NOW CLOSED Check out "Give as you Live" shopping website and win a £500 donation to a charity of your choice

[NewGirlHelenMumsnet]

We've been asked by giveasyoulive.com to help them get some feedback on their website. They want to know what you think of the site's concept and whether you think you'd use it in the future.

Here's what Give as you Live say about their site: "Thousands of leading brands will donate to the charity of your choice when you shop with Give as you Live. Connected to all 220,000 UK registered charities, Give as you Live enables you to raise funds for any charity every time you shop online, without paying anything extra. For example, predicted to be the bestselling gift this Christmas, every iPad2 sold can raise almost £6 for a shopper's favourite charity through Give as you Live. You can also download Give as you Live and shop directly at thousands of stores like Tesco, Hamley's, and John Lewis and raise money for the charity of your choice. An average shopper can raise at least £75 for the charity of their choice through what they spend online."

They're offering a £500 donation to the charity of your choice if you add your comments to this thread - before you add your views please visit Give as you Live's page on Mumsnet here or go to giveasyoulive.com and have a look around to see what it's all about. On the site you can browse, do some shopping with over 1600 retailers or create a wish list - this could be for your DCs, your DP/DH, other family and friends, or yourself. You can then share your wish list with friends and/or family members if you want to but there's no obligation to do so.

When people buy via your wish list, Give as you Live give a percentage of the money paid to the charity you have nominated. Or you can use the links on the site to generate donations for your nominated charity when you buy online. For example, if you bought a pair of UGG boots for £135, £3.38 would be donated to a charity of your choice, be it your children's school or a national charity.

Once you've had a look around the site please come back to this thread and add your feedback on what you think of the site's concept and the site itself. There are some feedback questions below to start you off but please feel free to add any other comments too.

~ What do you think of the concept of raising money for charity while you shop without having to spend any more?
~ Do you think you'll use Give as you Live in future?
~ Which charity/charities do you think you would choose to support if you shopped on Give as you Live?
~ Do you think the idea behind the site could be improved in any way? If so, how?
~ Are there any other retailers you'd like to see on the site?
~ Do you think you would recommend Give as you Live to any of your friends and/or family? If so, why? If not, why not?
~ If you downloaded Give as you Live, how did you get on with shopping directly at your favourite stores and raising money for charity?

Please note: Your personal details will be secure and will not be passed on to any third parties. If you do decide to buy anything, you won't need to give Give as you Live your bank or credit card details - payment is done via the retailer you purchase from. If you register with Give as you Live but then decide you want to de-register, you can do so by emailing [email protected].

Everyone who takes part and adds their feedback to this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will get £500 donated to a charity of their choice (from the list of supported charities on the website). Please note that Give as you Live will not make any commission on the £500 donation that the prize draw winner makes.

Thanks very much
MNHQ

~ What do you think of the concept of raising money for charity while you shop without having to spend any more?

I think it's a good idea. I feel bad about not being able to give regular cash contributions to charity since I gave up work. This would be another way I could do help.

~ Do you think you'll use Give as you Live in future?

I may well do.

~ Which charity/charities do you think you would choose to support if you shopped on Give as you Live?

Smile Train, Medcine Sans Frontiers, Macmillan, Save the Children.

~ Do you think the idea behind the site could be improved in any way? If so, how?

I would make it more obvious which charities you can support before signing up. You have to look for how it works.

~ Are there any other retailers you'd like to see on the site?
I think the idea of supermarkets for the weekly shop is a good one. All the stores I usually buy from are there. I think you could highlight the utilities being there. That would be an easy one to do regularly but it didn't immediately occur to me to look for them.

~ Do you think you would recommend Give as you Live to any of your friends and/or family? If so, why? If not, why not?
I would if it came up. It's not something I would suggest out of the blue.

~ If you downloaded Give as you Live, how did you get on with shopping directly at your favourite stores and raising money for charity?
I didn't download it but might when DS stops jumping on me because my utility company is there.

~ What do you think of the concept of raising money for charity while you shop without having to spend any more?
Excellent idea

~ Do you think you'll use Give as you Live in future?

Perhaps

~ Which charity/charities do you think you would choose to support if you shopped on Give as you Live?

possibly childrens charities but a wide selection would be the best idea

~ Do you think the idea behind the site could be improved in any way? If so, how?
As said earlier the option to 'round up' your total and donate the extra to charity would be a super idea

~ Are there any other retailers you'd like to see on the site?
Lakeland & next

~ Do you think you would recommend Give as you Live to any of your friends and/or family? If so, why? If not, why not?
yes of course

~ If you downloaded Give as you Live, how did you get on with shopping directly at your favourite stores and raising money for charity?
I did not download

What do you think of the concept of raising money for charity while you shop without having to spend any more?
A great idea. I think a lot of people are quite supportive of the idea of giving money to charity but in this day and age, are either too busy, lazy or can't afford to. Making a contribution via website where you were going to spend the money anyway would probably appeal to those types.

Do you think you'll use Give as you Live in future?
I will if I think about it, but I think it's a habit you have to get into. Or it needs to be shown as a link on the retailer websites affliated to the scheme or at the top of search engine result pages.

Which charity/charities do you think you would choose to support if you shopped on Give as you Live?

I would support larger charities.

Do you think the idea behind the site could be improved in any way? If so, how?

Maybe giving all proceeds to charity bar the operational cost of the site, rather than different proportions depending on the overall commissions.

Are there any other retailers you'd like to see on the site?

It looked like a decent selection to me.

Do you think you would recommend Give as you Live to any of your friends and/or family? If so, why? If not, why not?

I might mention it but wouldn't recommend it as I wouldn't want them to feel I was trying to guilt them into using it iyswim.

If you downloaded Give as you Live, how did you get on with shopping directly at your favourite stores and raising money for charity?

I didn't download it.

Thanks to everyone who added their comments to this thread - we've done the prize draw and I'm pleased to announce that the winner of the £500 charity donation is...

Latrucha

Congratulations! I'll PM you to find out who you'd like to donate to.

Thankyou Thankyou Mumsnet and Give as you live. I am thrilled to be able to give back to a charity that has given such a lot to my family. I wasn't sure how I was going to 'repay' them. Thrilled.