Averaged over 1 year, we see that 100 Givers using TheGivingMachine generate about £280 a month for their causes. Like any fundraising response rate, not every Giver who registers to support your cause will then go onto use TheGivingMachine actively but you should expect a range of between 10% - 25% of your Giver base will perform as above. Those beneficiaries who keep recruiting Givers and thanking the ones they already have when payments are received help keep awareness and therefore donations high. These simple things ensure that once donation payments start, they keep coming regularly.

For large charities, just multiply the numbers above to suit your donor base size: e.g. 1,000 Givers using TheGivingMachine generate about £2,800 a month for their causes.

The online shops pay sales commissions to TheGivingMachine™. These commissions are included in the sale price of the products and services from the shops who use this commission model to drive more sales. 75% of the commissions are then converted into donations. We then ensure that these donations are distributed to you on behalf of your supporting Givers. The remaining 25% covers the costs of running the website and distributing donation payments.

All of the participating online shops on our site have agreed to pay a commission in the form of a cash donation every time they click on a shop’s link and buy a qualifying product from them. If Givers do not access the online shop via our links on TheGivingMachine™, then the donation will not be triggered and their nominated charities and/or schools will not get a donation.

Typically, an online shop will be donating in the region of 4-5% of the total bill to participating charities and schools. A small charge for administration will be incurred on each transaction to facilitate, collect and re-distribute the cash donations Givers generate to their chosen charities & schools. Our promise is to ensure that these costs of fundraising (currently 25% of commissions received) are comparable to the UK charities average. As we grow we will be able to reduce these charges to well below the UK average.

As an example, if a Giver purchased an item at £100 via a link on TheGivingMachine™, we would expect to get around £5*, £3.75 of which would be re-distributed on their behalf to their specified charities and/or schools.

*(Please remember that that online shops set what commissions/donations they are prepared to pay so these numbers may go up or down in practice)

If you represent a charity or school that would like to participate, you can join us quickly, easily and most importantly for free. Click on the left hand menu ’Setup Charity/School Account’ link.

It can take between 2 and 6 months or so for the monies to come through to us as most shops have a 28 day returns policy and also online shops generally specify that their payments will take between 30 and 60 days to reach us after the 28 day period, these donations are received monthly. We distribute donations TheGivingMachine has received at the end of every month.



From September 1st, 2011:
- For cheque payments, we will pay querterly for all schools and charities here the total donations received are over £25 for any school or charity, we will hold them in a balance until the next quarter.
- For BACS payments, we will pay monthly for all balances over £15 to facilitate faster payment.



Some shops are faster than others at paying their partners. Unfortunately some of the most popular ones can also be the slowest. However, once donations are showing on your Giver account, they are being tracked by both the shop and TheGivingMachine™.

One reason that the online shop takes so long to pay commissions is that it provides for returns of any faulty goods. In the event that a sale is reversed, the online shop can deduct a previously paid commission off the next month’s payments to TheGivingMachine™. We will do likewise.

In the unlikely event that we cannot immediately match a donation with a specific user and their account, we will investigate the transaction and use our best endeavours to allocate it correctly.

We allocate funds to whatever beneficiaries are assigned by each individual Giver at the time of the transaction with the retailers.

Although we are often adding retailers to the site, some retailers change their marketing strategies from time to time. We therefore have to remove them from our site at these times.

Gift aid can be claimed when a UK tax payer donates to their charity and the charity can claim back tax paid on the income being donated. However, in our case, the monies being donated are not originated from Givers (UK taxpayers) but are sales commissions that have been earned by TheGivingMachine. Therefore, it is TheGivingMachine Ltd. making the donations in accordance with the wishes of Givers and therefore donations are not eligible for Gift Aid.

On 25th June 2009 we upgraded our Charity Donation Report to give you a clearer picture of what donations are coming your way and how many Givers you have supporting you. You can now see donations pending payment from the retailers, along with your balalnce and what has been paid to you.

We know that this updated report took some time to complete. We were about to complete the work a few months ago and then one of our partners changed the way they sent us retailer data. While their report was now improved, it meant that we had to redesign what we were doing. Hey ho, these things happen and we’re pleased to be able to finally have this item complete.

The only details that TheGivingMachine uses are the ones you provided for your Giver account (email address, post code etc.).

When you make purchases viaTheGivingMachine, you are buying directly from the shop and TheGivingMachine does not have any involvement with that purchase or the information you provide to an online shop.

TheGivingMachine receives a data report from the online shops that enables us to match up donations to the Givers that generated them.

We use BACs bank transfers for donation payments to all charities where they have a balance of £15 or more.

Here’s how to send in your charity’s details

We will always try our best to resolve any problems that have arisen in the course of the correct use of our website. If you have contacted us already, feel that we have not dealt with the issue appropriately and would like to take further action, please contact us and ask for our Complaints Procedure to be forwarded to you. This procedure follows guidelines which are set out by the FRSB (of which we are a member) and explains what to do next.