Want to earn money while feeling like you’re making a positive difference to the world? Non-profit and charity affiliate programs are the perfect solution!
I know what you’re thinking: “How am I going to earn a job replacement income promoting affiliate programs for organizations that don’t turn a profit?”
Well, that’s a good question. But the fact is, nonprofit organizations actually make plenty of money. By the end of 2023, the world’s various charities and non-government organizations are expected to be worth a combined $294 billion, climbing to more than $400 billion in 2030.
From the largest aid organizations to the smallest local charities, there are thousands of amazing nonprofit groups out there. They’d all love to have more affiliate marketers onboard, highlighting the great work they do and bringing in new supporters.
Like the sound of the nonprofit sector yet? I thought so! Now let’s dive into the best charity affiliate programs, plus sundry other not-for-profit and nonprofit-related programs:
Non-Profit and Charity Affiliate Programs
- Fundraising.com
- CARE
- Brides Against Breast Cancer
- Plan International
- GreaterGood
- Better World Books
- The Linux Foundation
- Ivory Ella
- Omaze
- Donorbox
- DonorSnap
- ShopRise
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1 Fundraising.com
Fundraising.com helps thousands of nonprofit groups raise millions of dollars in charitable giving every year.
It started out back in the 1990s as the superbly named “Lollipop Company”, offering gourmet lollipops to nonprofits, who’d sell them to raise donations. Since then, it’s significantly expanded its range to include various year-round and seasonal products, including cookie dough, chocolate, and scratchcards.
Through the Fundraising.com affiliate program, you have two distinct paths to monetization:
- Persuading nonprofit organization buyers to shell out on cookies and lollies to support their fundraising efforts
- Directing them to launch their own online donation platform via Fundraising.com
Whichever route you take, you’ll earn a 10% commission for each sale. And you’ll also pick up $3 every time your referrals request a free fundraising guide.
- URL: Fundraising.com affiliate program
- Commission rate: 10% per sale
- Cookie duration: Unknown
2 CARE
CARE International is a global movement of 21 nonprofit organizations working together to end worldwide poverty.
In 2020 alone, it worked in 104 countries with over 10,000 local employees, implementing more than 1,300 poverty-fighting development and humanitarian aid projects.
Combined, those initiatives directly reached more than 92 million people, with over 430 million more benefitting indirectly.
With such an extensive network, where does CARE International’s affiliate marketing program come in? Well, it’s your job to help the charity raise money through donations. For every donation you generate, you’ll pick a 6.4% cut of the total amount.
- URL: CARE affiliate program
- Commission rate: 6.4%
- Cookie duration: 30 days
3 Brides Against Breast Cancer
Brides Against Breast Cancer (BABC) started out as a charity back in the 1990s. As the name suggests, it was established to raise money for the fight against breast cancer, and its continued that mission to this day.
Rather than raising charitable donations, BABC raises money by selling donated, affordable wedding dresses. With an average order value of $650, it’s been able to donate millions of dollars to cancer-related charities down the years.
As an affiliate, it’s your job to promote those dresses and raise awareness of BABC’s mission. For each sale you drive through the nonprofit organization’s referral program, you’ll earn a 10% commission.
To help you along, you’ll get access to regular newsletters containing updates, competitions, and sales opportunities, plus all the text links, logos, and banners you could ever need.
- URL: Brides Against Breast Cancer affiliate program
- Commission rate: 10% per sale
- Cookie duration: 30 days
4 Plan International
Plan International is one of the world’s largest international development nonprofit organizations, working with millions of people across the planet toward its mission of overcoming poverty.
Founded back in 1937 in the UK to help children affected by the Spanish Civil War, it’s now active in 75 countries, and aims to transform the lives of 100 million girls over the next five years.
That might sound ambitious, but in 2017 alone, its work reached 17.1 million girls and 15.5 million boys.
Which is where you come in. Through Plan International’s affiliate program, you’ll be aiming to drive donations.
Earn commissions of 4% on the confirmed net turnover for permanent donations and sponsorships, and 7% on confirmed net sales for individual donations.
