The Spendow FAQs & Knowledgebase

For Shoppers

Spendow is a simple way for you to support your favourite charitable organization every time you shop, at no cost to you. Spendow is available at spendow.com on your web browser and can be activated in the Spendow Shopping App for Android and the Giving Loop Chrome Browser Extension.

When you shop at Spendow, you’ll have access to millions of products from thousands of leading brands from across the world, with the added benefit that your favourite brands will donate on average 5% of your purchases to the charitable organization of your choice.

Spendow also offers you additional tools to support your Cause, these are: Direct donate functionality and recurring donate functionality. Raffles and Auctions with proceeds going to charity.

For Fundraisers

Spendow is a 360 degree platform for Fundraising.

Spendow is a platform whose aim is to provide NGOs, Causes and Charities with an innovative way to get funding. Think of it this way - as a cause or charity you have to identify, network and constantly reach out to prospective donors, for smaller causes or charities this is rarely an easy or guaranteed means to get the monetary support you need to continue your good work.

With Spendow, we look at this problem differently. Let me explain:

We know that people will always need things - clothing, food, furniture and so on. For most people supporting Causes or Charities is often an afterthought after they satisfy these basic needs. We also know e-commerce has a projected 265% growth rate from $1.3 trillion in 2014 to $4.9 trillion in 2021. People are increasingly buying these things online. That is 17.5% of all retail sales will be online by 2021.

Couple this with the rise of Millennials and Generation X who are digital natives with varying approaches and ideologies on what they care deeply for. NGOs and Causes the unique opportunity to evolve with the times by fundraising via a platform like Spendow. Spendow harnesses the aforementioned technological, demographic and behavioural and unlocks a potentially life-changing funding opportunity for Causes.

Read more here

Yes, shopping and donating via Spendow will cost you NOTHING!

All shopping donations start as a referral commission payment that you enable to become a donation.
Behind the scenes, there are hundreds of millions spent by retailers every year in sales commissions to shopping websites, comparison sites and product review sites.

You just don't usually hear about them. Spendow receives these commissions and then converts them into free donations.
Without your help, this hidden money cannot achieve its potential for the causes you support.

As a Cause, your supporters generate these donations on your behalf and you reap the rewards for your cause - again, this is at no cost to you.

To shop at Spendow simply go to spendow.com on your web browser or activate Spendow App on your Android phone.
If you use the Chrome browser on your computer/tablet you can install the Giving Loop addon to automate your donations when you shop directly from your favourite online stores.
When you’re using the addon, always click for the “Spendow” logo to ensure you’re activated for donation.

No, you do not.
You can simply select a Cause (or choose to donate to the preselected Cause) and go shopping. If you want to track your impact or help your favourite Cause via fundraising campaigns you will need an account.

All products on Spendow, and all products on the Spendow brand partner websites are eligible for a donation.

On your first visit to spendow.com, you need to select a charitable organization to receive donations from your purchases before you begin shopping.

We will remember your selection, and then every purchase you make through Spendow, Spendow App or Giving Loop Addon will result in a donation.

To select a cause simply go to the cause page and click on the link called "Shop" or click on the link called "Stores" to start shopping from a list of stores.

All of it. If you donate via your shopping, you will see the percentage of donations applicable.

This percentage of your total purchase will reach the Cause in its entirety.
If you donate directly, 100% of your donation will go to charity. Your donations are processed by our trusted and highly encrypted payment partner - Stripe.
A small charge can be charged by Stripe to handle your direct donation. Read more here.

Yes, you can change your default Cause at any time.

Your purchases via Spendow after the change count towards your newly selected Cause.
To change your Cause, simply visit the Spendow page of your chosen Cause and click the "Shop" link to start shopping. This will immediately also change your default Cause.

You can start from the list here.
But really any legitimate Cause that is within our terms and conditions are applicable for donation.

If your favourite Cause is not yet on Spendow, you can create it and we will make sure your donations reach it.

Go to spendow.com/for-fundraisers to learn more about how to raise money with Spendow and how to register your organization to receive donations.

Spendow and the participating brands will donate the agreed-upon percentage of the purchase price from your eligible purchases.

