September 23, 1999 | Read Time: 1 minute
A new on-line shopping service is offering two different ways for charities to benefit from on-line purchases.
Dash.com, a company in New York, has negotiated rebate agreements with more than 50 on-line merchants, including GourmetMarket.com, NetGrocer, and Reel.com. Customers who sign up for the service can choose to receive the rebates — which typically range from 5 to 15 per cent — themselves or to donate them to charity. Currently shoppers can choose to contribute to the American Cancer Society, Greenpeace, United Way of America, or the World Wildlife Federation, although the company plans to add more groups as the program grows.
Unlike many other shopping sites, users do not have to make their purchases through Dash.com’s Web site in order to earn rebates. When they sign up for Dash.com, members download software that works with their Internet browsers to record their purchases and the rebates that they have earned. Currently the software is only available for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, but the company plans to have a version for Netscape Navigator ready in November.
The company has also started an affinity program in which charities that join the program receive $1 for every person who downloads the Dash.com software from them, $1 for each person’s first purchase, and 10 per cent of subsequent purchases.
Dash.com was founded by four telecommunications and marketing executives. The company makes its money by selling data about members’ purchasing patterns.
To get there: Go to http://www.dash.com and for information about the affinity program, contact Andrew Surwilo, (212) 255-1008, ext. 25, Asurwilo@dash.com.
