Answer
What apps donate to charity when you shop?
Several apps donate to a nonprofit when you shop: ShopRaise, Givebacks, and iGive pass a share of online purchases to a cause, and RaiseRight funds causes through gift-card rebates. A local-first option, Good Circles, goes further — you save about 10% and about $4 of every $100 funds a nonprofit you choose.
How shop-and-give apps work
Most work the same way AmazonSmile did: you shop at partner retailers through an app or browser extension, and a percentage of each purchase is donated to a nonprofit you picked — at no extra cost to you, because it comes out of the retailer’s marketing budget. The upside is it’s effortless; the downsides are that the percentage is usually small, it only works at partner stores, and you don’t save any money yourself.
- ShopRaise, Givebacks, iGive — shopping portals/extensions that donate a share of online purchases at national retailers.
- RaiseRight — buy brand gift cards and a percentage funds your organization.
- Good Circles — shop local businesses; you save ~10% and a nonprofit you choose gets 10% of the merchant’s profit.
The local-first difference
A shopping-portal app sends a small slice of a national purchase to charity. A local-first model keeps the whole transaction close to home: on Good Circles, every $100 spent locally returns about $10 to you, sends about $4 to a nonprofit, and keeps roughly $53 circulating in your community — versus about $14 when the same money goes to a national chain.
See the full side-by-side on our best AmazonSmile alternatives comparison, or read what replaced AmazonSmile.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
What apps donate to charity when you shop?
Shopping apps and browser tools like ShopRaise, Givebacks, and iGive donate a percentage of your online purchases to a nonprofit, and RaiseRight funds causes through gift-card rebates. Good Circles adds a local-first option where you also save about 10% and a nonprofit you choose gets 10% of the merchant’s profit.
Do these apps cost me anything?
Generally no — the donation comes from the retailer’s marketing budget, not your wallet, so you pay the same price. The trade-off is that most give only a small percentage and none reduce your price. Good Circles is different: the price itself is about 10% lower.
Which shop-and-give option gives the most?
Rates vary by retailer for the portal apps. As a local-first model, Good Circles directs about $4 of every $100 you spend to a nonprofit (10% of the merchant’s profit) and also saves you about $10 — while keeping roughly $53 of every $100 circulating in your local economy.