Logo from the website for Home For The Games, which hopes to raise $750,000 for charities during the 2010 Olympics. (homeforthegames.com)

A new non-profit organization has launched a program to raise money for charities that help the homeless while providing rental housing for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

The organization, called Home For The Games, is an internet-based service listing rental accommodations for people coming to B.C.'s Lower Mainland for the Olympics.

Homeowners who register and rent their homes through the website must agree to donate 50 per cent of what they earn to two local charities.

The idea for Home For The Games was hatched by a group of friends around a kitchen table in Vancouver, according to co-founder Chuck Montgomery.

"We happen to have a couple of spare bedrooms in the house that we thought we can invite people to stay," Montgomery told CBC News Wednesday

"We thought, what if we use the money from the homestay and direct that to charities dealing with homelessness? Not only would we have a terrific Olympic experience with guests from around the world, but we'd be making a different on a problem of concern to all of us."

The organization's goal is to register 1,000 homes and raise $750,000.

The Street to Home Foundation and Covenant House Vancouver are the two organizations that will receive the charitable proceeds from the venture, according to the group's website.