Today I’m going to tell you all about a really nifty way to raise money for charity, by getting big companies to donate to a cause of your choice when you shop with them (rather than it coming out of your pocket). Of course, if you also want to donate yourself, then that’s wonderfully generous too!
But I’m talking about something called Easyfundraising – which is a website (and an app) that you can sign up to for free, and then you choose a cause that you’d like to raise money for. If you then use their app or browser extension to shop online, when you buy from one of their partner brands, that brand will donate a small percentage of your purchase to the cause of your choice.
There are over 8,100 brands that work with Easyfundraising, and over 170,000 causes you can choose from – you can only support one cause at a time though. If that sounds overwhelming, don’t worry, you can always start with a big well-known charity, or look at causes near you if you’d like to support something small and local.
So if you’re comfortable with online shopping, this can be an added bonus. To sign up to Easyfundraising, go to www.easyfundraising.org.uk (or download the app from your App Store or Play Store) and choose “Sign up”.
You’ll be asked if you want to Support a cause or Register your own cause – go with Support in this case. Pick the cause you want to champion (you can change this later, don’t worry) and give them your name and email address.
If you’re using a computer, make sure you click on “Add extension” and follow the instructions to add the extension to your browser. On the app, you’ll be asked if you want to add the Donation Reminder to your web browser, which is a good idea.
You can also choose the sites that you often shop with online, if you like. Or if you aren’t hugely confident with shopping online, we’ve got something you might be interested in…