What do charity affiliate programmes really pay?

Who pays you, and who gets the money. Four of these programmes are run by the charity itself (Oxfam's online shop, the Royal British Legion, charity: water and Compassion International), so your commission is paid out of the sale or the gift. The rest are companies that pay you and give separately:

• BookKind states both cuts as shares of the same order: 8% to you (5% for a returning customer) and 10% to a charity the customer picks.
• Who Gives A Crap gives 50% of its profits, not a share of each order, so how much one sale gives isn't stated.
• Bombas gives clothing, not money; Better World Books gives books; GreaterGood gives an unstated "portion" of each sale.
• Pura Vida is the weakest charity link here: it says only that it supports "a number of charitable organizations".
• Omaze is a prize draw, not a charity: its charity partner gets a fixed guaranteed sum per draw (£1,000,000 on the draw shown), not a share of each entry.

Most per new order. In the UK, Oxfam's shop and the Royal British Legion pay 10% (£5 on a £50 order), BookKind 8% and Who Gives A Crap 2%; Omaze pays "up to" £7, which beats 10% only on orders under £70. In the US, charity: water pays 20% of a one-time donation ($10 on $50), or $40 on a monthly donation, though its listing doesn't say whether that is once per donor or every month. Compassion International and Bombas pay 10%, Better World Books 5%, and GreaterGood, Who Gives A Crap and Pura Vida 2%.

Headline rates that shrink. Who Gives A Crap's own 2023 affiliate page says "up to 12%"; its live Awin listings, UK and US, say 2%. Pura Vida's page says "up to 15%"; its Impact contract is 2%, and 0% for creators.

At each merchant's own published average order: GreaterGood 2% of $40+ is about $0.80; Pura Vida Bracelets 2% of over $40 is about $0.80.

Longest cookie: GreaterGood, 45 days. Most are 30 days; Omaze is 7. 4 publish no cookie length at all: charity: water, Compassion International, Bombas, Better World Books.

Paid per click, sign-up or referral, not per order: World Vision (US) — $0.50 per click to World Vision pages, whether or not anyone gives; Donorbox — 15% of the platform fees a nonprofit you refer pays for its first three years (its fee is 2.95% of donations, so $44.25 if that nonprofit raises $10,000); $50 minimum payout; Royal British Legion sign-ups — £10 per new direct debit donor and £8 per Poppy Lottery sign-up.

Two names publish no rate: TOMS — its own page promises revenue 'on every shipped sale' but names no rate or cookie; terms sit behind a Partnerize login; Givebutter — its 'Referral partners' track offers an introduction to its community, not a stated payment; givebutter.com/affiliates is a 404.

easyfundraising and Give as you Live are themselves the affiliate: retailers pay them, and they pass the money to the charity the shopper picks. A blogger earns nothing from either, and even their referral bonuses go to the referrer's charity, which is why they are not in the earnings above.

• easyfundraising says it passes "at least 50%" of the commission to the shopper's chosen cause; its own example is up to 4% of a booking.com hotel, £6 on £150. Its partner scheme pays an organisation a commission on its members' donations, at no published rate, and is UK only.
• Give as you Live keeps "a small percentage" and donates the rest; referring a friend earns the referrer's chosen charity a £5 bonus once the friend raises £5.

Amazon Associates forbids offering a donation to charity as a reason to use your links. Its policy says, in the same words on the UK and US sites:

"You will not offer any person or entity any consideration, reward, or incentive (including any money, rebate, discount, points, donation to charity or other organization, or other benefit) for using Special Links."

So "buy through my Amazon link and I'll donate my commission" breaks the rules. No feature for donating your commission was found on Awin's or Impact's own help pages; that is "not found", not proof that none exists.

• The headline rate is often not your rate. BookKind: 8% is for new customers; returning customers earn 5%. Who Gives A Crap: its own 2023 affiliate pages say 'up to 12%'; its live Awin listings, UK and US, say 2% for new customers. Omaze: £7 is a ceiling ('up to'); the base rate isn't published. GreaterGood: the 2%-8% is tiered, with the better rates for 'premium affiliates'. Bombas: 10% is for new customers; existing customers earn 1%. Better World Books: 5% is its general rate; it may set a lower one at first. Pura Vida Bracelets: its own page says 'up to 15%'; its Impact contract is 2%, and its creator contract 0%.
• Some pay per click or sign-up instead. World Vision (US) — $0.50 per click to World Vision pages, whether or not anyone gives; Donorbox — 15% of the platform fees a nonprofit you refer pays for its first three years (its fee is 2.95% of donations, so $44.25 if that nonprofit raises $10,000); $50 minimum payout; Royal British Legion sign-ups — £10 per new direct debit donor and £8 per Poppy Lottery sign-up.
• The cookie decides who gets paid. Most here last 30 days; Omaze's lasts 7, so a reader who comes back the next week earns you nothing.
• Every programme has rules. BookKind won't work with voucher-code sites and asks affiliates not to use its charity partners' logos; the Legion can decline any affiliate it deems inappropriate; Bombas pays on net sales, excluding shipping, taxes and returns.
• Programmes come and go. Cancer Research UK, Christian Aid, Social Supermarket and Love Your Melon all have Awin profiles that now return "Not found".

An AI agent read each programme's terms on the charity's or merchant's own site, or its own profile on the affiliate network it uses, and copied the sentence behind every figure; code checked each sentence was really on the page before it could be used. Roundups and directories were used only to find names, never for a figure.

This page replaces an older list of charity affiliate programmes on this site. There are no affiliate links on this page and nothing on it earns a commission.

earned per order = the order or gift × the programme's rate for a new customer, or its flat fee per sale

Live, but no rate published: TOMS — its own page promises revenue 'on every shipped sale' but names no rate or cookie; terms sit behind a Partnerize login; Givebutter — its 'Referral partners' track offers an introduction to its community, not a stated payment; givebutter.com/affiliates is a 404.

Left out: Cancer Research UK online shop — its Awin profile now returns 'Not found'; Christian Aid / Present Aid — its Awin programme now returns 'Not found', and older rates on Awin's blog aren't current; Plan International — the only live programme is Plan International Germany's; none for the UK or US; American Cancer Society, Save the Children US and CARE — rates appear only in roundups; no page by the charity or its network could be found; St. Jude Children's Research Hospital — its Impact listing shows 'No results found'; Love Your Melon — its Awin profile returns 'Not found' and its affiliate page is a 404; Social Supermarket — its Awin profile now returns 'Not found'; 4ocean — its affiliate page is a 404; Ten Thousand Villages — no affiliate page on its site or on a network; GoFundMe and JustGiving — no affiliate or referral-pay programme; Novica — a fair-trade marketplace, not a charity scheme; Ethical Superstore — an ethical retailer whose listing states no charity donation; The Goodness Project — its only giving is planting a tree per order; Ecologi — a company funding tree planting; its referral option states no payment.