- URL: Plan International affiliate program
- Commission rate: 4% – 7%
- Cookie duration: 30 days
5 GreaterGood
GreaterGood seeks to raise money for charitable causes by driving online purchases of unique gifts and artisanal products.
In two decades of business, it’s generated more $70 million in charitable donations for a range of projects, related to everything from people and pets to the planet. It’s also made more than $50 million in payments to artisans.
Importantly, GreaterGood isn’t just one website – it’s actually 10 different sites, each dedicated to a different cause.
While it’s undoubtedly doing amazing work, GreaterGood runs one of the less generous of all the nonprofit and charity affiliate programs we’ve seen, with a commission rate of just 2%.
However, the average order value is pretty decent at more than $40, and with 55% of business coming from repeat customers, there’s a good chance to earn multiple commissions from the same referral. You’ll also get access to a dedicated affiliate manager.
- URL: GreaterGood affiliate program
- Commission rate: 2% per sale
- Cookie duration: 45 days
6 Better World Books
Socially conscious readers don’t buy from Amazon — they go straight to Better World Books.
The website is committed to affordability, offering free shipping to anywhere in the world. How? Because unlike most online used bookstores, it actually stocks all the books in its inventory.
Over the years, Better World has donated more than 31 million books, raised over $32 million for libraries and literacy programs, and recycled or reused an astonishing 385,554,010 books.
With an average order value of $26 and commission rates of 5 – 8% depending on performance, you’re going to need to drive a lot of traffic to earn decent money through the Better World affiliate program.
But with unlimited referrals and a 45-day cookie duration, there’s plenty of scope to drive multiple sales — and pick up multiple commissions — from each customer.
- URL: Better World Books affiliate program
- Commission rate: 5% – 8% per sale
- Cookie duration: 45 days
7 The Linux Foundation
This one’s a little different. Whereas most of the affiliate programs on this list are about raising money for charitable causes, The Linux Foundation is a global organization dedicated to training the next generation of Linux developers.
With the adoption of Linux technologies accelerating rapidly, there’s certainly plenty of demand, so it’s no surprise the non profit organization is backed by a host of leading tech companies.
To date, The Linux Foundation has helped generate more than one billion lines of code supporting business-critical operations and groundbreaking innovations.
Although the foundation is run as a nonprofit, its training courses and certifications don’t come cheap. A foundation-level system administrator certificate costs $250, for instance.
Through The Linux Foundation Affiliate Program, you’ll be promoting those courses and certifications. For each sale you drive within the 60-day referral window, you’ll earn a 20% cut.
- URL: The Linux Foundation affiliate program
- Commission rate: 20% per sale
- Cookie duration: 60 days
8 Ivory Ella
Ivory Ella describes itself as a “tight-knit community of doers, thinkers, and elephant lovers committed to making a difference in the world”.
In other words, it’s an online store that’s run philanthropically to support various charitable causes. Up to 50% of net profits go toward Save the Elephants, but it also helps several other charities, such as the Children’s Cancer Therapy Development Institute.
Since 2015, it’s donated more than $2 million to those various initiatives. Among other things, that money has enabled more than 400 elephants in Africa to be tracked using GPS collar technology, helping to protect them from poachers.
The Ivory Ella affiliate program pays a 10% commission on total referral sales every time a customer makes a purchase through your coupon code or affiliate link.
- URL: Ivory Ella affiliate program
- Commission rate: 10% per sale
- Cookie duration: 30 days
9 Omaze
Omaze is a donation platform built around incentivizing charitable giving by offering exclusive merchandise and once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
A lot of those experiences are supported by celebrity endorsements. For instance, it’s currently running a donations sweepstake in which the winner gets to join the Jonas Brothers for a family dinner. Which sounds kind of weird, but it definitely fits into the “once-in-a-lifetime” category.
If you don’t fancy dining with the Jonases (Jonii?), you can donate for a chance to win a 1968 Mercedes-Benz 280SL Pagoda, a multimillion-dollar Miami house, a $40,000 curated vacation to Japan, and lots more besides.
