Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Is Shop for your Charity a charity organisation?  

A. No, we are not a typical registered charity organisation, nor are we a purely profit driven company.  Sharing a percentage of our sales with charities is part of our business model and our purpose for existence is to turn our everyday consumption of goods to also giving back to charities. And we give our customers the choice to pick which charity a portion of their purchase should go to. 

 

Q. How much of your sales or profit is allocated to charities?

A. We allocate 5% of our total sales/revenue (not profit) to a charity that our customers choose.  So if your total order value is $55 (including tax, but excludes shipping costs), then we allocate $2.75 to be given away to a charity that you've picked.  Our minimum baseline contribution is always 5% of every transaction but sometimes for special occasions, we will opt to donate a higher percentage of your spend i.e. during Christmas. 

Shipping costs are not included in the charity donations as they are not part of our revenue but rather just a cost for service that we use to deliver your order.  

 

Q. Am I able to choose fundraising campaigns or fundraising events to donate to? 


A. Even though we believe that fundraising events and campaigns in community and schools do a lot of good in helping to raise money and awareness for great causes, it is not easy to validate or verify their existence and true intention as many are often temporary or one-off events.  While many of them are legit, there are also possibilities for fake charity campaigns or events to be created by anyone.  It is very easy for many fraudsters and scammers to set these up quickly and easily, then pretend to collect money for charities while preying on the goodwill and empathy of others.   

We strongly believe in ensuring the work we put into helping NZ charities actually goes into the hands of people who needs it most.  In order to prevent ourselves and our customers from falling for scams or frauds, we will only donate to registered NZ charities who have a long standing reputation on their operation and the visible work they have carried out in the public eye.  

And as a registered charity, all of these organisations would have undergone checks and audits by a governing organisation to qualify for their registration. This gives us a higher level of reassurance and trust that the money we donate to them will benefit the cause. 

 

Q. Which charity organisation can I pick for the 5% of my spend to go to?



A. You can pick from a list of charity organisations from the selection provided in your shopping cart page before checking out (see below). 


 

Q. If the charity that I want to choose is not on your available list, can I recommend a new charity to be added to the list? 

A. Yes, if you don't find the charity you're looking for, simply select "Other" as your choice and then write down the charity name in your order notes and we will review them first to ensure they are a legitimate and a registered NZ charity.  If you are looking to review a list of registered NZ charities, you can visit Charity Services NZ, which is a government organisation that keeps a record of all registered NZ charities. 


We will be in touch with you to let you know whether the charity that you have recommended in your order notes have been approved to receive the 5% of your spend.  If they are not approved, we will provide reasons as to why we have not been able to approve them and we will ask you to select another charity instead. 


Q. Why have you chosen those specific charity groups as the main default selection for customers to choose from? Is there something special about them that made you highlight them?   



A.There are many, many registered NZ charity organisations around the country, from the small, medium to large organisations. We are unable to list ALL of them on our shopping cart page as it could be a few pages that may go on for awhile.  Instead we picked the ones you see listed in the shopping cart based on a couple of reasons:

1) They are a registered NZ charity who are still active and operating. 

2) Their mission is to give back to the NZ community and to help & benefit the people of New Zealand.  It's important to look after those closest to us and that includes looking after our own communities. And there are many worthy causes in NZ that require our attention and our help to make NZ a special place to live.  

However we do encourage that if you don't find the NZ charity that you want 5% of your purchase to be donated to, then simply select 'Other' in the selection and specify in the order notes the name of the charity. 

 

Q. Will there ever be a time when Shop for your Charity will stop sharing its revenue with charities e.g. if it's losing money or not making a profit?



A.  We will always share our revenue with charities.  As long as we make sales and are in operation, 5% of our revenue will always be given to charities.  Our brand name and our business name; 'Shop for your Charity' is based on this sole purpose.  

Our livelihood of existing and operating as a business is based entirely on sharing our revenue with charities and allowing our customers to play a role in determining which charity our revenue is shared with.  

