News

Watch this page for announcements from GivingCart and for links to news articles about us.

January 12, 2010: One purchase = $50! (just about)

As we've mentioned a couple of times on this page and in our Twitter feed, the typical purchase on GivingCart raises a couple of bucks for the Church. This may not sound like much, but over time it can add up.

Even at that typical rate, for example, 50 supporters could easily raise an extra thousand dollars a year for a single Catholic cause, by making just one modest purchase each, every 4-5 weeks.

But now and then we see a purchase that really shows what GivingCart can do. Just this weekend, a single purchase on GivingCart raised $45.36 for the Church. Most of that money will go to Our Lady of the Annunciation Monastery of Clear Creek, Oklahoma. Congratulations!

December 10, 2009 - More checks on their way, to 21 Catholic causes
Last weekend we sent out another round of donation checks, to 21 different Catholic causes. We'd like to welcome a couple of causes that will be receiving donations from GivingCart for the first time: Congratulations to these and the other 19. And thanks to all our users for making these donations possible.

Have a blessed Advent!
October 6, 2009 - St. Bruno's Day special: buy Into Great Silence and support the Vermont Carthusians
It's hard not to be fascinated by the Carthusians, a religious order famous for its silence and austerity — and also for its outstanding herbal liqueurs. The order and its liqueurs (and the color of one of the liqueurs) take their names from the Chartreuse Mountains, where the order was founded and still has its main house.

Today being the feast of St. Bruno — founder of the Carthusian order — we thought our users might like to learn more about Carthusian life and support the only Carthusian monastery in North America at the same time.

So click the image below to see pricing for Into Great Silence, the acclaimed 2005 film by Philip Gröning, which won awards at Sundance and the European Film Festival, and was called one of the ten best films of 2007 by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

GivingCart will donate 8% of every purchase to the Vermont Carthusians (and no, you don't need to make your purchase on October 6; this offer does not expire):

Click for pricing --> Into Great Silence

The film itself has a fascinating history. Normally Carthusians don't permit anyone to visit their monasteries. After waiting 16 years for permission, Philip Gröning lived for several months at the Grande Chartreuse, the main house of the Carthusian Order, and shot the film entirely alone. Like Carthusian life, the film is largely silent — no voice-overs, no music other than the monks' liturgical chant, and no artificial lighting.

The link above will take you straight to the film's page at Ignatius Press. To learn more about the film, visit its official website.
September 29, 2009 - Follow us on Twitter.
Seems like everyone's rushing to Twitter these days, and our resident geek (Ben Dunlap) alternates between genuine excitement about Twitter and a kind of head-scratching bewilderment, after about 4 months of using the service actively.

At any rate it seems like an effective way to let people know we're here, to announce news succinctly, and — we hope — to share a coupon code or two from time to time, usable at one of the stores on our site.

So follow us, please. We aim to discuss all sorts of things of interest to Catholics.

Latest progress
Since our last news update, 63 new users have signed up, we've added seven Catholic causes to our list, and the average purchase through GivingCart has raised $2.81 for the Church.

Thanks for using GivingCart!
June 24, 2009 - Another round of donations sent out.
We've just sent out another round of donations, this time to 44 causes. New recipients of funds include: Congratulations to these and the other 41 causes, and thanks as always to our loyal users, who make these donations possible.

Speaking of loyal users, 58 new people have signed up since our last news update. Thanks to everyone who has helped spread the word.
March 26, 2009 - Now sending receipts after every purchase.
You should now receive an emailed receipt every time a purchase posts to your GivingCart account. Initially this receipt will be very simple—it will show the amount your purchase raised, and the Catholic cause that you are currently supporting.

Several of our users have asked for ways to better track their use of GivingCart. We hope you like this first step in that direction.

Progress Report
Since our last report on October 8: Thanks for your dedication to GivingCart. Please continue to spread the word!
November 15, 2008 - GivingCart makes a real difference.
We would like to recognize and thank our loyal user Peter Weinert of Silver Spring, Maryland. He has been using GivingCart for several months to support Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) in New York City. In a single recent purchase, Mr. Weinert raised more than $95 through GivingCart.

A donation as small as $10 goes a long way with CMMB, and we are currently on-track to send nearly $150 to CMMB in our next check run. This represents just one of dozens of checks we will be mailing out to your Catholic causes before the end of the calendar year.

Thanks again to Mr. Weinert and to all of our dedicated users. Please remember GivingCart this year as you do your Christmas shopping, and please spread the word! Every purchase makes a difference for the Catholic cause you support.
October 8, 2008 - Thirty-one new stores for Fall 2008.
We are thrilled to announce today that we have added 31 new stores to GivingCart. Now you can support your favorite Catholic cause while you shop online at Lands' End, Alibris, the Apple iTunes store, and 28 other new locations. You'll know it's a new store when you see the blue "Shop" and "Learn More" buttons:
Cropped screenshot of blue buttons Keeping 'Most Popular' Accurate
While we were adding new stores, we decided to pare down the Most Popular Stores page a bit. Most of the new stores are there, so as to give them maximum exposure, but we've removed any older stores that our users have not shown much interest in over the past year.