Omaze experiences raise funds for Charities Aid Foundation America, which then distributes donations to various charities and nonprofits. To date, it’s raised more than $150 million to support 350 charities across the world.
Through the Omaze affiliate program, you can earn up to 5% per transaction, as well as a $10 bonus for your first “sale”.
- URL: Omaze affiliate program
- Commission rate: Up to 5%
- Cookie duration: 7 days
10 Donorbox
Full disclosure: Donorbox isn’t actually a nonprofit itself. Instead, it supports nonprofits by offering a simple online system that allows site visitors to set up recurring donations.
Either embedded on a website or appearing as a popup widget, the software platform accepts donations via cards, Apple Pay, low-fee ACH & SEPA bank transfers, Google Pay, and PayPal, in return for a 1.5% fee.
More than 50,000 nonprofit organizations across 40 countries are using Donorbox. So far, it’s enabled them to raise more than $900 million in donations from almost 4.5 million donors.
All of which sounds great. But it’s about to get even better, because the Donorbox affiliate program pays a juicy 15% recurring commission for three years.
That’s right — for every sale you drive, you’ll get a 15% cut of the fees for as long as that customer keeps using Donorbox, up to a maximum three-year limit.
- URL: Donorbox affiliate program
- Commission rate: 15% recurring commission for three years
- Cookie duration: 45 days
11 DonorSnap
DonorSnap is a donor management platform combining CRM, email marketing, and donor retention functionality. It also allows nonprofits to accept donations via debit cards, credit cards, and bank payments.
According to its own figures, the average nonprofit organization signing up for DonorSnap sees a 41% increase in donations in the first year, including a 233% upturn in #GivingTuesday donations.
Pricing for DonorSnap ranges from $39 – $199 per month, depending on the organization’s number of contacts. It also charges a $200 setup fee, which includes private training and four hours of charity data conversion time.
The DonorSnap affiliate program is potentially one of the highest-paying of all the nonprofit programs we’ve reviewed, offering affiliate marketers a payout of $200 for every user who becomes a full customer once completing a free 30-day trial. As an added bonus, it has a lengthy 60-day referral window too.
There’s only one small downside here: DonorSnap’s affiliate program is only available to affiliates in the US and Canada. So if you’re based elsewhere, it’s not for you.
- URL: DonorSnap affiliate program
- Commission rate: $200
- Cookie duration: 60 days
12 ShopRaise
ShopRaise is an app and browser extension that allows users to earn money for their favorite charitable causes by shopping at top retailers like Macy’s, Office Depot, and Walmart.
Users can choose to support 500,000+ schools, teams, clubs, charities, and faith-based organizations and purchase from almost 1,000 brands, with each purchase earning up to 10% for the customer’s chosen cause.
Find ShopRaise’s affiliate program on the RakutenAdvertising affiliate network. It has a 30-day cookie window and pays a flat commission of $2 for each referred customer who signs up and verifies their email address with a partner brand within the ShopRaise app.
As well as website owners, ShopRaise is looking to partner with various types of affiliates, including email marketers, social media users, and coupon sites. It’s particularly interested in working with affiliates in the education, parenting, non-profit, fundraising, and children’s sports spaces.
- URL: ShopRaise affiliate program
- Commission rate: $2
- Cookie duration: 30 days
Conclusion: Are Non-Profit & Charity Affiliate Programs Right for You?
Okay, so chances are even the very best charity affiliate programs aren’t going to make you a millionaire.
But as you’ll see from this list, there’s still plenty of money to be made here. Plus, your affiliate activity will be supporting some genuinely fantastic causes, which definitely can’t be said for all affiliate niches.
Of course, just because you’re working with charities, that doesn’t make the job of building a high-converting affiliate website any easier. You still need to do your keyword research, create fantastic content, and build an audience before you can even think about earning commission.
Fortunately, your buddies at Authority Hacker are here to help! Sign up for our free training, and we’ll tell you everything you need to know about launching a top-performing affiliate website.
