Frequently Asked Questions
How do I raise money for my favorite charity through iRobinHood?
Search engines and online shopping generate billions of $$$ in revenue from advertising and affiliate money. iRobinHood found a great way to direct some of that money to what you deem is a good cause. Every time you search the Internet or make a purchase online with iRobinHood, money will go to your chosen charity, so the more you shop and search, the more money they make.
Every action done using the toolbar will contribute 100% of the commission to the charitable cause of your choice without increasing the amount you spend at all. (we only charge processing fee)
How does it work?
iRobinHood is a revolutionary way for you to contribute to your favorite charitable cause with absolutely no effort. All you have to do is install the iRobinHood or Charity-branded Toolbar on your browser and then start searching and shopping as you normally do.
Every action done using the toolbar will contribute 100% of the commission to the charitable cause of your choice without increasing the amount you spend at all.
Will the search results be as good as if I search as usual?
Of course they will! iRobinHood is powered by Google, so you get the same great search results.
Does it cost me more to shop through iRobinHood?
No No No! Shopping through iRobinHood is exactly the same as with the retailer directly - you pay the exact same price. The retailer will pay the commission to us, and it will go to your charity. Collecting payment, shipping&handling and returns are done by the retailer.
How much money can be raised through iRobinHood?
In 2008, online sales reached $150 billion; the affiliate market was at approximately $5 billion, and search engines generated about $8 billion. The average US shopper spends $1000 a year online, and does about 725 searches annually. Each search is estimated at about 1 cent. It adds up! With an average affiliate fee of 5%, 100,000 members can generate an affiliate fee of $6 million annually, and some $725,000 just by searching the Net! the more people use iRobinHood there is no limit to how much can be raised.
How do my actions turn into money?
The actions you do online, like purchasing a product or using a search engine, yield income that is generated as commission from marketing activities and advertising. Online merchants typically pay affiliated programs a marketing commission in the range of 1% to 50% per transaction for directing shoppers to them. The commission on your transactions (paid by the online merchant) will be passed along to the charity YOU chose to support.
Now, search engines make most of their money from advertising - companies pay a fee when users click on links during a search. iRobinHood tracks and directs these search-generated fees to charity. So a portion of the advertiser money earned as a result of your purchase or search, will be transferred to your selected charity organization, in much the same way.
How do I know how much money I donated already?
As an iRobinHood registered user, you will have your own account with us, to which you can log in at any time and see how much money you've already contributed to Doing Good. Not only that - the charity organizations have such accounts too, where they can check how much money has been raised to their organization, and the Ticker on your iRobinHood toolbar counts the $$$ all the time, and shows how much money was raised so far.
Why is there a delay between when I make a purchase and when the amount raised shows up on my account?
We post the data that we receive from our retailers weekly. Please note however that our retailers may take up to eight weeks to report their sales back to us from the time of your purchase. Also, you may notice a change in the totals due to returned merchandise or cancelled orders.
Do I have to select a charity organization? What happens if I don't?
Revenue raised by users who do not stipulate a certain organization will go to the "iRH Charity".
Do all of my searches count toward donations?
All of your searches will count toward donations except for the following: 1) image searches; 2) video searches; 3) "search this site" searches; 4) searches for URL's (i.e., search terms ending in .com, .org, .net, .edu); 5) searches to sites for which the URL is well known such as HotMail, ESPN, MySpace, Facebook, GMail, AOL, etc.; 6) searches for stock quotes; 7) searches for word definitions; 8) Yellow Pages searches; 9) any searches generated from fraudulent use of the site.
What percentage of revenue goes to charity?
Every merchant has different commission rates. 100% of the commission from each retailer will be donated to your chosen cause. To view a detailed list of the percentage given by each online retailer visit our Merchant Index.
