Like Charitable Giving to Any Business

This Startup Brings ‘Amazon Smile’-Like Charitable Giving to Any Business
A new Chicago startup wants to let any e-commerce brand offer a way for customers to donate to worthy causes simply by making a purchase.
ShoppingGives turns e-commerce checkouts into microgiving platforms by letting jewelry dropshippers easily select charities to donate to while they’re shopping. Through the startup’s website, users can select from numerous brands like Walmart, Home Depot, Best Buy and Target, choose one of the partnering non-profits available to donate to, and then get directed to the brand’s website where a percentage of each transaction is donated to the charity.
For example, if you wanted to buy Halloween candy on Target.com and donate to the YMCA, you could go to ShoppingGives, select Target, choose the YMCA as your non-profit, then make your purchase on Target.com, which would give 1% of the order total to the organization.
It’s a similar program to Amazon Smile, which donates 0.5% of your purchases on Amazon to a charity of your choice. Users just have to begin their Amazon shopping at smile.amazon.com and a donation is given by Amazon to the cause that’s important to you.
ShoppingGives’ marketplace launched late last year, but in June it built an even easier way for shoppers and brands to give back. Through its new Change Commerce tool, companies can integrate charitable giving directly into the checkout process. ShoppingGives lets brands launch donation buttons within their checkout pages, allowing customers to choose causes to donate to without having to navigate to the ShoppingGives website.
“We’re enabling retailers to connect with their customers in an authentic way, and provide the customer an opportunity to give back to the causes that they care about most,” said founder and CEO Ronny Sage.
Brands using the Change Commerce tool include fashion retailer White & Warren and wearable maker Motiv.
For the shopper, the incentive is simple—use ShoppingGives to donate to important causes each time you buy something online. For brands, it’s a chance to increase customer loyalty and engagement at a time where online shoppers are flocking to Amazon and other large retailers.
ShoppingGives has around 10 brands using its Change Commerce tool, and expects to have around 20 by the beginning of next year. Sage said the company is currently raising a seed round of funding.
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