Is it possible to donate a percentage of sales to different charities in Etsy? Like the Wounded Warrior Project or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital etc.
The answer is yes. Yes, it’s possible!
You can now automate giving donations and give your customers the confidence that the donation is going straight to your Charity Institution’s bank account by using the app CauseGood.
Essentially their app allows Etsy shops to choose a cause to support (i.e. plant a tree, give meals, etc.) every time customers purchase a participating listing from them and transfers the donations automatically.
How It Works?
Each time you sell a participating listing, the CauseGood Etsy Giving App will record the amount that your shop will need to donate in order to honor your promise to the customer. For example, if your shop decides to support the planting of trees, a 65¢ donation will be recorded each time a customer purchases one of your participating items.
Each month, the app will tally up your shop’s owed donations and transfer the total donation directly to their non-profit partners. To continue with the above example, if you sell 12 participating listings in a given month, the app would trigger a donation of $7.80 to pay for the 12 trees promised to customers.
I had a chance to talk with Quinn Morgan and asked him the following questions:
Me: “Are you a registered verified charity?
Quinn: “We are actually a for-profit social enterprise, not a non-profit. That way we can sustainably fund the growth of our app using the subscription fees that Etsy seller pay to use our platform (handled totally separately from our customers’ donations to our non-profit partners). I personally come from a background in non-profit fundraising (and tech), but I personally believe that the for-profit model will give us a much better chance of creating real change in the world.”
Me: How do we verify the validity of donations by using the app?
Quinn: “The donations are transferred directly to the selected non-profit’s account (i.e. never touch CauseGood’s accounts), so the Etsy seller will see the charge in their bank account listed as the charity, not CauseGood. The non-profit will also send a tax-receipt for the Etsy shop’s donations at the end of the year. We provide the Etsy sellers with a dashboard that allows them to track their participating sales and the donations that will be charged:
If you meant how you can verify that we are who we say we are, you can see and click on our logo on The Water Projects website under Current sponsors.”
Now that’s awesome!
So why you should include this app to your listings?
Customers will have confidence in your promise to donate to Cause Good’s trusted charities like Feeding America, Books For Africa, The Water Project, etc.
- Most buyers like Etsy shops that offer buy one give one because they know every purchase results in real social good.
- Supporting a cause will help your Etsy shop stand out from the crowd and CauseGood will help others find you.
- 9 in 10 American shoppers will switch brands to one that supports a cause, they’ll flock to your shop.
- As an added benefit, supporting a cause will give both you and your newfound loyal followers a great reason to share your Etsy listings.
- Helps your shop stand out from the crowd and get noticed.
How to get started with CauseGood?
- Choose a cause to pair with your listings on Etsy (Plant a tree, give meals, provide clean water)
- Select which of your listings will support the cause
- Launch your campaign to start doing well with every participating sale!
Here are examples of participating Etsy listings (look for our message in the listing descriptions).
It is totally free to sign up and they have a forever-free account level that lets you sell up to 5 participating listings per month. If you wanted to sell more than 5 participating listings a month, their premium plans start at $9/month (but this is for larger shops).
Once you’ve signed up, please come back and let us know what you think to encourage other Etsy sellers to give back through the CauseGood Etsy Giving App too!
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