FAQ - Frequently asked questions

Donations are paid to the bank account of your association every quarter. The only requirement is that the total amount raised is at least 50.- CHF. If the amount raised for the quarter is lower than 50.- CHF, the amount shifts to the next period and is paid out when 50.- CHF in total has been raised.

(interval table)

On 01.01, the payment includes donations raised between 01.07 and 30.09 of the previous year.

On 01.04, the payment includes donations raised between 01.10 and 31.12 of the previous year.

On 01.07, the payment includes donations raised between 01.01 and 31.03 of the current year.

On 01.10, the payment includes donations raised between 01.04 and 31.06 of the current year.

Regardless of the payout dates, you can always check in your user dashboard the status of your donations as well as the total amount raised.

ShopDonation can generate a much-needed ongoing, recurring source of income for causes; something that is hard to generate for nonprofits and that not many concepts offer. Please check our Introduction page about what you can expect.

The cause of the month appears by default when someone visits ShopDonation for the first time. If the user does not select a cause, his donations will be attributed to the cause of the month. In addition, ShopDonation promotes the cause of the month on its social media channels.

Selection criteria are based on the mission of the association, the recognition of the project by a certified institution as well as the promotion that is made around the cause.

If you believe your project stands out from the others and deserve this extra visibility, contact us via email:

info@shopdonation.ch

You get an extra point if you surprise us with a video.

It can take up to 48 hours before you can see a confirmation of the donation in your account and for you to receive a confirmation email. If you still have not received a confirmation after 48 hours, please fill out the contact form. We will contact the webshop and can often still retrieve the donation for you.

🕳 When can something go wrong?

- If you have previously clicked to the webshop via another affiliate website, such as a discount code website or comparison website. In this case, the commission will go to this affiliate website instead of ShopDonation and the donation will not come through.
- If you use a browser or software that blocks cookies. When cookies are blocked the tracking process does not work. Switch any Adblocking software (AdBlock ; Adblock Plus ; UBlock)* off while using ShopDonation and enable cookies in your browsers, click here to read how. * Firewall software like ZoneAlarm or Norton internet security, also have adblocking option switched on by default.
- The cookies at the webshop were not accepted. Always click ''yes'' or ''ok'' when asked for cookie consent at the webshop.

Other causes:

- When a VPN, or a proxy server is used on ShopDonation.
- Browser extensions linking to shopping rewards or coupon sites are enabled while using ShopDonation.
- When the cookies settings of the browser are set on ''very strict’’, the tracking of the transaction can also fail. Computers that are used in a business environment / the office are often set to this mode.

Tips to make your purchases successfully result in donations:

- Delete your cookies before making a purchase through ShopDonation. This will prevent earlier clicks, saved by cookies, from attributing the commission to other websites. Together with allowing (third-party) cookies, this is the most successful solution to prevent missed purchases.
- Do not interrupt the ordering process or do any other browsing after you've clicked the webshop-link.
- Do not make the purchase from multiple tabs or devices.
- Wait until your reach the ‘’thank-you page’’ that confirms your purchase.
- Do not use the mobile app of the webshop (except for Aliexpress). If you make a purchase through your smarphone, only use the mobile website of the webshop.
- At the webshop make sure your shopping basket is empty when you arrive. Otherwise some webshops may not attribute the sales to ShopDonation.
- Only use discount/voucher codes from ShopDonation, otherwise the commission might not be given.
- Don't make a purchase through a phonecall or livechat, the commission will not be attributed to ShopDonation.
- Only use supported webbrowsers, which are Google Chrome versions 21+, Firefox versions 15+, Microsoft Edge all, Internet Explorer versions 11+ and Safari versions 6+.

If a device and browser have generated a donation correctly before on ShopDonation, we recommend always using these when shopping through ShopDonation.

Read more detailed information on how the tracking system works and how to prevent missed purchases here.

Do not approach the webshop yourself

If you contact the online store on which you have made a purchase, they will probably not be able to help you. The collaboration between online shops and ShopDonation is managed by the respective marketing departments and not by the customer service staff.

For this reason, simply send us the invoice of your purchase and we will approach our contact person from the webshop.

