Summary of Last Night’s Chat with Giving2Gether.org Owner

We had a great chat last night — for about 2 hours — with Giving2Gether.org owner Vince Martin. Thanks to all who were able to make it, and for those who couldn’t, here’s a summary:
Vince described G2G as “a shopping-based site that gives you cash back for your purchases (up to 35%) and generally higher than most sites online and we give you the opportunity to keep all of that cash back or donate from 10 to 100% of it to a registered non-profit or any k-12 public school in the country.”
Payout is quarterly, by check, with a $10 minimum. This, Vince says, is to make sure that any purchases that are returned are accounted for properly before the rebates are paid out. If you choose a charity to receive a part of your rebate, they’re also required to meet the $10 threshold to be paid. Any amounts under $10 are of course carried over to the next quarter. Payments over $10 are made within 30 days of the end of the quarter.
Vince stressed, “We DO pay,” and went on to say, “at the end of the day, you’ve got more cash…even if it takes a little longer to receive it.” I confirmed this, by noting that in my recent shopping comparison, I found that Giving2Gether.org paid the highest rebates for 11 out of 13 merchants, compared to 5 other rewards programs (including Fatwallet, Ebates, and MyPoints). G2G currently has about 160 merchants.
We talked a good while about the “community” side of G2G. “We just launched a host of features to build out the community side more,” Vince said. “We want people to connect with each other and start creating real solutions to real problems.” Vince said that he started this rewards program because he wanted to “empower people to make a difference.” He feels that people are made to feel powerless these days, but that if we come together for a common purpose we have tremendous potential.
A list of nonprofits already enrolled in the program is here. But ANY nonprofit can enroll in the program — your church, private school, fireman/policeman organization, health support group, you name it. Then their purchases made through the site will earn rebates, and other folks can choose them as a charity to support with THEIR rebates. “Seriously, this has the potential to put hundreds of millions of dollars into good causes every year…without costing givers a penny. That is mind-boggling,” Vince said.
We discussed some of the ways that G2G members could connect with others who had the same passions. Members can create a profile visible to others in which they discuss what causes they support. The site has a forum for givers to talk about their causes, to share information and to work with others. Vince said, “That’s what G2G is about…connecting people who’ve been affected similarly or share common concerns.”
Giving2Gether is having a referral contest right now where the winner will get a prize package worth over $3,000 and 10 runners-up will receive a $25 GC! Details are here — right now first place is VERY attainable (18 first-level referrals would get you 1st!; you earn points on multiple referral levels, though).
I think those were the major points that we discussed. Huge thanks to Vince for taking so much of his time to talk with us about the program, rewards programs in general, and some of his personal favorite causes. He stressed that he was open to suggestions and was interested in hearing user feedback. I have his email address if anyone wants it.
The main thing I want to stress about this program is that it enables you to give to your favorite cause just by making purchases you’d make online anyway. And if you’re not a big online shopper, you still have the potential to make a difference: just share the site link with any non-profit organizations that you know of that need help in fund-raising (don’t they all?). Please help spread the word about this site, because working together we CAN make a difference.
Giving2Gether.org

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