A Transparent Charitable Donations Process Makes Customers Feel More Engaged
- More companies are interested in adding a charitable component to their business than ever. Givz directly connects the dots between customers’ purchases and donations.
- Givz is engineered to easily incorporate into online stores run on Shopify and other platforms. Our upcoming app will make the process even smoother for Shopify users.
- Charitable donations can push customers to purchase, and provide marketing content to boost conversions.
Part 1
Part 2
The path to corporate charitable campaigns is strewn with good intentions.
Most companies are open to donating to charities on behalf of their customers. But many have been defeated by how surprisingly complicated it can be to give money to a good cause.
You’ve probably seen commercials and ads touting companies’ “support” of various charities. But the wording is usually pretty vague. It’s not always clear how much of your purchase is used as a donation.
Givz makes it easy for companies to set up charitable donations connected to purchases. Our onboarding process is simple (and will be even more so once our app launches) and Givz takes care of the behind-the-scenes admin.
Once you’ve incorporated Givz into your ecommerce store, customers see a clear connection between every purchase and a charitable donation. The customer feels like they’ve directly contributed to a cause they care about, and that sense of accomplishment sticks with them the next time they’re browsing your store online.
Givz founder Andrew Forman shared the Givz story and described our purpose-driven platform’s features on the Story of a Brand podcast (check out the episodes here and here). Highlights from the conversation are included below.
How Givz makes the donation process transparent
The reason Givz is a hit with international brands like H&M and others is because of the growing popularity of putting your money where your conscience is — and it matters to retailers and customers. And the way Givz does it is even more effective for both parties.
Deliver a direct giving experience to your customers
A lot of companies make vague promises about donating to charities, without ever really explaining how much or when.
Through Givz, customers know exactly how much is being donated and where it’s going: they get a post-checkout pop-up explaining this, and tying it directly to their purchase.
Imagine buying, say, a pair of deep purple hiking socks from a company that once posted on Instagram that it “supports” a particular charity you like. You didn’t make the purchase. You don’t feel connected to that donation, and it probably didn’t convince you to click ”purchase.” It’s a nice little detail — if you even remember reading about it — but it doesn’t feel like you contributed personally.
Through Givz, customers’ purchases are directly driving charitable donations, and in many cases, they get to choose which charity the money goes towards.
This turns charitable donations from vague initiatives to an easy-to-identify core value of the company — and, of course, a selling point.
Empower customers to give to causes they care about (locally or nationally)
Company donation drives tend to choose national charities over smaller ones. Which is fine: they typically have more established reputations, are easier to vet and have instant name recognition. Plus every charity needs money!
However, with Givz, it’s easier to give customers their choice of charities, including between a nationally known option and one that operates within their local area.
For example, Givz worked with pet insurers Wagmo to offer customers who purchased a plan in November the chance to donate $10 to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), or to a local animal shelter. The majority of people opted to support their local shelter.
Givz’s flexibility means you can offer customers the choice, which makes them feel even better about their purchase.
And from the charitable angle, you’re also giving local non-profits that don’t have nationwide profiles the chance to collect donations with no extra effort.
Givz is easy to incorporate into your platform
Adding a charitable wing to a company usually involves hiring a dedicated team to liaise with each non-profit partner, organize campaigns, and manage donations and invoices. Givz makes setting up charitable donations easy.
A seamless experience for Shopify stores
It’s about to become easier than ever for Shopify users to use Givz, thanks to the upcoming Givz app.
At the moment, set up with Shopify takes a short phone call and a copy and paste job. But you’ll soon be able to control your Givz campaigns entirely through the app, including starting, stopping and customizing the offers.
Great options for non-Shopify stores too
If you aren’t running your online store using Shopify, Givz can still help you offer customers the opportunity to donate to charity with their purchase.
Givz has an API which brands can integrate into their own code: and for the non-tech-savvy, Givz can send customers a post-purchase email in the client’s branding, with a link to spend the charitable credit they’ve earned.
Givz does all the backend admin
Running a charitable campaign requires someone to keep track of donations, distribute them, and collate the data for marketing purposes. Givz does all that, plus we send you a monthly invoice showing how much was donated through your store and where.
Even if you already have people working on charitable donations at your company, Givz helps make their jobs easier — and means you don’t need to hire more pairs of hands.
Givz is a marketing gift
Giving to charity feels great for companies and their customers, not to mention the charities themselves.
Remind your customers that they’re supporting a worthy cause
With Givz, it’s easier than ever to make charitable donations part of your brand DNA, so take the opportunity to remind customers that they have the chance to help others. That includes banners on the homepage and email footers.
While constantly sending out discount codes can feel pushy, and dilute the true value of your brand, the charitable aspect comes across more like generosity than spam.
Run social media ads
Advertising your charitable campaign on Instagram and Facebook makes a nice change from a constant stream of product-first posts.
Givz has done extensive A/B tests on Facebook, comparing engagement with ads stressing the opportunity to donate versus those offering discounts. So far, the donation opportunities have outperformed the discounts.
The more you donate, the better your story becomes
Once you’ve been using Givz for a while, you can build up an impressive account of all your charitable donations.
This in turn makes great marketing material, especially if the charity is one that connects with your target audience.
It’s not just you who can share the news. Givz encourages customers to share how much they’ve donated on social media — and makes it easy to do so — which means further exposure for your company and for the charity.
Being generous pays off.