Yes, on our overview of stores you'll find the shop category B2B where you can see all providers of business products and services.

Business purchases can mean a lot for a social project, especially when these are recurring purchases, as this will bring in ongoing financial support through ShopDonation. Read more about business purchases here.

If you know a company that might be interested in doing this, whether it's the company where you work or through your business network, do let them know about this simple opportunity. They can make a positive social impact and improve the corporate social responsibility of the company for free.

When you go to a travel agency and book a trip abroad, the sales manager who sold you the trip will receive a commission on the sale.

Shopdonation works the same way. When someone makes a purchase at one of our affiliate merchants (such as Swiss, Media Markt, or Manor), ShopDonation will receive a commission proportional to the amount of the purchase. This commission is then transformed into a donation to the association of your choice.

Thereby, you can continue your online shopping and pay the same price with no additional fees. You simply need to click first via ShopDonation to support a cause that you like for free.

You will find all the online stores affiliated with ShopDonation as well as their respective commissions on this page. You will also find additional information on the how-it-works page as well as on the video page [coming soon] .

Yes, all amounts that are earned and paid out at ShopDonation are verifiable by all parties involved. Read more about this below:

Transparency

- Everyone can see how many donations have been generated on ShopDonation's platform. The website also shows how much each cause has raised thanks to shoppers using ShopDonation.

- Cause owners can see live how much has been raised via their account, as well as the details of which purchases have generated which amount of donations, and see the current status of each donation.

*Cause owners cannot see any private user information, such as the email address of users who have shopped for the cause. They can only see a username, which can be made completely anonymous according to the user’s wishes. If users shop without logging in, no username will appear either. In both cases, privacy is protected.

- Individual users can check the status of each purchase and they can notify ShopDonation if they suspect that something is wrong.

Together with the shoppers, we check whether all purchases arrive correctly in our system with the webshops. ShopDonation is the only platform where users can receive an email confirmation of a donation after purchasing, in addition to the live overview in their account. As a result, missed purchases do not go unnoticed and the highest possible percentage still gets converted into donations by ShopDonation.

Payouts

- All payouts are systematically transferred to the causes quarterly and can be verified through our system, by both the shoppers and the cause itself. For each accepted purchase through ShopDonation, you can see when it will be paid out, or when it was paid out.
Any possible discrepancy can be checked by both parties, back to the first purchase since the beginning of ShopDonation. Through this method, we are verified by causes and users on a daily basis.
​​​​
We are very proud to have made this system as transparent as possible. We are very aware that any kind of ambiguity can create the wrong impression, and that any wrong impression can be disastrous for our beloved concept.

That is why we have arranged the system how we would like to see it ourselves, were we in the cause or shopper’s shoes. If you still have questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

- ShopDonation doesn’t collect any user´s private information. Purchases are done at the webshop itself, we don’t receive any personal information on who bought something or what was bought.

- Only if you create a user account on ShopDonation, we will receive your email address by your registration. It is not necessary to create a user account on ShopDonation to shop and donate for free though, you can do this anonymously without having to sign up. The benefits of signing up are that you get an email confirmation after making a purchase and that you can see an overview of your free donations made in your account.

- When you create a user account, you can choose an anonymous username, nobody else will see your email address.

- We won’t send your email address through to any other parties, ever.

- If you wish to delete your user account we will delete your email address forever.

- ShopDonation uses programs like Google Analytics to see how visitors use the website so that we can improve it.

Yes, you can. Just send us an email from the email address that is connected with your user account. If you’ve made the purchase anonymously, please attach your purchase confirmation with it.

* Seeing a different cause than what you’ve selected when making the purchase can also happen when a first click was made to a webshop (maybe just to test out the platform, with the correct cause not yet selected). The system registered this cookie/click with a different cause, and when you later made the purchase with your chosen cause, the system still remembered your first click.

The webshop decides which click will be used, read more about this in our detailed information page about the tracking system.

- It allows you to keep track of all your donations and visualise them on your user account.
- After each purchase, you receive a confirmation by email indicating the donation amount that your purchase has generated.
- The cause that you support is automatically saved in your profile for your future purchases (dont worry, you can still change it at any time).