| If you love excersise or just like looking good then you’ll love this fantastic chance to win an amazing £200 to spend at NikeStoreSo if you fancy designing your very own trainers, need some new dance gear or the perfect gift, simply visit Nike via TheGivingMachine for your chance to win.
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| ♥Fun Friday♥ is back!
Spabreaks.com have a luxurious day of pampering and pure indulgence worth £150 to give away. This fantastic treat would make the perfect raffle prize or a fabulous gift for someone special. Simply visit Spabreaks.com via TheGivingMachine for your chance to win.
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In preparing for my talk as part of TEDxCCN (see video here), I was doing some research from a shop’s perspective and thought I’d share the results.
In 2011, over 14,000 people decided to make over 130,000 purchases from Amazon via TheGivingMachine worth over £2m is sales.
That generated a corresponding 130,000 donations worth £70,000 for 3,000 different charities and schools all over the UK that didn’t cost anyone a penny extra to give.
This £70,000 makes a huge difference to community organisations. I’m also a trustee of East Herts YMCA in Bishop’s Stortford where I live. Most of the charity income is restricted for specific uses. Income via TheGivingMachine is unrestricted and keeps flowing in. Even a small amount of money like £100 can enable East Herts YMCA to fund a trip or sports event to build feelings of social inclusion, have fun, build an identity of ‘belonging’ and, hopefully, contribution through teamwork.
But the financial outcome of £70,000 is only part of the story – surveys show that giving makes us happier and our own recent survey indicated that over 80% of respondents think more positively about the shops they buy from via TheGivingMachine.
The end result:
It makes shops like Amazon amazing. Jeffrey Bezos and his Board and everyone at Amazon should be delighted about this real corporate social responsibility initiative they are part of. And they are not alone. It makes all of the shops involved with TheGivingMachine amazing.
Is this a new business model – a giving business model? One that works on a commercial level as well as having social impact too?
I think the numbers speak for themselves – exciting times ahead!
Richard
posted in Charity News & Events, Giver News & Events, School News & Events | Leave a comment
Today, I will be speaking as part of the TEDx event at the City College Norwich. The theme is Social Enterprise and Philanthropy and I’ll be sharing the platform with Charley Johnson, John P Morgan and Robert Ashton.
I’ll be talking about how TheGivingMachine came about and more importantly what the experience so far demonstrates in terms of a great opportunity to reduce the barriers to giving more to the causes that matter to us.
As part of my slot, I’ll be inviting audience members to get involved and share their experience on this blog or via our Facebook Page.
I’ll update this blog with the links as they become available.
Richard
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Thanks to everyone who completed our March 2012 short survey. I’m starting a series of short blogs to answer the comments raised.
Firstly, thank you for the many positive comments that were received – it’s great to know that you like the service and how it helps that causes that you support. Onto the other comments…
Sometimes, I don’t remember to use TheGivingMachine
We’re always trying to make it easier to remember every time you shop online. Right now there is a toolbar that works in Firefox, Internet Explorer and Chrome too. Just download it and install to get an easy to access shopping link right in your browser. We’ll be upgrading the toolbar soon with even more features to help you.
We are also testing a phone app and look forward to haring that with you soon as well.
There are a few shops that I buy from that are not part of TheGivingMachine
Please do let us know if there are shops that you would like us to work with. We’ll look into it for you and see if we can do that. At the moment, we’re dependent on them having implemented certain technologies and then wanting to work with us. We may ask for your help sometimes in letting the shops know how many of you would like to support their schools and charities via TheGivingMachine.
The donation takes a long time to process and I would like to know every time a payment is made to my choice for the donation so I can check they receive it as currently, I have no idea!
This is always going to be an issue for us. It is like turning on a tap and the water takes quite a while to come out but when it does, it continues to flow.
Many of our shops take quite a while to pay us and then we have to do a monthly financial reconciliation to work out who gets what and then the payments can flow out. Some of the most popular shops like Amazon can take up to 4 months or more to pay us. eBay on the other hand is really quick. However, all the donations are tracked through several stages. We have no control on how fast they get to us and can only report on them.
