Do a little good with each online purchase

SwipeGood applies your spare change to your favorite charity

Guest post by Sherry Miller
Socialbrite

A2-month-old San Francisco start-up, SwipeGood, now offers you the easiest, least expensive way to give to charity. SwipeGood rounds up all of your credit card purchases to the nearest dollar and allows you to donate the difference to the charity of your choice.

If you buy a $95.47 gadget, then 53 cents will be donated to charity. Every purchase you make with your credit card or debit card — not just your charitable donations — can make a difference to nonprofits. It’s simple:

1. Sign up your card.
2. Round up your purchases.
3. Automatically donate the change to charity.

“SwipeGood is dedicated to making it easy for everyone to give back andhave a meaningful impact on the world around us,” says spokesperson Sunnie Tölle.

Here is how SwipeGood works: Once you’ve enrolled your credit or debit card with SwipeGood, it rounds up all of your credit card and debit card purchases to the nearest dollar and in this way allows you to donate the difference to the charity of your choice. SwipeGood doesn’t charge the spare change to your credit card or debit card each time you spend money. It aggregates your round-up amounts for 30 days and then charges your card once a month to save credit card fees and maximize the money that goes to charity.

On average, people are rounding up around $20 per month. You can review your transactions once you’ve logged into your SwipeGood account, and you can always set a monthly limit for your round-ups so you don’t end up donating more than you can afford. SwipeGood uses site-wide bank-level encryption to store your credit card information in a secure manner.

Users can switch their charity any time they want. New charities are added every week offering flexibility on who will benefit from your round-ups. Once you’ve signed up, you can specify a donation limit to make sure you can easily afford the good you do on SwipeGood. Monthly emails are distributed summarizing your transactions and round-ups for that month.

SwipeGood takes 5 percent of each monthly donation — well below the 15-20 percent that charities are paying for direct marketing and other ways of fundraising today. Taking a small percentage helps cover costs and deliver the best product to you and to the charities. On the SwipeGood dashboard, you’re able to suspend or reactivate your monthly donations at any time.

Get your charity on SwipeGood

If you manage a charity, you can implement recurring donations and free promotion for your charity. SwipeGood connects charities and supporters, facilitates the process of giving and creates awareness for meaningful causes. Sign up now and benefit in these ways:

1. SwipeGood is absolutely free for charities There are no costs at all. A small transaction fee will be charged to the donors only.
2. Generate additional income and get monthly donations from the SwipeGood community.
3. Create a dedicated page for your charity and expose it to a broader audience.
4. Make sure that people find you and stay connected with your donors. As a SwipeGood charity, you will be featured on the site’s home page and in partner media. This week’s featured charity is DonorsChoose.

Visit the SwipeGood website and sign up today. Follow @SwipeGood on Twitter, read more at the SwipeGood blog or contact Sunnie Tölle for more information.

SwipeGood gives you a chance to be a more giving person in 2011! So how about it? Sherry Miller is an editorial professional with extensive experience in nonprofit, fundraising and educational environments. Contact her or leave a comment below.