Major philanthropists back new shopping app that could release more than £1bn a year to charities

By: 

Cheryl Chapman

Managing Editor, Philanthropy UK

The launch of a new ‘app’ that embeds giving in people’s online shopping habits could release £1.25bn in unrestricted revenue to charities in 2011 at no cost to the donor, says its creator Polly Gowers, founder and CEO of Everyclick.

The new app, Give As You Live™, ticks many of the boxes outlined in the Government’s recent Giving Green Paper that highlights the need to promote a culture of giving by harnessing new technology that works with people’s natural behaviours.

Based on the affiliate sales model, the app allows shoppers to choose to donate to their favourite charity a percentage of commission, paid by the retailer to be part of the Give as you Live™ network, on every purchase they make.

Sixty selected charities piloted the app in 2010 and over 1,000 leading retailers are on board already, including John Lewis, Tesco, Expedia, lastminute.com, Majestic, play.com and Sainsbury. Now launched, the app allows shoppers to select from more than 200,000 listed on the Charity Commission Register.

It is estimated that the average online shopper is able to raise £75 per annum. Based on an average commission of 2.5% per sale on an estimated £50bn of total annual online purchases, the app could raise £1.25bn in unrestricted charitable income each year.

Gowers describes the new app as a ‘win,win,win’: “Charities win from increased revenue; donors win being able to give at no cost to themselves and without having to change their behaviour and retailers win with increased sales.”

Her ‘light-bulb’ moment came in realising that the flow of millions of pounds of commission between retailers and online aggregate sites such as Go Compare and Compare the Market.com, who are paid for every sale they make, could be channelled to good causes.

“We just had to create the software to allow that to happen. And though it sounds simple it required very complex technology and huge investment.”

Support has come from distinguished individuals in the charity and business arenas, notably investment millionaire and former CEO of Man Group Stanley Fink and Geoff Squire OBE, chairman of Kognitio Ltd, and former CEO of Oracle Europe and vice chairman of Veritas Corporation, who donated money to help develop the app.

Stanley Fink says: “ Working with many charities as a chair, trustee or patron, I see on a daily basis, how many are struggling to find new sources of revenue at a time where government money is scarcer, many foundations have lost investment income and many individual philanthropists have to cut back their commitments. To see a new source of revenue coming from a small levy on the fast growing web based sales sector is a precious breath of oxygen to the charity sector.”

Geoff Squire OBE says: “I have worked at the cutting edge of the software industry for over 40 years, and the charitable trust that I set up 10 years ago is now a big part of my life. Everyclick and its Give as you Live™ application gives me the opportunity to work with a really innovative British company, and to combine my two passions of technology and philanthropy.”

Gowers adds: “What appeals to our philanthropic supporters too is that the app represents effective use of their funds as it has the potential deliver a sustainable source of income to charities and to generate funds many times the size of their donation.”

Everyclick, as a for-profit business, also offers venture style investors an opportunity to reap the rewards that come with investing in higher risk projects and currently has 140 shareholders. Everyclick receives between 10% and 50% of retailer commission depending on sales levels achieved by each charity’s supporters, used to recoup development costs and cover overheads and ongoing marketing efforts.

Gowers explains how the commission works: “The amount displayed in the Give as you Live™ app window and the amount supporters sees reported in their account is 100% what goes to charity, so it is a totally transparent user experience. Yes, we do take a percentage of the money we collect, although any figures displayed in our app are calculated after our deductions have been made.

"Everyclick's stated objective is to give a minimum of 50% of revenue to charity but this rises to 90% of revenue for larger charities. We are a for-profit company that works to increase the funds available to all UK charities. We will review the percentage retained as we move forward.

"Our aim is to raise as much money for charity as possible, which is why we have a tiered payment system with percentage increases in favour of the charity the more their supporters spend online. Everyclick's technology is 100% free to use. Charities make no capital outlay to access this technology. Any funds raised through our technology results in an immediately positive ROI for any UK charity.

Access to the technology is free for charities as is support to install, launch and promote Give as you Live™ with customised toolkits and social media campaigns. To harness the power of the new app for charities, a new partnership has been struck between Everyclick and Blackbaud, creators of fundraising software for the non-profit sector.

The companies announced this week the full integration of Give as you Live™ with not-for-profit specific fundraising software The Raiser's Edge®. Blackbaud has created a free, download plug in for The Raiser’s Edge, which incorporates Give as you Live™ and enables reporting and analysis of its fundraising activity.

The integration with Blackbaud ensures that all funds raised through Give as you Live™ can be seamlessly tracked and reported. Martin Jervis, vice president and managing director of Blackbaud Europe, adds, “It is the simplicity of the Give as you Live™ application that makes it so appealing to both users and charities, yet the fundraising and data it could yield is staggering.”

“Integration with The Raiser’s Edge will provide a new level of donor insight that will be invaluable for donor stewardship, targeting new audiences, and developing long term strategies.”

A number of giving apps have recently been launched including Givey, a mobile app that allows donors to give to charity using whatever digital platform they are using at the time they wish to donate and the Institute of Fundraising’s I-phone application to support fundraisers and donors in calculating the benefits of tax-effective giving.