This article continues our exploration of online fundraising tools and techniques with a discussion of two increasingly popular (and closely related) concepts: e-commerce "affiliate programs" and "charity shopping portals." Many e-commerce merchants--such as Amazon.com--have affiliate programs through which nonprofits can earn money for referring customers to the merchant from their Web site. Charity shopping portals aggregate a number of merchants into a single site, allowing the donor/shopper to choose from a wider variety of online stores, and passing commissions from the vendors through to the nonprofit.

Like all online fundraising techniques, e-commerce affiliate programs and charity shopping portals are a supplement to your current bag of fundraising tricks, not a replacement for any of them. These are brand new tools, and while their potential upside is vast, their track record is still unproven. Also bear in mind that these programs are first and foremost marketing tools for the online merchants, whose primary business challenges are recruiting new customers and retaining existing ones. To a greater or lesser degree, these programs are attempting to leverage your organization's good name in order to market their products.

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Bookseller Affiliate Programs
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A number of e-commerce merchants offer nonprofit affiliate programs. Affiliate programs from online bookstores seem especially relevant to environmental nonprofits, as many of us already publish and promote various books that address our issues. Two online bookseller affiliate programs of particular relevance to health care reform groups (and nonprofits more generally) are those offered by e-commerce giant Amazon.com, and Portland-based mega-indie-bookstore Powells.com. Both allow nonprofits to sign up online, and allow you to earn rebates (generally from 5-15%) on merchandise that Web surfers buy through links on your Web site.

Typically, groups will take advantage of these programs to create "online bookstores" on their Web sites. Generally, they feature books that the nonprofit has created, published, or perhaps just reviewed on their Web site or in their newsletter. Two excellent examples of online bookstores from environmental groups are The Orion Society's (via Amazon.com) and Tidepool's (via Powells).

http://www.orionsociety.org/bookstore.html
http://www.tidepool.org/books/

Amazon's "Associates Program" includes books, as well as much of the other merchandise Amazon offers via their Web site. The amount of the rebate your organization receives varies from 15% on most books to 5% on items other than books, and books that are either undiscounted or heavily discounted. Amazon's Affiliate Program allows you to place links to individual items, a "search box" for the entire Amazon site, or a link to the Amazon home page.

Amazon sends checks quarterly, but only if the amount of the rebate is at least $100.00. If the amount of the rebate is less than $100.00, the balance rolls forward until you've accrued at least $100.00.

Powell's "Partnership Program" offers a flat 10% rebate on all items. Like Amazon, Powell's also offers the option to link to individual items, a "search box," and a link to the Powell's home page. Powell's also offers expert assistance in designing your organization's online bookstore.

Also like Amazon, Powell's will pays commissions on a quarterly basis, but will not send a check until/unless the amount is at least $100.00.

For more information booksellers' affiliate programs, see:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/associates/join/associates.html
Powells: http://www.powells.com/partners/partners.html

As always, read the fine print carefully before plunging in.

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Charity Shopping Portals
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Charity shopping portals group together a number of e-commerce vendors into a single Web site, and your organization earns a percentage of all sales made by visitors to the portal who select your organization as their beneficiary. The portal sites are "bounty hunters" who are paid a commission by the e-commerce vendors, and pass some of that along to you in exchange for your help in driving traffic to their site (and thus to the vendors). Nonprofit charity shopping portals are popping up faster than mushrooms after a spring rainstorm, but we've taken a close look at two that may be appropriate for many reform groups: iGive and GreaterGood.

Generically, charity shopping portals work like this: Your organization signs an agreement or fills out registration information with the portal site. You begin to promote the site to your audience (members, etc.) Your members shop by visiting the portal site and clicking through to online merchants, and your organization receives a percentage purchases made by your members. The percentage your organization earns varies by vendor. Typically, it ranges from 5-15%. The most well-known vendors tend to offer lower rebates, and less-well-known vendors higher rebates--this is a marketing tool, after all!

Both iGive and GreaterGood are appropriate for many small nonprofits, and are quite similar in their basic operation. However, there are a few small differences that may be significant to your organization, and of which you should be aware.

GreaterGood is perhaps the largest charity shopping portal, and has a wide selection of major online vendors. GreaterGood has marketed itself quite heavily, and we've found through focus group work that awareness of GreaterGood is already high among Seattle-area high-tech folks. (GreaterGood is based in Seattle.) GreaterGood has also attracted a fair amount of media attention through its recent "Hunger Site" and "Rainforest Site" promotions. iGive's selection of vendors is also large, but their name recognition is lower. Both portals offer many major online retailers, but each offers some vendors that the other doesn't.

GreaterGood requires your organization to sign a relatively simple agreement. iGive requires no signed agreement. In fact, your members can begin directing revenue to you without your group having to do any registration at all! GreaterGood requires your organization to place a graphical hyperlink to GreaterGood on the home page of your Web site, but is willing to be very flexible about this "requirement." iGive doesn't require to place a link on your home page, but of course you can choose to do so.

iGive has a clever "Six Degrees of iGive" referral system that allows you to earn $1 per person who you refer to iGive, and $1 per person that those folks refer, all the way out to six degrees of separation. iGive will also give your organization $10 for every person that signs up on behalf of your group, and makes a purchase within 45 days. Folks can register with iGive to benefit your organization simply by clicking on a customized hyperlink that you can embed in an email message. For example, you can join iGive to benefit USHCR at:

http://www.iGive.com/html/refer.cfm?memberid=134188&causeid=9205 .

GreaterGood does not require individual shoppers to register, does allow users to register in order to remember your preferred charity. GreaterGood offers a $3 bonus for new shoppers that signup in your "shopping village." 

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Recommendations
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We recommend that you register your organization with GreaterGood and with iGive, and with as many other major charity portals as you have the staff time and energy for. Being listed can only help you, and can't hurt. 

However, simply being listed with one or more charity shopping portals is unlikely to generate substantial revenue for your organization. You'll have to do some focused outreach to your members and supporters in order to drive users to the portal. Thus, we recommend that you pick *one* portal around which to focus your outreach efforts.

Which portal should you choose to focus your outreach efforts upon? That depends on you and your members. iGive is extremely easy to set up, but slightly harder to use. GreaterGood already has relatively high name recognition, which could be a benefit to outreach efforts. Also, it's Web site is a bit more polished than iGive's. On the other hand, iGive offers slightly more generous commissions (on average), and its signup and referral bonuses can add up quickly. USHCR is currently conducting some test marketing with both, and we'll follow up in a future article with our findings.

                                                                                                         06/29/2001

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