Stop being so diligent
UshopUgive sounded like the perfect, painless way of donating. You'd click the link to any of its featured online shops - including all the big names - buy something, and a couple of per cent of your purchase price would go to your chosen charity. It was the biggest UK site doing this.
Today ushopugive announced it was closing. The retailers were apparently upset that buyers persistently used ushopugive's links, rather than going straight to their sites, and they kept having to shell out their lousy two per cent.
Big charities have problems renegotiating their cut from their branded credit cards too, because it seems that donors are irritatingly on top of their finances and too many of them pay off their monthly bill in full.
So is the solution that we donors stop being so smart, or is something fundamentally wrong with raising funds in these ways?
posted by David Pitchford @ 6:16 PM
10 Comments:
I was just writing about this yesterday after reading about Ippimail. Check out my post at http://www.selfishgiving.com/2006/03/youve_got_money.html
The problem is in part because the "lousy two percent" is in some cases most or all of their profit margin. Retailers are happy to give away some profits from time to time in order boost their brand or even because they genuinely care, but they can't afford to give it away on everything.
Small charities do seem to get penalised!
They can't afford to pay for all the services out there in order to promote themselves and when they do get support it shuts.
I'm hoping that a venture I am working on will benefit all causes.
I was one of the founding members of UshopUgive and was convinced of it's potential to do good. Loads of others were, as well. But here's a few things I learned from Ushop's failure
1) Everyone thought it was such a good idea that everyone else would be using it- and they didn't need to! (Of the thousands that knew of it those we spoke to often said 'I didn't think it needed me')
2) People thought the whole thing was bigger than it actaully was. It was pretty much run by volunteers who gave their time for free because they believed in doing good
3) Some charities were fantastic, some were just dreadful! Lethargic, moribund and simply believed money should be given to them without them doing anything. "Where's our money?!" "Have you told anyone about us?" "No". That kind of thing. Tearfund were just spectacular, though, as a positive example. There were others, as well.
4) Human nature: People SAY they are motivated to help others, but a lot of that is mere sentimentality. Take Greasypalm.co.uk as an illustration of this. Individuals have raised over £2m for themselves through this- because they are the beneficiaries. However, when it comes to benefitting others who are really in need it's another matter. People are far less motivated(Ushop only managed to raise a tiny tiny fraction of this). Talk comes cheap. Action costs.
4) Christians are different. The Christian charities predominantly did better. Christians obviously are more motivated for the good of others. Maybe there is something, there.
5) people don't learn from others: we are still getting contacted regularly by others saying they are going to start up the same thing. When we say "It will be far smaller and harder work than you can ever imagine" invariably they say, "We are going to do it anyway". We started up with a tiny investment (compared to Free2give's almost £5m equivalent!)... ran on an absolute shoestring and volunteer work... worked like crazy... and were not able to make it work long-term. "Dream on!" all of you who are considering starting up, now.
6) Our investors were fantastic. We really did communicate that if they were investing it was for the 'greater good' rather than making a buck (though that might happen as well). They were just fantastic in dealing with the closure. So many have been. Charities and individuals included. We've had loads of good wishes and kind comments.
That's made it all worth while. Those few, and a good number of charities, who are just so thoughtful and aware of the needs of others. Thanks to all of you!
Thanks very much for your illuminating comments. I think it's a real shame ushopugive closed but with all that under your belt I'd bet on your next venture being a success..
>Christians are different.
Perhaps. Perhaps their structures mean they have tighter-knit communities and groups of support.
Otherwise, it's a shame that ushopugive shut. I'll admit to never using it, and I had wondered how the founders had persuaded retailers to continually spend more money per customer.
We like the work that ushopugive started and have launched a similar site, but building on the possible reasons that ushopugive failed.
We beleive that part of the reason the site failed was because there was NO incentive for the user, all the cashback/store commission went to the charities and good causes.
What we do is share the cashback earned with the user who earned it and their favourite charity allowing them to have the additonal option of giving some or all of their own earned cashback to the good cause also. This method gives the user an additional incentive to reuse the site and come back again and again.
We also offer bonus funds of £5 and £2.50 for signing up and referring friends.
To sign up click here www.UShopUCare.co.uk
Kind regards,
UShopUCare Support Team
UShopUCare.co.uk
Email: info@ushopucare.co.uk
Website: www.ushopucare.co.uk
www.UShopUCare.co.uk - Earn Up To 25% Cashback on Your Online Purchases and Donate to Charity at No Cost To You!
We at Give or Take have also opted to be involved with producing a cashback website where users can choose to give their cashback to charity or take it for themselves. We have decided to consider a number of options to keep our members interested and keep them returning and donating, as in the long run this is what it's all about. But choosing to opt to keep their cashback is welcomed and members are never made to feel guilty about taking the cashback for themselves. I believe Give or Take has a different angle on many new ventures that are appearing in the market.
Should anybody want to sign up or discuss anything with us, please feel free to email us at: info@giveortake.com or visit our website www.giveortake.com
I have been reading your article about our failiure to give to charity through cashbacks. Looking at it in the first place, most of us choose to throw away this money by not claiming the cashbacks, from the £50 billion that was spent towards christmas last year I am sure a big percentage of cashbacks were lost in the process.A month ago I signed up for contract lines for me and my wife,,, this translates to at least £50 in cashbacks, we travelled to Africa and bought the tickets through Expedia total cost £2700, This and more show that we at least threw away more than £300 in cashbacks... this money will definately have made a big difference to someone...
Greed, is what makes the whole idea fail, it is when we see the money coming in that we say ... Oh may be I should pay for this or that bill..
I also think there is potential for us to raise money for charity.. through cashbacks.. the site http://www.freecashjunction.com allows you to shop, save and earn cashbacks, it is really entirely up to you if you will give the cashbacks to charity....
http://www.freecashjunction.com
I gather it was exactly the same problems with the charities that ipledge faced, according to the guy who started it all in 1999.
Free2give got 5m investment and that was plain mad. When I asked him how much he spent, he said it was closer to 500.
"K? " I asked
"No. Pounds. I did the whole lot myself"
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