- How much of my money goes to charity?
- Am I actually shopping here or at my brand-name stores?
- Can I trust that my money is getting donated appropriately?
- How do you choose your products?
- How do you choose your charities?
- Which charity does my money go to?
- What are your charity-recommeded products?
- What if I click on a product link on your site, but then decide NOT
to buy that
product, but I buy something else instead. Will that trigger a donation?
- Is my donation tax-deductible?
- What is your return policy?
- What is your shipping policy?
It's very simple: we donate at least 10% of our proceeds to charity, and our proceeds are made
up of our sales commissions. These commissions are usually not fixed: there are different percentages for
different products, and they often vary based on our volume of sales. So although we cannot
tell you the exact dollar amount of how much of your money goes to charity, we can tell you that
at least 10% of any money we make from any product you buy will go to charity.
Here are some sample transactions:
SAMPLE 1:
You buy a sweater for $50. Our commission is $4, so at least 40 cents get donated.
SAMPLE 2:
You download a trial version of software for free. Our commission is $7, so at least 70 cents get donated.
SAMPLE 3:
You buy an iPod for $400. Our commission is $16, so at least $1.60 cents get donated.
In those rare instances when we know the exact dollar amount that will get donated, we make note of
it on the product listing. And don't forget, none of our prices are inflated: these are the same prices you
would regularly pay. The only difference is that when you start from a link on our site, money gets donated!
You are actually shopping at your brand-name stores. You get all the benefits you're accustomed to: the
names you trust, the products you love, the free-shipping deals, and the great customer service--
you just click on a link at Shop for Charity to get there.
Shop for Charity makes a donation to each of its charities twice a year, starting in January 2008. As we grow our business,
we will post information on our web site documenting our contributions. Until then, please feel free to check in
with our current charities directly to see how we're doing--we are currently in the process of developing
relationships with them so that we can maximize our fund-raising efforts.
Our favorite part of the job! Here's what we do: we either look up items
online that we already have and love, or we go searching for really cool stuff, check it out, and then put it on the
web site.
In all of our varied careers, we've never been great salespeople: we just don't have it in us to get excited about
something we're just not excited about. But what we're doing here isn't selling; it's more like a chance to
spread the wealth. A way of saying: "Hey, we tried this and it's great--you should check it out." Every item's
description highlights our own personal experience with the product and the reason we chose to include it.
As is the pattern with Shop for Charity, our personal experience determines many of our choices.
Since our son has mild autism, we chose Autism Speaks. Since we're members of the New York theatre
community, we chose Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids. But we didn't stop there. We thoroughly
researched many other charities and came up with ten that we'd like to start with. These organizations all
serve vital roles in their communities: some are local, some are national and international, but they all get high
marks for taking their donations seriously and making sure the money goes where it's needed.
That's up to you. Simply choose the charity you want from the provided list, and you will get a message
confirming your charity choice. After that, click on any product or store link or ad on our site (and buy
something, of course), and your
chosen charity will benefit. And you can change your charity at any time. Whichever charity is
selected in the pull-down menu when you click on our product or store link or ad is the charity that
will benefit from that purchase.
Certain products complement our charities so nicely that we feel a need to feature them.
Simply click on the floating "Charities" menu on the left OR click on any charity on the bottom
navigation bar, and you'll see all the recommended products for that charity. Want to support
Greenpeace? How about some funky recycled products? Want to support Autism Speaks? Our experience with our
son (who was diagnosed at 18-months-old) makes us keenly qualified to recommend books and toys to
others who are struggling through therpay sessions. Want to
support Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids? You might want to download a soundtrack from iTunes.
We also like to piggyback on other charitable promotions by featuring products that involve a donation
in addition to Shop for Charity's donation. This enables you to take advantage of both web sites'
charitable promotions: ours and theirs!
As long as you click on a store or product link from our site, ANY purchase will trigger a donation.
If you link from us to a $20 recommended product, and then put $700 of extra merchandise in your cart
before you make your purchase, then the donation will be based on $720. And if you remove the $20
recommended product from your cart and THEN make the purchase, it will still trigger a donation
based on $700. As long as your purchase originates from our site, every dollar counts—so fill up
your shopping carts!
Sorry, but Shop for Charity technically makes the donation--
you simply buy the goods for the same price you would pay without the donation.
We don't have a return policy because you're not shopping with us--you're shopping with our partners, your
favorite brand-name merchants. Their return policies apply.
We don't have a shipping policy because you're not shopping with us--you're shopping with our partners, your
favorite brand-name merchants. Their shipping policies apply.
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