The Best Way to Save Money & Give Back While You Shop

The Giving Assistant is a great way to save money and give back to charity while you shop online. Learn how to save and give for free with this easy online tool.

Thank you Giving Assistant for sponsoring this post and inspiring me to give more to charity. This post uses affiliate links. They don’t cost you a thing & help us bring you creative ideas.

How many times over the last year have you been asked if you wanted to “make a donation to (insert charity name here)” as you checkout at your favorite store?

I can’t even count of the number of paper balloons, hearts and stars I’ve been asked to write my name on (or been begged by my kids to pay for so they can write their names on) this year. I’ve said yes a few times but I always feel slightly embarrassed, ambushed, and annoyed when I step up to the register and am immediately asked to add a donation to my transaction.

Checkout Charity Overload

Checkout charity is becoming more and more common, but I've decided not to do it anymore. Why? I don’t like the high pressure tactic and I don’t feel the need to have my donations publicly applauded or announced over the intercom (it's commonly done at one local store).

I’d rather spare the poor cashier the job of asking me to give and establish a regular giving relationship with a charity that is special to my heart.

Online Shopping to Earn Cash Back & Give to Charity

I was recently introduced to the Giving Assistant, a free cash back shopping site, that allows me to give to my favorite charities while I shop online.

Here’s how it works:

Sign up for a free Giving Assistant account.
Shop online at your favorite stores.
Earn cash back on your purchased (typically 1.5 – 8% per store).
Have the cash transferred to you via check or Paypal or gift the funds to any 501c charity recognized by the IRS.

It’s really that easy! I am amazed by how fast the savings can add up on my regular online shopping.

Benefits of Earning Cash Back with the Giving Assistant

Low Payouts – The minimum payout is $5.01, distributed once a month. I love not having to wait months and months to reach the higher payout one other cash back sites.

You Choose the Charity & What to Give – You choose to donate as little or as much of the cash back to charity. No pressure!

Provide Meals for Needy Families – Giving Assistant donates a meal to a needy American family via Feeding America, the nation’s leading hunger-relief charity, when a qualifying coupon is used. 599,242 meals have been donated to date!

Earn Cash Back at 1,794 Stores – My favorites stores are World Market (8% cash back), Etsy, (4% cash back), Old Navy (4% cash back), Vitacost (4% cash back), and The Honest Co (5% cash back).

How To Use Giving Assistant

I recently used the Giving Assistant to buy my kids some school clothes at Old Navy online. I’ll walk you through the easy process.

Visit Giving Assistant and sign up for a free account.

You can use your Facebook account or email address to create a Giving Assistant account.

Add a button to your browser to make Giving Assistant easy to remember.

This optional step automatically takes you to your Giving Assistant Account when shopping.

Choose a charity and the amount much of cash back you want to donate to charity.

There are numerous charities to choose from. I was excited to find two of my favorite charities on Giving Assistant: the Environmental Working Group and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.

Find stores using the search bar or view the entire list by clicking the Cash Back Stores tab.

I searched for Old Navy.

Review the store page then click the button to shop.

On each store page you can see coupons and special offers that can be used with Giving Assistant. The button will open a new tab for shopping.

Select your items and check out.

No special process is needed, you just shop and check out as you normally would when shopping online.

Check you Giving Assistant account to see your cash back earnings.

Cash back should be credited to your account within 24 hrs.

Try Giving Assistant Today

It's really just that fast and easy to start saving and donating with Giving Assistant. I hope you create an account today!

Bonus Giving Assistant Tip – You can refer friends to Giving Assistant and earn $5 for each referral. Save the bonus for yourself or give it to charity. It's another win-win!

This year I’ll smile and say, “Thanks for asking, but not today!” at the cash register with no guilt. I know that I’ll be earning and giving more with the Giving Assistant.

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