If there is ever a time we have stopped sharing our revenue with charities, it means we have stopped operating and have ceased to exist as a business. We hope it never comes to this as we want to continue fulfilling our purpose. 


Q. Will Shop for your Charity offer special discounts, sale or promotions to the customers? 



A.  Yes we will at times have special discounts and sale depending on the occasions like holidays or if we have a surplus of stock etc. 

However they will be rare. Instead of offering price discount to increase our sales, we prefer to offer a higher percentage of our revenue contribution to your chosen charities.  

This means on certain occasions or for a limited time, we will be giving 10% or 20% of our revenue to your chosen charities instead of the 5% baseline. So if you shopped with us during that special offer, you will pay the same price as you would normally do BUT you'll be helping to donate more of our sales revenue to your chosen charities.  

We believe this is a better alternative to price slashing our products simply to get sales.  We aim to offer a fair price for our products without the need for regular discounts or promotions.  If and when we do special promotions, it would often be to increase the percentage of revenue we share with your charities. 


Q. Are the charities that are listed in the selection affiliated or partnered with Shop for your Charity? 


A. We have reached out to many of these charities to let them know what we are doing and what our purpose is. But we are in not in affiliations with them or have any contractual relationships with them as a sponsor or as a partner.  

We do not view this as a marketing campaign or a sponsorship relationship.  Our purpose is simply to share our revenue with NZ charities to benefit our communities and the NZ people in need.  The charities we have listed on our shopping cart page do not promote us or have any obligation to promote us.  We do not have them or their logos/brands highlighted anywhere else on our website other than to list them as one of the options to choose from for our revenue to be donated to.  

 

Q. If I was to buy from your store and have selected my charity to have the donation go to, when will my charity receive that donation?  


A.  We make the donations at the beginning of each month from the sales we've received the previous month.  We tally up all the revenue we have generated from the orders received in the previous month and allocate 5% of the total revenue to the charities that our customers have selected. 

 

Q. How is the money being donated to the chosen charities? 


A.  For small amounts, we would either use the e-commerce feature on the charity website where they accept online donations via secure credit card transactions or if the charity has created a Give a Little account and requested their donors to use this, then we would make the donations to their Give a Little account.  

For bigger amounts of donations, we would contact the charity directly to let them know the amount we are wanting to donate and enquire with them the best way to transfer the amount.  Sometimes this could be via a direct bank transfer or another way nominated by the charity. 

 

Q. How do customers know that 5% of their spend is actually going to the charity they've chosen?  What proof can you provide to customers that their chosen charities are receiving the money? 



A.  We want our customers to not just feel but know for sure that they are able to make a difference.  We also believe we need to provide transparency with our customers and the public by showing where the money is going and to which charities. 

Donations are made bi-monthly (every 2 months).  Sales generated from the previous 2 months are tallied up and donated to the charities chosen by our customers. Once receipts are received from each charity, we upload the scanned copies of receipts and acknowledgement letters from the charities up on the website.

These receipts will be published in our blog article for that month and you will be notified via our newsletter to check out our latest blog. So if you've made an order in April, you'll be able to see the receipt from the donation we've made to your charity in the month of June. 

 

Q. What happens to the donations if I cancel my order or request a refund after I've received the goods?  


A.  Order cancellations can only be made before the order is processed.  If you  cancel your order prior to it being processed, then you will receive 100% of your money back and the donation would not have been made or allocated. 

However if you are requesting for a refund after you've received the products and the donation from your order value has already been given to the charity, then you will receive a refund of 95% of the product or order value.  The remaining 5% of the product/order value will be provided in our store credit that you can use in your next purchase. 

We hope that you understand this policy as we cannot and will not ask for money back from charities that we've already donated to.  
For more details of our refund policy, please click here
 


Q. What happens if I've forgotten to select or specify a charity when checking out?  


A.  If we receive your order without a charity having been chosen, we would first reach out to you via email to let you know. And we will give you a chance to specify which charity you'd like to support. 

However if we still don't hear back from you 5 days, we will choose a charity on your behalf where 5% of your spend will towards that charity.