Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What is a Spend and Raise eStore?

    It’s one of the most generous online shopping sites when raising money for a cause.

    An eStore is a directory of hundreds of your favourite online shopping retailers. These include John Lewis, Debenhams, Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer and many more.

    Each time you shop with these retailers via your eStore, a commission is generated and given to your cause.

    It's a great way to raise money for your charity, sports group, school, church, or not for profit organisation. Your eStore is free, there are no set up or ongoing fees, and it's updated for you by Spend and Raise.

    There are always great offers for you and your supporters to choose from, and with the commission that your cause receives from every purchase, it’s a win-win scenario for everyone.

  2. How does the eStore work?

    Every time someone visit the eStore, clicks through to a retailer's website via a banner or text link and makes a purchase, a commission is generated and then given to the eStore account by the retailer.

  3. So how does it technically work?

    When a retailer link or product is clicked, and the Supporter is taken from the eStore to the retailer's website, a cookie is placed on the Supporter's computer.

    A cookie is a very small text file which contains information such as the date and time that the Supporter visited the eStore and clicked on the banner/link that took them to the retailer’s website.

    Spend and Raise cookies do not contain or access any personal data, they do not contain viruses, cannot read your hard drive and cannot carry out any functions on your computer.

    If you would like to speak to us about the best cookie settings for your browser, to ensure that your transactions process successfully, please contact us.

  4. How do I make sure that my purchases track?

    Whilst the vast majority of transactions do track, there are situations where something can go wrong. This can be for a number of reasons including anti-spyware, anti-virus or other protection on your computer might prevent commission tracking back to your account.

    In order to aid successful tracking on your computer, please consider the following points:

    1)  Always start your shopping journey at your Spend and Raise eStore and complete the process from here.


    2) Ensure that you purchase immediately after clicking through from your eStore. Do not click to any other sites during this process and do not use any codes/deals other than those promoted on your Spend and Raise eStore.

    3) Ensure that your internet browser and firewall/security software is enabled to allow cookies.

  5. Do I have to make my purchase immediately?

    Transactions must be completed immediately and wholly online via your Spend and Raise eStore.


    This means that you can't click through to a retailer’s website and place items in your basket and then come back and purchase them at a different time. Or you can't generate a quote, save it, and then come back and purchase that saved quote.

    You can go back and make a purchase with the retailer if you want, but you must start the process from the beginning again, not using any previously saved quotes or shopping baskets.

  6. How much commission does each retailer give?

    There are different commission rates for different retailers, and sometimes on different product ranges within their sites, e.g. Expedia currently offers 7% commission on hotels and 6.5% commission on car hire etc.

    [As at Feb 2012]

  7. How do we add our logo, photo, brand colours and information about our cause?

    Once you have signed up for an eStore, you'll be sent instructions on how to customise your site.

  8. How can we check how much commission we've raised?

    Visit your eStore and look at the list of ‘Latest Fundraisers’. This includes all transactions that have recently been made and will be confirmed by the retailers shortly.

    As the administrator you can log in to the admin area and as a supporter you can create your own account and look under ‘My transactions’ to view all purchases made via the eStore. Please note that if any transactions are made without logging in, commission will be awarded to the eStore but they won’t show up in your supporter account.

  9. Can we change our eStore URL to something else?

    Yes, please email info@spendandraise with more details and we'll be able to change this for you. Please note that the old link won't work any longer once this has been changed over.

  10. How do I hand over the account to someone else in our organisation?

    If you have the log in details, log into the admin area and change the email address to the new contact’s email address, and create a new password that you can pass onto them. It may be useful to send them an email with the link to the eStore, the link to the admin log in and the email address you’ve changed it to, along with the password.

     

    If you don’t remember the log in details, or you are the new contact and you’d like to log in, then please contact Spend and Raise and we’ll help to change the account over. Please note that we may need verification that you are associated with the organisation.

  11. What’s the quickest way to spread the word?

     Here are our top five ideas to promote your eStore:

    •    Add a link or banner to your eStore from your own website if your organisation has one.
    •    Spread the word in meetings, talk about your eStore with all your friends and family, and ask them to do the same.
    •    Ask your local companies to buy their office supplies and company travel via your eStore.
    •    Jump on the social media bandwagon and promote your eStore on your Twitter and Facebook profiles. Don’t forget to ‘follow’ and ‘like’ us for updates and special offers.
    •    Forward our weekly email newsletter to your supporters to ensure they have the latest offers to take advantage of.

  12. How does the cause actually get paid?

    Once the retailer has confirmed the transaction, they will send the commission to Spend and Raise. This usually takes 1-2 months to ensure that purchased items aren’t returned or exchanged or that insurance policies or holidays aren’t cancelled.

    Spend and Raise then create monthly payments straight into the organisation's bank account via a BACS transfer, providing the £20 threshold has been met.

  13. How does Spend and Raise make money?

    The commission that Spend and Raise receives from the retailers is given to the causes. The tracking technology behind the eStores has been developed by the parent company Digital Window who receives a small fee from the retailers with every confirmed purchase.

     

  14. Do we need to register and log in when shopping via the eStore?

    No, which is great because remembering passwords can be tricky. Purchases will still generate a commission for your cause.

    However, if you wish to track how much you have raised with the eStore, or if you wish to see your name on the ‘Latest Fundraisers’ list, then you will need to create an account. Simply click on the 'Register' link at the top right on your eStore.

  15. A commission isn't showing, what can we do?

    If you didn’t log in to your eStore account prior to making a purchase, your transaction will still track but it will appear as ‘Anonymous’ in the list of ‘Latest Fundraisers’.

    If you did log in but a transaction isn’t showing, please email us and include the following information: name, email address, eStore URL (eg. www.spendandraise.com/example), retailer, date of transaction, transactional value, expected commission, description of items purchased, customer reference/order number and any comments.

    Please note that we can accept commission enquiries up to and including 2 calendar months from the date of the transaction.

  16. We're worried about personal details on the internet, are we protected?

    The security of credit card and personal details is taken very seriously by Spend and Raise. We only deal with retailers who we are confident adhere to best practice when shopping online.

    The eStore does not take your personal credit card information. 

  17. We'd like to refer another cause, can our eStore benefit from this?

    At the moment, there is no referral fee.

    However, we are working on this functionality to enable you to benefit from referring Spend and Raise to other not for profit organisations.

  18. We have a question that has not been answered here. How can we contact Spend and Raise?

    Please email us and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

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