How does it work?  Merchants pay us a commission when you click on a link in the toolbar and buy something.  For example, at  JewelryTelevision.com, 4% of your purchase price gets donated to charity. We receive a portion of the revenue to help with operating costs, toolbar and software development, administrative expenses, as well as employee and contractor expenses. At least 50% of revenues will be donated to charity. Our goal, once we reach sufficient volume, is to donate over 90% of revenues to charity.  Without naming names, other similar sites donate as little as 10% of their profit to charity. 

What percentage of the purchase price is donated to charity? Good question. But, a little tough to answer. Each merchant's commission rate is different. Some pay up to 25% commission, while others pay as little as  1%. Some even exclude certain products and they don't earn commissions at all. 

That said, whatever the commission might be, whatever revenues we receive, at least 50% will go to charity.    

Why did you make the Do Good^TM Toolbar? We were listening to NPR one day and heard a show on the topic of social entrepreneurship. The show was about how we can use capitalism and business in order to benefit the lives of others. The radio show was motivating and it made us passionate about harnessing the power of the Internet in order to help others online. 

On the radio show, they called 2007 the "Year of Doing Good". That's how the Do Good^TM Toolbar was born. We hope that just by shopping online, you can Do Good^TM , at no extra cost to you. Think about it: Just by doing what you normally do, shopping online, you can help other people and Do Good^TM in the world. 

Do I need to visit this site every time I want to shop? No. You just have to click on the links in the Shop/ Give menu of the Do Good^TM Toolbar. 

Do I have to click the Shop/Give button every time I want to shop? Yes. This is important. If you don't click on one of the links in the Shop / Give menu, then your purchase will not be tracked and we will not be able to donate a portion of the proceeds to charity. 

Do I need to sign up or register  so that I can use the  Do Good^TMToolbar and shop for charity? No. Unlike other sites that collect your personal information, you do not need to sign up or register for anything in order for charities to benefit from your online shopping. Just Download Do Good^TM Toolbar , click the Shop / Give menu, click a merchant and you are good to go. 

Do I pay anything additional? Are the prices the different? Nope. Not one cent different. This is great because it means that the only difference in your online shopping is that a portion of the proceeds (At least 50%) is donated to charity at no additional cost to you.

Do I need to pay to use the Toolbar? No. The Do Good^TM Toolbar is completely free to use. 

The merchant that I want to buy from is not listed on the Shop / Give menu. Can a portion of the proceeds go to charity? No. BUT, if you would like to recommend a merchant, please contact us and we will contact the merchant. Some merchants are not interested in partnering with us to donate a portion of the proceeds to charity. We think that is too bad. 

We are adding more and more merchants all the time. So, check the Shop / Give menu frequently. The menu auto-updates with merchants as they have been added. So, just because a merchant is not listed right now; Check back, maybe the merchant will be listed in the Shop / Give menu soon. 

I just visited a web site and bought something, but I didn't use the Toolbar's Shop / Give menu, can a portion of the proceeds still go to charity? Unfortunately, no. Unless you click on a link in the Shop / Give menu before making a purchase, we have no way to track the sale and donate a portion of the proceeds to charity.  

What about past/prior purchases? Same deal as above. You must first click on a link in the Shop / Give menu. Otherwise, we can not track the sale and can therefore not donate a portion of the proceeds to charity.  

What charities do you donate to? We rotate the charities that we donate to on a regular basis.In the past, we have donated to: 1. Doctors Without Borders, USA 2. Mercy Corps 3. The Robin Hood Foundation, 4. Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans (Helping in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina).

These are all "4 Star" charities as evaluated by Charity Navigator. Additionally, when selecting charities, we focused on those that tended to funnel most of their money into program expenses, while keeping other expenses low. 

Are purchases tax deductible? Unfortunately, no. You can only claim a tax deduction when you pay over and above the purchase price of an item. Since the prices are exactly the same as you would pay without the Do Good^TM Toolbar, no tax deduction can be claimed. 

Can I nominate my charity to get listed on your site or receive donations? Absolutely Yes. Please contact us with the details and we will investigate the possibility of including your charity in the future. 

I want the proceeds from my purchase to go to a specific charity. Can you do that? Unfortunately, not at the present time. This would require additional infrastructure to develop a system that would support this. We may do this in the future, but we are currently focused on keeping operating costs low and maximizing contributions to a smaller number of charities. 

Additionally, while diversification is a good investment strategy, it is not a good strategy for donating to charities. We hope that by focusing on a smaller number of well-run charities, then we can do more good in the long-run.  

I just bought something. How do you know my sale tracked in your system? We do not keep your personal information, so we can not track down your personal purchase. However, we use trusted third-party providers to track sales and have every confidence that your purchase was counted. 

Are you affiliated with any of the radio stations that I can listen to with the Do Good^TM Toolbar? No. We are not affiliated with NPR, CNN, Fox News, or any of the other stations that are in the default radio station play list. We find these stations are valuable, have a mass appeal, and are useful for people. But, we are not affiliated with these radio stations in much the same way that your TV manufacturer is not affiliated with the TV stations that you can pick up. 

Is shopping on your site secure? Is my credit card card information safe? You are not shopping on our site, but on the site of the merchants that we shop with. So, we never collect your credit card or any other personal information. We only partner with high quality,

How can I help to  Do Good^TM? How do I let other people know about your site? Really glad you asked. You can Do Good^TM by passing the word along about the Toolbar. Email your friends, family members, and co-workers, and let them know about the Do Good^TM Toolbar. We even created a handy form to make it easy to tell people about the Do Good^TM Toolbar. 

And, if you have a Blog, or a website,

Toolbar Technical Questions

Does the Toolbar and radio work on Macs? Not currently. The Toolbar was designed for Windows users. But, Mac users of FireFox should be able to Download The Do Good^TM Toolbar, and click the Shop / Give button so that charities can benefit from your online shopping. However, the radio won't be installed. 

How do I uninstall the toolbar? Obviously, we hope you don't get rid of the Do Good^TM Toolbar. But, if you do, uninstalling is a snap:

In Internet Explorer:

1. Open your computer's Control Panel then select "Add or Remove Programs". 

2. Find "Do Good" in the list of installed applications and click on it. 

3. Click on the "Change/Remove" button.

In FireFox: 

2. Select "Extensions".

3. Find "Do Good" in the list of installed extensions and click on it.

4. Click on the "Uninstall" button.

Who makes the toolbar? We developed the Toolbar with the help of a third-party vendor called Conduit. They have some additional help pages and you can contact them for additional technical support for the Toolbar.