Giving Pal combines online shopping and warm fuzzies. When users shop on the Giving Pal site, 25% of their purchases are donated to charitable causes. Each user selects a cause, and every time a purchase is made, a tracker in the user’s profile notes exactly how much has been donated to the cause. Causes to choose from are widely varied, from NPR to the American Cancer Association. Featured stores include Ebay, Dell, 1-800-Flowers, and Expedia, among others. The website offers other features as well, such as the ability to create and search wedding registries through stores such as Target and Amazon.com.
“Shop with us and up to 25% of your purchases are donated to your favorite cause - for free! Partner stores pay GivingPal for referring you to their site. We send the giveback percentage earned from purchases to the charity associated with your cause and it automatically posts to your account where you can track your impact.”
In additional to being a centralized source of numerous popular online stores, the charitable quality of Giving Pal differentiates it from other online shopping networks. Certainly a large number of shoppers would be attracted to using a site such as this. Giving Pal should try using social networks to reach interested users and pull them in.
What online networks may Giving Pal explore for reach? At what time of the year should outreach campaigns be launched? What other online stores could be added to the site?
