GREENSBORO, N.C. — Seems like everywhere you look right now there's a company advertising a sale. If you're buying stuff online, 2 Wants To Know found a way you can also give back to the community at the same time and it won't cost you a dime. Give Freely is a Chrome web browser extension that gets paid a commission by stores for recommending you shop there.
Give Freely then turns 100 percent of that commission over to the non-profit of your choice. Give Freely says it can give 100 percent of the money over because its founder the former CEO of Tripadvisor is personally covering the expenses of running the browser extension. So right now for example, if you bought something off of Macys.com, up to 3.3 percent of your purchase would go towards your charity of choice.
Trae Bodge with True Trae Smart Shopping explains further how it works.
“It functions like a deal site browser program," she said. "Once it's downloaded on your computer, and it is free and takes a couple of seconds, you'll be served up opportunities to click on coupons as you shop. And once you place your purchase, a portion of your purchase is donated to the charity of your choice. You can choose from 1 point 1 million charities. So it's a very easy way to donate to charity at no additional cost to you. And you can save at the same time."
Give Freely is free to use and takes just seconds to install:
Here's how Chrome says to install an extension:
"Important: You can't add extensions when you browse in Incognito mode or as a guest.
Open the link
Click Add to Chrome.
And then register for free to send the money to the non-profit of your choice."
And right now charities need all the help they can get. A new report shows people are giving to charity at the lowest levels in three years.
So every little bit helps.