The Final Word on Amazon.com
In our last news update, we promised to let you know what came of our discussions with Amazon.com. Unfortunately the discussions have not borne fruit, and for now Amazon does not seem to be interested in letting us participate in their Associates program.

Day-to-day Progress
Our basic work continues at a good pace. Since June 1: Thanks for using GivingCart!
July 1, 2008 - No final word yet on Amazon.
Just a brief update to let you know that we have not yet reached a conclusion with Amazon.com. We will post another update here, and send an email to all users, when we do. Thanks for your patience.
June 11, 2008 - Where did the Amazon.com links go?
A brief summary of what's happening: Amazon has closed our Associates account and so we have removed the Amazon links from our shopping pages. If you made an Amazon purchase through GivingCart any time on or after May 30, 2008, please let us know by forwarding your order confirmation, with purchase amount and the cause you had intended to support, to amazonclaims@givingcart.com. We'll make sure that your cause is credited with the expected amount. Read on for the full story:

A few days ago we discovered abruptly that our Amazon Associates account was no longer accessible. Then, over the weekend, we found an email from Amazon, incorrectly labeled as spam, that revealed the reason: they had closed our account.

Their explanation? By promising to donate a portion of every commission, they say, we were offering our users an "incentive" to go through our site to get to Amazon. Offering incentives violates the Amazon Associates Operating Agreement.

We are frankly bewildered by this sudden decision on Amazon's part, for these reasons:
  • Our site was fully operational for several weeks before we applied for an Amazon Associates account, and so it's not clear why they would have approved us initially but changed their minds now. Nothing essential about our site has changed.
  • We are aware of other sites, much higher-profile than our own, that use Amazon links the same way we were using them on our site. Why close our account while these others, apparently, remain open?
We are in correspondence with Amazon and hope to clear up these questions and others as soon as possible. For the time being we have had no choice but to remove the Amazon links from our shopping pages.

As far as is currently clear to us, Amazon continued to track and honor our referrals through May 29, 2008. If, since then, you have made any purchases on Amazon, after clicking on an Amazon link on our site, we intend to donate the same amount of money to your cause that we would have donated if Amazon had continued to track our referrals. Please forward your order confirmation, with purchase amount and the cause you had intended to support, to amazonclaims@givingcart.com. We will make sure that your cause is credited appropriately.

Watch this space for more news. We will also send out an email to all of our users when we reach a definite conclusion with Amazon.

June 1, 2008 - What happened to eBay?
eBay has stopped using our affiliate-marketing broker for its affiliate program (see our How it Works page for more on affiliate marketing and what it has to do with us). It would require significant technical effort on our part for us to continue to offer eBay, but at the moment our resources are meager: our staff is made up entirely of part-time volunteers. For now and for the foreseeable future, then, it's farewell to eBay.

You might be surprised to learn that your donation of just $3.50 can help us avoid future setbacks. Learn more here.

In other news: Since our last news update, we have added 20 new Catholic causes, including: We have also gained nearly 150 new users since April 21. Thanks for spreading the word, and please keep it up!
April 21, 2008 - Seven new causes, 70 new users (almost).
Word seems to be spreading. Since our last news update, 69 new users have signed up, from states as far-flung as Alaska, New Mexico, and Massachusetts. Thanks for telling your family and friends about GivingCart!

We have also added seven new Catholic causes, including the Fathers of Mercy and Catholics United for Life of Cody, Wyoming.

Would you like to see your Catholic organization listed with GivingCart? Request it today.
April 7, 2008 - More frequent updates, starting now.
A few people have expressed concern because our "latest news" has not been updated in a while. Not to worry—we have been working behind the scenes on some exciting new features, soon to appear on the site.

In the meantime, our day-to-day work continues. Since our last news update on December 11, we have:
  • Added over 100 Catholic causes.
  • Gained over 300 new users.
  • Sent out our first quarterly batch of donation checks, to nearly two dozen Catholic causes.
Starting today, we pledge to keep you more informed about these day-to-day operations. Watch for regular updates in the green "latest news" bar at the top of every page, with links to this page for the full stories.

Occasionally we will highlight a particularly exciting commission. Today we are thrilled to announce that a single purchase last week raised $116! Congratulations to St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Loveland, Colorado, the designated cause for this commission. And thanks to the user who chose GivingCart for a major purchase!
December 11, 2007
Help GivingCart succeed by donating!
November 29, 2007
Introducing a simpler, more beautiful shopping page.
November 12, 2007
More promotional materials available!
October 29, 2007
Our first promotional poster is available to download. Print it and post it.
October 2, 2007 - GivingCart is now open to the public.
Welcome, friends of GivingCart!