We created this Ways to Give Back guide to be your ultimate deep dive into the ShoppingGives app and be a full overview of all of the features that you can utilize with our technology.
Features Available for All Partners
1. Default Cause
In order for a donation to be generated on a purchase, your customer must click on the donation widget and select a cause. If you would like to donate on every single order, you can set a default cause, which will automatically preload a specific cause into the donation widget. This means a donation will be made on all orders, even without a customer opt-in.
Pro Tip: Setting a default cause is a great way to support a specific cause during special campaigns that you run. For example, if you wanted to support Feeding America during the month of November, you can set Feeding America as a default cause and create an even bigger impact!
2. Multiplier
If you want to donate extra on a specific cause, you can use a multiplier to do so. If you donate 1% sitewide, for example, but you want to donate extra towards the CDC Foundation to provide aid towards Covid-19 relief efforts, you can set a 2x multiplier on that cause. This means that whenever a customer chooses to support the CDC Foundation on their purchase, the donation amount will be multiplied by 2, and all other causes will still only generate a donation of 1%.
Pro Tip: You can utilize a multiplier to incentive your customers to select that specific cause to support with their purchase. This is great to use if you want to highlight your favorite cause while still supporting other causes as well.
3. Exclude/Include Products
You also have the ability to exclude products from generating donations. This is an easy way to set up campaigns where only a specific collection will have the ability to generate a donation. If for example you want to give back for Breast Cancer Awareness month but only want to donate on a special pink collection that you have curated, you are able to exclude all other products. When excluding products, your customers will only see the donation widget on the product pages of products that are included for donations.
Pro Tip: You are able to switch up which products are included and excluded at any time, and however often you would like. This means that creating campaigns to support specific causes on a collection of products is flexible, and allows you to get creative too.
4. Customize Donations on a Product-level
While you have a global donation amount that will be set across your site, you can also customize the donation amount on individual products. If for example you are donating 1% site-wide and you have a special collection of products that are made from recycled materials that you launched for Earth Day, you can choose to donate extra on those products specifically.
Pro Tip: You can customize the donation amount per each product at any time. So if you only want to donate 5% on a specific product for one month, at the end of the month you’re able to change this back to 1% in seconds.
5. Nonprofit Exclusions
You can also exclude individual nonprofits or categories of nonprofits. Our database contains any 501(c)(3) organization that is registered within the US and is in good standing with the IRS, which means we have over 1.5M different nonprofits that you can support. However, you may only want to support specific types of nonprofits. If for example you are passionate about giving back to causes that support education, you may want to exclude any categories of nonprofits that do not support educated-related causes. You can also re-include any nonprofits/nonprofit categories that you have previously excluded at any time.
6. Cause Search
In addition to excluding nonprofits or nonprofit categories, you can also turn off the cause search completely. If you have a few specific nonprofits that you want to support and you don’t want to allow your customers to search for their own cause, you can turn this off with the simple click of a button.
7. Widget Style
We believe that your giving strategy should be customized to best meet your brand’s needs, and the style and look of the technology that facilitates your giving should be no different! This is why you have the ability to choose between 3 different styles for the donation widget so you can be in control of how the widget looks on your site.
Pro Tip: If the donation widget does not append to your product page properly, please reach out to us at support@shoppinggives.com and we’d be happy to help!
8. Gorgias Integration
Through a non-technical integration between the ShoppingGives app and Gorgias, you can engage your customers with value alignment and social impact during their purchase journey. By combining customer service and social impact, you can easily inform customers of your impact strategy while also providing great customer support.
Pro Tip: Using Gorgias’ integration with our ShoppingGives app is a great way to inform your customers of any special giving activations or campaigns that you are running as soon as they visit your site.
Features Available on Our Impact Plus or Higher Plans or as an A La Carte Purchase
1. Influencer Tactic
If your brand works with influencers, we have a way for you to better engage with them through social impact. You can create a custom link to share with each of your influencers that will auto-populate a cause of their choice into the donation widget when the link is clicked. This means that your influencers can share this link with their community of followers and encourage them to shop with your brand while supporting the cause that they have pre-selected.
“Highline (my go-to for CBD) gives back 1% on every purchase to the cause of your choice. I picked the Trevor Project for my last reorder but I thought-let’s see what you guys can do….
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Shop Highline through the link in my bio to give back to the Trevor Project at no extra cost. Let’s see how much we can raise!“
Pro Tip: If you work with influencers, this is a great tactic to use to reach their community of followers that may not be familiar with your brand currently. You can also use this tactic of supporting your influencers favorite causes when negotiating terms of contracts with them as well.
2. Yotpo integration
With our integration with Yotpo, you can easily create an all-new customer loyalty program that stands out from the competition by combining it with social impact. Customer loyalty is crucial for your business, but it’s not always easy to navigate. By using the Yotpo integration, you are able to reward your customers with Yotpo Loyalty points when they generate a donation on their purchase, and you can also allow them to redeem those points for an additional donation later on.
Pro Tip: Consumers are likely to join the rewards program of a brand that they feel loyal to, but many wish that these programs were more interesting. Combining rewards with donations creates an all-new loyalty program experience that stands out from the competition!
3. Customer Add-on Donations
While we believe that businesses have the power to truly make a difference, we know that an even bigger impact can be created by involving your customers. This is why you have the ability to include customer add-on donations with the ShoppingGives donation app. Your store will still be pledging the primary donation, but your customers will also have the option to add-on their own additional donation if they choose.
Pro Tip: This is a great way to create an even bigger impact and let your customers keep the giving going!
4. Product-Level Cause Donations
With the ShoppingGives donation app, you now have the option to choose between two different giving experiences: Let your customers choose and Donate to causes you set and manage by product. With the Let your customers choose experience, you can set your preferred featured causes while also allowing your customers to search and select a cause of their choice.
With the Donate to causes you set and manage by product experience, you have the ability to set specific causes on individual products. When using this experience, the causes you set are automatically defaulted, and your customers cannot update these causes.
Pro Tip: This is a great way to create campaigns where you have a limited edition product, for example, that is dedicated towards supporting a specific cause. This will allow you to support an individual cause on that product while still keeping your original featured causes as usual.
To utilize any of our Enterprise features, you need to be on our Impact Plus or higher plans. However, for partners on our Impact Starter plan, you can purchase these features through our a la carte options.
If you have any questions about these features, how to utilize them, or want to learn more about our different partnership plans and pricing, please contact us at support@shoppinggives.com.