NaNo is free to participate in (yay!), and no one is obliged to make a donation. But keeping the servers functioning and sending out swag to all the regions around the world does cost money.
Perhaps, like me, you find that money is tight this year.
Here's a news article that Chris Baty posted on the site early in October, about ways to help out, even if you're broke:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/node/1005775
I'm going to try the Goodsearch option, as I do a lot of searching while I'm writing.
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Gale . . . www.ThornesQuest.com . . . or . . . www.StringingWords.net
50,979 / 50,000
oct. 23, 2007 - 07 59
I did some trial searches on Goodsearch. It seems as good as Google, which is what I usually use.
One note, though: you have to name the OFFICE OF LETTERS AND LIGHT as your charity of choice. That's NaNo's parent organization (which also sponsors Script Frenzy in the spring).
Each click to search earns 1 cent for NaNo. That may not seem like much, but it'll add up over time, especially if a lot of us do it.