In order to help get the payments out more quickly, we reduced the threshold that we pay out to only £15 for BACS payments and we do these monthly. Since were sending out so many cheques and some got lost at the other end, we decided to only do cheque payments quarterly and then encourage all schools and charities to get the BACS payment method set up.
We do send out an email to all Givers when payments have been sent to your schools and charities but it is hard to say when your donations have actually been paid. I’ll need to give you an example why. If you support a charity and a school at 50% each. Then if you generate a donation of £1, that will be split 50p/50p. If the school reaches the £15 threshold one month, they’ll receive their payment which includes your donation. If however the charity does not reach that threshold until the following month, then half of your donation has been paid and half hasn’t yet.
I agree that we could make the school and charity public pages have more payment details and we will be working on that shortly. If you can see the donation in your report, it will also be in the report for the schools and charities and it will be paid. We do have some shops that periodically miss out old donations that they need to pay us for and we do chase these up. If you feel that there is something amiss – let us know so that we can check it out and if needed, fix it.
We’re always open to ideas and suggestions – thanks again for the feedback. I’ll answer more comments soon.
Richard
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We just received a request to pass on a thank you to Amazon, next, Marks & Spencers, Argos, M&Co.
“Dear Giving Machine, Could you pass on thank you to all companies that have donated via THE GIVING MACHINE for St Eugene de Mazenod School”
It came from the chair of the PTFA of St Eugene de Mazenod School in London. Their supporters have raised over £60 in free donations so far by shopping via TheGivingMachine at these shops.
I am sure that Amazon, next, Marks & Spencers, Argos, M&Co, like all the 400 or so participating shops, are delighted to see how this contributes to their corporate social responsibility activities. We all know how much regular, small amounts can help transform our communities and beyond.
We’re discovering more and more how connecting their commercial business models with a giving element is actually great for their business, helps customers feel happier about the shops they are buying from and of course helping the causes that really matter to their customers. The causes themselves, as you can see, are delighted to receive a new and regular income stream.
It’s almost magic…
Richard
posted in Charity News & Events, Giver News & Events, School News & Events | Leave a comment
Competition Terms
Ends 4:30pm Tuesday 3rd April 2012
1 entry per Giver
We’ll contact the winner on 3rd April
Prize deliveries to the UK only please
posted in Giver News & Events, Giver Special Offers, Givers | Leave a comment
Aubrey is a brand new leather handbag range which oozes classic British style. Carried by the likes of Pippa Middleton, this feminine collection features beautiful finishing details and is inspired by 50s glamour. Designed by Isla Simpson, the totes, satchels and evening clutches will add a bit of luxury to any wardrobe. Most importantly they don’t come with a hefty celebrity price tag. With prices ranging from £17.25 to £170 there is something to suit all budgets. The Aubrey collection launches exclusively to QVC today. Visit QVC to check out this beautiful collection http://www.thegivingmachine.co.uk/retailer_details_page.php?retailer_id=380
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| It’s ♥Fun Friday♥ and Trunki have 2 of their brilliant new watertight PaddlePaks to give away. These cute, incredibly practical and fun backpacks are the perfect partner for little explorers.
So treat your little ones to some Trunki fun by simply clicking on the link to enter. |
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Competition Terms
Ends 4:30pm Tuesday 27th March 2012
1 entry per Giver
We’ll contact the winner on 27th March
Prize deliveries to the UK only please
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The Club Penguin Puffle Party is currently running and will end on 27th March 2012. Club Penguin users have asked for a party to honour their virtual pets for years and this is the first time Club Penguin have run one and it seems that it is really popular with their users.
During the Puffle Party, paid members and free players can enjoy special party rooms, there is one for each colour Puffle pet. For the first time ever, free penguins and members can collect matching hats for themselves and their Puffles. Free players will also be able to enter the Puffle Show and have their Puffles go through the obstacle course, grab a snack and use the Puffle Photo Booth to get a background for their player card.
During this party, they are providing Club Penguin Fans the number one thing they have asked for - The ability to become a virtual pet themselves. Members can transform into their pet Puffles and hit the Puffle pool, get refreshed at the Puffle snack bar, explore the Puffle tubes, and even chat as their pet Puffles! Members can also purchase and dress up as giant Puffles with the brand new Puffle costumes.
Hope you enjoy the Puffle Party, let us know how it goes!
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