate and access support is enduring. The gTLD is not dependent on a single industry, technology, or business model and can accommodate evolving uses as technology and Internet activity develop.
Applicant designated Identity Digital as the RSP. Identity Digital enjoys a reputation of excellence as a domain name industry contributor and innovator. Applicant, along with Identity Digital’s team, will support this purpose through reliable registry operations, appropriate security and abuse-mitigation measures, transparent registration policies, and compliance with applicable ICANN requirements.
We are committed to the successful expansion of the Internet, the secure operation of the DNS, and the creation of a new segment of the web that will be admired and respected.
The mission and purpose of the applied-for .aid gTLD is to provide a namespace for help: the organisations, services, and products whose work is assisting people. "Aid" is a short, serious English word that names an entire sector, humanitarian and development aid, and at the same time forms some of the most established compounds in everyday life: first aid, legal aid, financial aid, mutual aid, hearing aid, sleep aid, study aid, teaching aid. This compound pattern gives the string an unusual property: a name placed before .aid spells out a real English term, so the address reads as the product or service's own category name. Across every use the meaning is constant and immediately understood: help for someone who needs it. Intended registrants include humanitarian, development, and relief organisations, from international agencies to local charities, running programmes, appeals, and operations, organisers of benefit events and fundraising campaigns, for which naming a cause followed by "aid" has been a familiar convention for decades, mutual aid networks and community support groups, first aid training providers and certification bodies, legal aid services and pro bono initiatives, financial and student aid services and information resources, makers of consumer health products sold as aids, such as sleep and digestive aids, providers of assistive products and technologies, from hearing and mobility aids to accessibility software, makers of study, memory, and learning aids, including the growing family of intelligent software assistants whose function is precisely to aid writing, coding, and studying, and the fundraising, logistics, and coordination services that support the aid sector. Registrations may be used for organisation and programme sites, appeal, benefit event, and donation pages, operational and coordination platforms for relief work, training and certification services, information resources on accessing legal, financial, or student aid, product sites whose address matches their category name, assistive technology and accessibility services, and community support presences. The purpose is sustainable because the need for help, and the organised response to it, is a permanent feature of the world: the humanitarian and development sector is long established and continually active, communities keep forming new support networks, first aid training renews on fixed cycles, consumer and assistive aid products serve everyday needs and populations that grow as societies age, and each new generation of tools, most recently intelligent assistants, adopts the language of aiding its users, together supporting a broad and continuing base of legitimate registrants over time.
CyberPeace is a nonprofit focused on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) undertakings, by uniting expertise, experiences, capacity and intent across a broad spectrum of institutions, disciplines and cultures against cybercrime. In alignment with CyberPeace’s mission to promote the development of the Internet, the .aid gTLD is intended to be an open general-purpose domain.
The word “aid” is mainly understood as assistance or support received or provided through the provisioning of resources or tools, and the concept of the .aid TLD embraces all types of aid, including, for example hearing aid, foreign aid, humanitarian aid, as well as other types of assistive support, services and systems.
As a gTLD, the .aid domain intends to be open for registration from any individual, aid giving institutions, aid recipients, and any organization, community, group, network or initiative.
While the .aid registry intends for the main registrant audience to be from the aid giving and receiving institutions, including corporate financial aid provided for emergency relief, scholarships, etc., and assistive technologies that provide aid, other incidental and creative uses for the .aid domain will be welcome, for example merm.aid, afores.aid, prep.aid, or even to denote AI Agent ID. None of these usage should cause harm to the security and stability of the DNS besides reinforcing that it is unlikely that an average user would confer undue trust to a .aid domain than s/he would otherwise consider, for example a .org domain.