The purchase price is the amount paid for the item minus any rebates and excluding shipping & handling, gift-wrapping fees, taxes, or service charges.

The Catalyst program is about harnessing the power of social media to raise a donation.

When you create a Catalyst page you have a shopping portal containing your chosen Cause and your favourite brands.

You can start your own shopping via the Catalyst page or you can share your catalyst page on social media to boost awareness of your chosen cause and raise more donation via shopping.

Yes, you can!
Spendow also has direct donation functionality. You can also schedule monthly donations if you so wish. Just go on the Spendow page of the Cause and click on the button that says "Donate Directly"

There is no Spendow charge for direct donations. Spendow operates on donor tips, so if you wish to support Spendow, you have the option of adding a tip.
The only charge on the donation comes from our payment processing partner Stripe. Read more here.

We closely adhere to the data protection recommendation of GDPR.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) is a regulation by which the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission intend to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals.

The GDPR aims primarily to give control back to citizens and residents over their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business by unifying the regulation within the EU and other western countries.

Spendow is pretty much for everyone.

With Spendow, anyone that shops online can become a cheerful giver to a Cause they care about to impact our world positively.
Given the state of the world currently, there is no shortage of such Causes.

For those willing to donate even more than a percentage of their shopping. You can use our direct donate functionality.

For those willing to create personal fundraising campaigns to donate to causes / charities they care about, they can create those campaigns and get people they know to donate, either directly or via shopping and we will make sure the money gets to that charity/cause.

For official representatives of Causes/Charities, we will give you full control of your Cause page and you can use our suite of tools to raise as much money as you can. Read more here

From Spendow.com you can shop from a wide range of online stores and brands that have partnered with us!
Choose a Cause or fundraiser you want to support and then click on the links of your desired retailer to start shopping. It is that simple.

We also have Search and Discovery tools for products from our partners. You can immediately search on Spendow to start finding products from your favorite brands and stores.

By using either our store links, product links or add-on to go shopping, you can shop as you normally would and your donation will automatically be made upon check out.

Spendow works with the leader in online payments processing - Stripe, to handle credit/debit card donations. We do not store any of your credit card information with us or on our servers.

For Causes & Charities, we perform checks to the best of our ability to make sure your donations end up in the right hands and for the right reasons.

Payouts are done on a rolling basis.

Once a person shops and the sales clear, our partners will approve and send it to Spendow. This typically takes 8 to 12 weeks because of risks of returns. At Spendow we will aggregate all these earnings and once they pass a minimum value (around 50 euros) they will be paid out automatically to the Cause/Charity of your choice.

For direct donations, the process is much faster, once a donation is given and has been processed by Stripe, typically within 24 hours, it is available to be withdrawn and paid out.

The Spendow platform is free! For shoppers, donors and causes.

So how then do we stay afloat you ask? Through the partnerships with the retailers and brands for driving sales to them, we also get a small backend percentage of the sale as a processing fee.

In addition, we also rely on tips from direct donors to help pay the bills and keep the doors open.

I will explain using an example

Sean is a young millennial or Gen Xer. Like most young people in his generation, Sean loves sneakers, hip-hop music, hanging out with his friends and enjoying what life has to offer. Sean is also passionate about the environment and as an avid surfer, he is concerned about the amount of plastic that is filling the ocean and impacting marine life and the livelihood of future generations. Using Spendow, whenever Sean buys a pair of Air Jordan sneakers, he takes advantage of the partnerships Spendow has with Nike. For each purchase made on Nike.com via Spendow, a percentage of the sales price goes to Greenpeace and CleanOurOceans, two causes that Sean is passionate about. The donation also called a Spendowment, is at no additional cost to Sean.

In this way, Sean gets to own a pair of sneakers that mean a lot to him and at the same time, he is able to help out in the massive ocean cleaning project being run by Greenpeace and CleanOurOceans. Nike, Greenpeace and CleanOurOceans have a unique opportunity to discuss how best to produce products that impact the world positively and that young people like Sean will love. This is the foundation of brand loyalty in these times. It is a win-win for everyone.

Spendow offers a platform to make this all possible.