-At no extra cost to you- Please consider supporting the charity for which I am a Trustee: Luton All Women’s Centre
If you shop online through for example John Lewis, Argos, Waitrose, Amazon, eBay and Booking.com, you can do a simple thing to donate to charity, at no extra cost to you.
How it works: You essentially allocate your purchase ‘commission’ to a charity. Search engines like Google or voucher websites receive a small ‘kick back’ every time a purchase is made through their site. If you shop using the links below, that ‘kick back’ will go to charity instead (around .5% of your purchase cost, whatever it may be).
Please use the links below to give your ‘kick back’ to any charity, although I would like to cheekily suggest the one for which I am a Trustee: Luton All Women’s Centre (LAWC)! LAWC empowers women in many different areas and offers resources to women in domestic abuse situations.
How to do it: It’s easy–before you start shopping, open this link: https://www.thegivingmachine.co.uk/ (or specifically for Amazon: smile.amazon.co.uk). Create an account (they’re trustworthy!) then click on the retailer you want (John Lewis, Argos, Waitrose, Amazon, eBay and Booking.com, etc), complete your purchase, and that’s it–a ‘kick back’ will be given to your charity of choice (again–hint hint, please consider selecting Luton All Women’s Centre!)
It will make a difference: The donation is a small amount of your overall purchase, but it all counts and helps us empower women.
Give while you shop!
We have some exciting fundraising news to share with you!
With the Black Friday shopping bonanza and the run-up to Christmas just ahead of us, did you know that, while you shop for the best deals online, you can now also make a donation to Luton All Women’s Centre? Even better news, it won’t even cost you (or us) a single penny!
We’ve signed up to two online platforms which make this really simple. So, here’s how you can be part of our fundraising efforts this Christmas and, in fact, all year-round:
Amazon Smile – Go to smile.amazon.co.uk
With Amazon Smile, every time you shop with Amazon, they will donate a portion of the eligible purchase price to your selected charity. You do not pay anything more!
If you’re already an Amazon shopper, switching to Amazon Smile is probably one of the easiest ways to add charitable donations to your shopping habits. You can log in to Amazon Smile using your existing Amazon account, the site is instantly familiar and you’ll be able to select from the same huge range of items as you would normally. The only difference is that, when you first visit Amazon Smile, you get to select a charitable organisation who will receive your donations. You can change your charity at any time but please make Luton All Women’s Centre your first choice!
How the donations are made: Amazon donates 0.5% of the net purchase price to your chosen charity. Donations are made with respect to eligible products. While that doesn’t include everything you’ll find on Amazon, millions of items are eligible and, if you want to ensure your purchase leads to a donation, simply look out for the “Eligible for smile.amazon.co.uk donation” marker.
Get started: Go to smile.amazon.co.uk from the web browser on your computer or mobile device and log in or register a new account. You will then be prompted to choose your charity (we are listed as ‘Luton Women Centre’) and, after that, you can just shop as normal. You may also want to bookmark smile.amazon.co.uk so that it’s even easier to return to AmazonSmile whenever you shop.
The Giving Machine – go to thegivingmachine.co.uk
With a very similar process, the Giving Machine acts like a window to over 2,200 different retailers and automatically generates donations* to your chosen causes every time your shop (again at no extra cost to you).
Many big names like John Lewis, Argos, Waitrose, Amazon, eBay and Booking.com are all on their list, so when you want to shop online, you’ll still be able to browse directly on your favourite retailer’s own websites (just as you would before). The only difference is you make one extra click by going to thegivingmachine.co.uk first and then navigate to your chosen shop from there.
How the donations are made: Every year, online shops pay millions in sales commissions to other websites that direct shoppers to them (e.g. search engines and voucher code websites). The Giving Machine turns these commissions into donations and passes them on to your favourite charitable causes.
Get started: Go to www.thegivingmachine.co.uk/causes/luton-all-womens-centre and join as a ‘giver’, it’s that easy. (In case you navigate away from our page, you can just search for us, using our sign-up code which is 266712.) Complete a few details to register your account and you’ll be ready to shop! You can also download a free desktop reminder and/or a mobile app to make your shopping experience even easier in the future – find it here www.thegivingmachine.co.uk/shop-and-give/
Start helping the most vulnerable women and girls in Luton and Bedfordshire
Like most things on the Internet, Amazon Smile and The Giving Machine both have terms and conditions that we’d recommend you read before signing up but all-in-all these two websites make it really easy for you to help a charity or cause you care about.
Over the last year at Luton All Women’s Centre, we’ve helped over 700 women/ girls to fight back against the disadvantages and trauma they’ve faced in their lives (mostly due to experiences of violence or abuse against them). By joining one of these ‘give while you shop’ platforms, you’ll be helping us to continue our vital work in 2020.
I hope, as you tick off those holiday shopping lists in the coming weeks, that we can count on your support. Thank you.
P.S. If you would prefer to make a one-off donation of just £20 to our work this Christmas, please text the word WOMAN to 70085. (This costs £20 plus a std rate message).