AlertNet attracts upwards of ten million users a year, has a network of 400 contributing humanitarian organizations and its weekly email digest is received by more than 26,000 readers.

It was started in 1997 by Reuters Foundation - an educational and humanitarian trust - to place Reuters' core skills of speed, accuracy and freedom from bias at the service of the humanitarian community.

AlertNet has won a Popular Communication award for technological innovation, a NetMedia European Online Journalism Award for its coverage of natural disasters and has been named a Millennium Product by the British Government -- an award for outstanding applications of innovative technologies.