DomainSafe is managed and operated on a part-time basis by a team of volunteer personnel and is supported by a number of generous sponsors who donate a variety of domain name registration and web hosting services.

DomainSafe was originally established in September 2007 by Thomas Heaton - a former professional event organiser, who had the unfortunate experience of allowing the domain name of an academic conference to expire.

The domain name had been originally registered to host a website promoting a medical conference held in association with a prominent Australian university. The conference had long since been concluded and the associated website was no longer required, hence the domain name was not renewed and was allowed to expire.

Upon expiry, the domain name was immediately acquired by a 'cybersquatter' who subsequently set up a new website advertising a range of pharmacy-related products via a host of intrusive pop-up advertisements.

Since the domain name had been allowed to expire by the original registrant, there was no legal recourse to allow it to be recovered from the new owner.

Following this experience, DomainSafe was established to provide event organisers with a free, long-term management solution for 'unwanted', expiring domain names associated with academic and professional events.

Since its inception, DomainSafe has successfully safeguarded the unwanted domain names of over 500 events worldwide on behalf of a wide range of academic and professional organisations.