Nevertheless, as a precautionary measure, especially to address emergency aid concerns when donors and aid seekers may be more emotionally distressed, the .aid registry will propose to include the Safeguard PICs Framework for String Group Category 1, and will include a provision in the Registry-Registrar Agreements requiring registrars to include in their Registration Agreements a provision requiring registrants to comply with all applicable laws, including those that relate to privacy, data collection, consumer protection, including in relation to misleading and deceptive conduct (Safeguard PIC 1); requiring registrars at the time of registration to notify registrants of the requirement to comply with all applicable laws (Safeguard PIC 2); and, to include a provision requiring that registrants who collect and maintain sensitive health and financial data implement reasonable and appropriate security measures commensurate with the offering of those services, as defined by applicable law. (Safeguard PIC 3) See responses to Q170 & Q171.
PIR operates .ORG and the broader .ORG Family of Domains, including .CHARITY, .FOUNDATION, .GIVES, .GIVING, .NGO, and .ONG in accordance with our nonprofit mission. The mission and purpose of this TLD and all of our other TLDs is to provide trusted digital identities to nonprofits and mission-driven individuals and organizations worldwide. For decades, .ORG has been associated with credibility and public trust, a reputation built and sustained through PIR’s consistent stewardship and commitment to serving the public interest. Expanding the .ORG Family of Domains to provide additional consumer choice builds on that foundation.
1. Mission and Purpose of the Applied-for gTLD
.aid gives organizations whose core work is helping others a naming layer that says exactly what they do at first glance. A web address ending in .aid signals relief, generosity, and support before a visitor reads a single word of content, which matters when trust and clarity decide whether someone donates, volunteers, or seeks help. A disaster-response group can stand up a campaign address that is short and easy to share across appeals. A mutual-aid network can claim a name that reflects its purpose without competing for crowded generic real estate. A foundation can separate its grant programs under memorable, self-explanatory addresses. In each case, the domain works as both a destination and a statement of mission.
.aid is positioned as a digital identity layer for the assistance economy, not as a tool or service that performs relief work itself. It helps organizations create a recognizable presence, makes giving and receiving channels easier to find, and lets coalitions of partners gather around a shared and instantly understood idea. The purpose is to make help easier to locate, easier to trust, and easier to act on, turning a name into a clear invitation to support a cause.
Intended Registrants: Humanitarian organizations, nonprofits, relief agencies, charitable foundations, disaster-response groups, mutual-aid networks, grant-making bodies, and social enterprises that mobilize or distribute assistance.
Related Activities Supporting the Purpose:
• Awareness-building campaigns timed to relief appeals and giving seasons
• Registrar distribution to reach nonprofit and humanitarian segments
• Registrant education on building clear, recognizable web addresses
• Community outreach to relief networks, foundations, and grant bodies
• Responsible registry operations consistent with general policy
2. Sustainability of the Purpose Over Time
The enduring relevance of .aid rests on the economics of assistance: the continuous flow of money, goods, and services from those who can give to those who need. This is not a passing trend. Global giving, philanthropy, disaster relief, and humanitarian funding form a durable and structured economic sector with established donors, grant cycles, regulatory frameworks, and professional institutions. Resources are raised, allocated, and accounted for year after year, regardless of which platforms or technologies carry the transactions.
Demand for assistance is structurally persistent. Crises, whether sudden or chronic, generate recurring funding appeals, and the institutions built to respond to them are permanent fixtures of civil society and government policy. As long as wealth is unevenly distributed and shocks occur, capital will move toward relief, and the organizations that direct that capital will need clear ways to be found, understood, and trusted.
What makes .aid specifically durable is that "aid" names an economic function, not a method. The channels evolve, but the underlying activity (mobilizing resources to meet need) remains constant. A relief agency in any decade still must attract donors, distribute funds, coordinate partners, and report on impact. Each of those activities benefits from an unambiguous identity that communicates purpose at the point of contact.
The string also carries built-in defensibility within a registry portfolio. It is narrow enough to belong to the assistance and giving sector rather than blending into broad community or charity naming, yet broad enough to span emergency relief, development funding, mutual aid, and grant-making. That focus keeps it relevant as new forms of giving emerge, from local solidarity networks to large institutional funding, without diluting its meaning.
The value of .aid is anchored to the lasting economics of generosity and relief rather than to any single technology, it remains meaningful even if the way people transact, communicate, or organize changes substantially.